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On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. He would later become the first African American named a vice president at a fortune 500 company; serve as an advisor to politicians; start a bank and a housing development company; and, was a key figure in advancing equal opportunity and first-class citizenship for all Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Hailed a "..freedom rider before freedom rides," Robinson's name has become synonymous with breaking barriers.

EARLY LIFE AND GATEWAY INTO SPORTS

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of former slaves. Young Jackie grew up in Pasadena, California, raised by a single working mother of five. After graduating from Pasadena Junior College, Jackie attended the University of California Los Angeles. A star athlete, Jackie became the university's first four-sport letter winner, excelling in football, basketball, track and field, and baseball. After leaving UCLA, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, but was court marshalled and honorably discharged for standing up for his rights and refusing to move to the back of a segregated military bus.

Upon returning home from the military, Jackie Robinson set his sights on joining baseball's Negro Leagues and began playing shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. Later that year, opportunity beckoned when Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, invited Robinson to become the first African American to play with the all-white Dodgers' farm team, the Montreal Royals. Anticipating the great adversity that Robinson would face as he integrated modern baseball, Rickey professed he needed a player who could bear the torment, famously telling Robinson he was "looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back."

AN UNPRECEDENTED CAREER IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field for his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the beginning of an unparalleled career in baseball. At the end of his explosive ten years as a Dodger, his record included a .311 batting average, 137 home runs, 734 runs batted in, and 197 stolen bases. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series Championship. Robinson took home the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, the Most Valuable Player Award in 1949, and in 1962 became the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

THE FIGHT FOR FIRST CLASS CITIZENSHIP FOR ALL

After integrating baseball, Robinson became a full-fledged leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He used his celebrity status to further human rights and endeavored to change the landscape of race relations in the United States. Upon retiring from the game in 1957, Robinson was hired to serve as the Vice President for Personnel at Chock full o' Nuts, the first African American to be named a Vice President of a major American company. He used his position at Chock full o' Nuts to improve working conditions for employees.

An active member of the NAACP, Robinson was often a featured speaker at civil rights rallies including the famed March on Washington in 1963, and frequently participated in picket lines. As a nationally syndicated columnist for the New York Post and New York Amsterdam News, Robinson wrote passionately on social issues, sports, and family life, always encouraging people in his community to become active in politics and business.

In 1964, Robinson co-founded Freedom National Bank of Harlem, a Black owned and operated bank created for the express purpose of financially aiding African American communities. In 1970, he founded the Jackie Robinson Construction Company, which sought to provide housing for low-income people.

In 1972, just twenty-five years after the start of the "Great Experiment," Jackie Robinson died following his decade long battle with diabetes.

An Enduring Legacy

1947 - Rookie of the Year Award

Honored by the Baseball Writers Association and the Sporting News, Jackie Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year award for his trailblazing 1947 season. Robinson batted .297, scored 125 runs, hit 12 home runs, 31 doubles and led the National League with 29 stolen bases, taking the Brooklyn Dodgers to a World Series against the New York Yankees. Originally named the J. Louis Comiskey Memorial Rookie of the Year Award, it was renamed the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award in 1987 to commemorate the 40 th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier.

1997 - Number "42" Retired

A year-long celebration marks the 50 th anniversary of Robinson's April 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the same year, the U.S. Postal Service releases a Jackie Robinson stamp, the U.S. Mint produces gold and silver Robinson coins, and Sharon and Rachel Robinson publish books in commemoration of Robinson's legacy. Upon the initiative of Leonard S. Coleman Jr., former president of the National League and chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Major League Baseball retires the number 42 from baseball, the only number retired throughout the leagues.

HOURS: 11 AM - 6 PM, Thu - Sun

LOCATION

One Hudson Square Building
75 Varick St
New York, NY 10013
(866) 454-3772

View on map

HOURS

Mon - Wed: Closed
Thu - Sun: 11 AM - 6 PM

Timed tickets may be purchased online in advance; walk-ins are also welcome.

© 2024 Jackie Robinson Museum

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Jackie Robinson | The Jackie Robinson Museum

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On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. He would later become the first African American named a vice president at a fortune 500 company; serve as an advisor to politicians; start a bank and a housing development company; and, was a key figure in advancing equal opportunity and first-class citizenship for all Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

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Introduction
(born 1987). American professional football player and social activist Colin Kaepernick played quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons (2011-16). In 2016 he began refusing to stand when the national anthem was being played before NFL games. He did this to protest racial injustice and police brutality against African Americans. His protests drew widespread attention and became the subject of often heated debate. Although Kaepernick became a free agent after the 2016 season, he subsequently went unsigned, allegedly because of opposition among NFL team owners to his protests.

Early Years
Colin Rand Kaepernick was born on November 3, 1987, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was raised mostly in Turlock, California, by his adoptive parents. At Pitman High School in Turlock, he was a multisport athlete, starring in football, basketball, and baseball. He earned a scholarship to play football at the University of Nevada, Reno. He became the school's starting quarterback during his freshman season. A prolific passer who was also adept at running the ball, Kaepernick was named the Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year in both 2008 and 2010.

NFL Career and 2016 Protests
Kaepernick was selected by the 49ers in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft. He appeared in only three games during his rookie season in the NFL. In the 2012 season, however, the 49ers' starting quarterback, Alex Smith, suffered a concussion in week 10. Head coach Jim Harbaugh chose Kaepernick to fill the position. With the 6-foot 4-inch (1.93-meter), 225-pound (102-kilogram) Kaepernick at quarterback, the 49ers finished the regular season with an 11-4-1 record. They advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in 18 years. Although Kaepernick threw for 302 yards and rushed for 62, San Francisco lost the Super Bowl by a score of 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens.

