explain 2 examples of racism shown while jesse owens was at ohio state
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IF THE Western world’s greatest black heroes include the likes of Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela, top sprinter and long jumper Jesse James is not far behind. For all his success at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, however, where he won four gold medals, many observers feel that his achievements have not received the attention they deserve.
This now looks set to change with the release of a film about Owens, Race, which is directed by Stephen Hopkins.
“I thought I knew something about him,” begins Hopkins, who has made films as diverse as Predator 2, Lost in Space and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. “But as I delved into his life I realised that I knew almost nothing about him.
“I then asked a lot of African-American friends and no one really knew that much. They thought he might have been one of the guys who stood up at the 1968 Olympics [to support Black Power].”
Everyone that Hopkins asked about Owens had different ideas. “But when I went into his story, I found a real hero,” he explains. “Growing up, the great heroes of our life were people like Muhammad Ali or Nelson Mandela.
“I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time with both of them and you realise that maverick people like that are so rare nowadays,” he adds. “So to come across this story of a real hero who never tried to be a hero, I found it very spiritual.”
ETERNAL FLAME
Hopkins’ film focuses on just two years of Owens’ story, which unfolds during a key moment in history. The Nazi party had recently come to power in Germany and Owens’ success struck a blow against Hitler’s Olympic ambitions. “Jesse’s ability to run put him in contact with all sorts of people at this extraordinary time,” says Hopkins.
“Jesse happened to be there when the first-ever boycott of the Olympics was proposed. He happened to be there when the modern Olympics was created; the Nazis created the concept of the torch being run to the Olympics from Greece.
“That had never happened before. The dove being released, the opening ceremony, the eternal flame being lit, these are all their concepts, their ideas. Then, with that being the backdrop, we have the story of this kid in his early 20s.”
Owens’ early life, growing up in Alabama and Ohio, was defined by hardship. His grandfather was a slave and his father was a sharecropper. Throughout the majority of his childhood, Owens and his family faced starvation on a daily basis. He was terribly sick as a child. Two of his brothers died of malnutrition.
“When he was five years old, Jesse had a boil that was stopping him breathing and was closing up his heart,” says Hopkins. “There was no doctor so his mother had to cut it out with a knife. It was a huge lump and for five days he bled and they thought he was going to die.”
He lived, of course, and went on to become one of America’s greatest Olympians. Germany dominated the 1936 Olympics, held at the specially constructed Olympiastadion in Berlin, though Owens scooped gold in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay.
“He was amazing,” says Hopkins, “not just with his achievements but also his temperament. How could someone keep such a cool head? How could he walk into this arena with 120,000 people and half a million people outside? He walked into the Olympic Stadium having never left his own country.”