Who Was Jesse Owens?
Paperback – Illustrated, August 11, 2015
Penguin Young Readers Group · Paperback · August 11, 2015
At the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, track and field star Jesse Owens ran himself straight into international glory by winning four gold medals.
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- Who it’s for
- Jesse Owens’s story connects athletic achievement with the racial injustice he faced at home and abroad.
- Themes
- Overcoming hardship, Racial discrimination, Olympic achievement
- Genres
- Sports Biographies for Kids, African American Life (U.S.), Track & Field
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At the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, track and field star Jesse Owens ran himself straight into international glory by winning four gold medals. But the life of Jesse Owens is much more than a sports story. Born in rural Alabama under the oppressive Jim Crow laws, Owens's family suffered many hardships. As a boy he worked several jobs like delivering groceries and working in a shoe repair shop to make ends meet.
Continue reading
But Owens defied the odds to become a sensational student athlete, eventually running track for Ohio State. He was chosen to compete in the Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany where Adolf Hitler was promoting the idea of “Aryan superiority.” Owens’s winning streak at the games humiliated Hitler and crushed the myth of racial supremacy once and for all.
Beyond the Finish Line
Jesse Owens’s story connects athletic achievement with the racial injustice he faced at home and abroad.
Come here for
- Olympic track and field with history in the frame
- A life shaped by hard work and Jim Crow
Expect
- A biographical account rooted in the 1936 Olympics
- A sports story with stakes beyond the medals
Where it sits
| Sports Biographies for Kids | 83% |
|---|---|
| African American Life (U.S.) | 35% |
| Track & Field | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- African American Life (U.S.)
- Olympics
- Track & Field
- Authors
- James Buckley, Jr.
- Publisher
- Penguin Young Readers Group
- Published
- August 11, 2015
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- Overcoming hardship · Racial discrimination · Olympic achievement
- Reading lane
- African American Life (U.S.)