Jesse Owens stepped onto the track at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin amid racism and hate, and delivered one of history’s greatest athletic performances, winning four gold medals and earning international acclaim.
Nine decades later, the world still remembers what he did–and what it meant.
On Sept. 18, Ohio State University’s Sports and Society Institute, in partnership with America 250-Ohio State. is bringing together Owens’ family members, athletes, historians and journalists for “Running Against History: The Enduring Legacy of Jesse Owens.” The event, from 4-6 p.m. at Thompson Library, will explore what Owens accomplished and what his experiences reveal about race, opportunity, sport and American society–questions that remain relevant today.
Owens captured the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and led off the 4x100-meter relay, making him the defining athlete of an Olympics that Nazi Germany intended to use as a showcase for its ideology of Aryan racial superiority.
That historic Berlin performance was years in the making.
Born in Alabama and raised in Cleveland, Owens became a track star at Ohio State University in 1933 and set three world records and tied a fourth at the 1935 Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Life off the track, however, was far more complicated.
Owens may have been a Buckeye superstar, but he was forbidden from living in university housing. Restaurants along High Street would not serve him and other Black students. Returning home an international hero after the Olympics, Owens never received a congratulatory phone call from President Franklin Roosevelt.
That tension is part of what makes Owens’ legacy so important. His athletic brilliance showed what was possible on the track, while his life reflected the barriers that remained beyond it.
“Running Against History” will bring together people who can examine Owens from distinctly different perspectives, including his grandson, Stuart Owens Rankin; his granddaughter and Ohio State Moritz College of Law graduate Marlene Dortch; Olympic gold medalist Butch Reynolds; Kevin Jones, author of Jesse Owens: A Life in American History; longtime sports broadcaster Gus Johnson; and Ohio State track coach Rosalind Joseph.
Together, they will explore Owens’ impact on athletics, culture, education, media and society, and consider how the experiences of athletes today continue to intersect with questions of race, identity, patriotism and social change.
Records eventually fall. Medal counts are surpassed. Generations of athletes come and go. But some athletes change the way we understand sport itself.
Jesse Owens was one of them.
His story is a part of Columbus and Ohio State history–one worth examining, celebrating and preserving for generations to come.
Register for the free event here
