| Track and field star Jesse Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) at the 1935 Drake Relays. He would win the long jump and the 100-yard (91 meter) dash. Many colleges attempted to recruit Jesse Owens during his senior year in high school; African American colleges were not among them. Colleges like Wilberforce, Howard, Morgan State, and others had no track and field program; until Owens’s success on the field, they didn’t start programs until the late 1930s. They could barely afford their football programs. Ohio State University (OSU) was Owens’s 2nd choice. The university had a notoriously bad reputation for racial prejudice that bled into their school policies. 1 professor was dismissed for the radical idea to visit Wilberforce and have his students have lunch in the cafeteria there with African Americans. The token African American football player, William M. “Big Bill” Bell (June 10, 1909 – May 10, 1991), was kept out of some Ohio towns, and therefore missed games, at the demands of racist Buckeye state officials. The National Association for the Advanced of Colored People sued in 1933 to get African American students on-campus housing and lost. Knowledgable African Americans knew to stay away from OSU. Owens was already famous as a high school senior, and his choice of school was closely followed in the African American press. Owens seemed intent on enrolling at the University of Michigan. Offered an elevator operator job in the Ohio State House building, away from public view, Owens chose OSU. The African American press was incredulous. The Cleveland Gazette wrote, “Education, it seems, does not always engender self and race respect.” Upon arrival, Owens was barred from on-campus housing; he roomed in a boarding house a quarter mile (half a kilometer) from campus. No restaurants in Columbus would serve him; he couldn’t go to movie theaters, except 1, which only admitted African Americans to the last 6 rows in the balcony. Owens never spoke about his treatment in Columbus. Racism was pervasive in 1930s attitudes towards African American athletes. A Cleveland doctor examined Owens for “racial inheritance” for speed and muscle, concluding he trained hard. A USC coach argued that African American athletes succeeded because they were “closer to the primitive” and the “nervous, high-strung type.” A University of Pennsylvania coach agreed. “Nervous energy makes for great speed…These are racial assets of the Negro.” In 1936, Owens easily passed the Olympic Team regionals in Chicago. But he was not allowed to attend the semifinal qualifications because it was held in the South. He was automatically advanced by the Olympic Committee to the finals in New York City. Owens criticized United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) after the 1936 Olympics for not even sending a telegram. Owens was not invited to the White House after winning 4 Gold Medals. A republican throughout his life, he endorsed 1936 Republican candidate Alf Landon (September 9, 1887 – October 12, 1987). | |
| Image Filename | wwii0828.jpg |
| Image Size | 360.21 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1528 x 1593 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 25, 1936 |
| Location | |
| City | Des Moines |
| State or Province | Iowa |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database