In 2013 Kaepernick led the 49ers to a 12-4 regular-season record. The team came up short in the playoffs, however. They lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game. The following season Kaepernick set career-highs with 3,369 passing yards and 639 yards gained by rushing, though the 49ers dropped to an 8-8 record. Harbaugh departed the 49ers at the end of the 2014 season. Under Harbaugh's successor, former defensive line coach Jim Tomsula, Kaepernick's production declined. At mid-season in 2015 he was replaced in the starting lineup by Blaine Gabbert and later suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

It was during the 2016 NFL preseason that Kaepernick began his protests, first by sitting during the playing of the national anthem. He later began kneeling when the song was played. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football," Kaepernick commented at the time. One of his teammates, safety Eric Reid, soon joined him in kneeling during renditions of the anthem. As the 2016 season progressed, other NFL players emulated their actions.

The protests made national headlines and elicited strong reactions from supporters and critics alike. Prominent politicians weighed in on the controversy. Among them was U.S. President Barack Obama, who defended Kaepernick's "constitutional right to make a statement." In a television appearance in September, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (the eventual winner of the 2016 presidential election) denounced the players for their "lack of respect" for the United States. Trump suggested they leave the country. Kaepernick reportedly received death threats over the protests. On October 3 Time magazine featured a kneeling Kaepernick on its cover and cited him for prompting a national debate "about privilege, pride, and patriotism."

Kaepernick continued his protests throughout the 2016 season and spoke out frequently against police brutality during interviews. On the field, he played well enough to reclaim his role as starting quarterback for the 49ers, but the team struggled to a 2-14 record. Kaepernick opted to enter the NFL free-agent market when the season was over. However, no team offered to sign him for the 2017 season. Kaepernick filed a formal grievance accusing NFL team owners of conspiring to keep him out of the league. His filing claimed that the owners did so in retaliation for Kaepernick's "advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States." In May 2018 Reid, who had also gone unsigned after entering free agency, filed a similar grievance against the NFL. (The Carolina Panthers eventually signed Reid for the 2018 season.) In February 2019 both Kaepernick and Reid reached settlements with the NFL resolving their grievance cases. Because of confidentiality agreements, the terms of those settlements were not disclosed.

With an eye toward a potential return to the NFL, Kaepernick accepted the league's invitation to participate in a private workout in November 2019 in front of representatives from all 32 NFL teams. In part because of objections to an injury waiver he was asked to sign, Kaepernick moved the proposed workout venue. Instead of taking place at an Atlanta Falcons training facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia, it was held at the football field of a local high school. The venue change occurred on short notice, and reportedly only eight NFL teams sent personnel to observe the workout. No offers to Kaepernick materialized following the workout. Facing criticism that Kaepernick remained a player without a team, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell publicly stated in June 2020 that he would welcome Kaepernick's return to the league. Goodell encouraged teams to find a spot for him.

Later Life and Honors
Kaepernick received a number of honors for his efforts to raise awareness of racial inequality and discrimination. They include Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award (2017) and Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award (2018). In July 2020 Kaepernick signed a partnership deal with the Walt Disney Company to develop documentaries and other projects that focus on social justice issues. In 2021 Colin in Black & White, an autobiographical television series, appeared on Netflix. Created by Kaepernick and filmmaker Ava DuVernay, the six-episode series explores the player and activist's early life. Kaepernick published a children's book, I Color Myself Different, in 2022.

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(born 1987). American professional football player and social activist Colin Kaepernick played quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL)...

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ATHLETES, NOW MORE than ever, are demanding to be heard on social-justice issues. Their fans are watching, listening and - yes - engaging in ways never seen, too.

The Backstory: Conversations about race and equality resonate at all levels in sports - not just the big leagues

Many athletes took courageous stances on social causes before our current social-justice movement. Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jim Brown were among the most well-known athlete-activists in the 1960s. The most iconic demonstration of athletes protesting came from Tommie Smith and John Carlos during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and their fist-raising salute for Black Power remains an indelible image of the Civil Rights era.

"We were the horticulturists," Carlos told the Telegraph UK recently. "We planted seeds, and we nourished them and watered them and returned them to Earth. These young athletes making these statements, they are the fruit of our labor."

Colin Kaepernick was the turning point for this generation of athletes. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback began kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games to protest racial injustice, stirring impassioned debate throughout a country deeply divided on social and political issues. Kaepernick's protests effectively cost him his football career; by 2017, he was out of the league.

Four years later, the effects of Kaepernick's activism can be put into better context, and the simple conclusion is this: It worked. Kaepernick's protests not only stoked passion and awareness in the public consciousness; they went beyond that within the Black community. According to a study of political behavior among Black Americans, Kaepernick was "a powerful mobilizing force" who directly inspired nearly one-third of Black people polled to donate to a political cause, attend a protest or boycott the NFL. More than half of respondents said Kaepernick inspired them to vote in a local or national election.

That activism reached new heights this week when, for what is believed to be the first time, some professional athletes in the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer refused to play games the same day, Aug. 26, in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Christopher Towler, an assistant professor of political science at Sacramento State who earned his doctorate at the University of Washington, used data from the Black Voter Project to research Kaepernick's influence and then co-authored a paper titled "Shut Up and Play: Black Athletes, Protest Politics, and Black Political Action," published in March.

"I think one of the most important parts about (the research) is, not only is he motivating people to participate; it's that he's working within this larger Black Lives Matter movement, and those who support the movement are really, really paying attention to Kaepernick as a national leader (for the movement)," Towler told me in a recent phone interview.

Across virtually all sports this summer, as professional leagues returned to play in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, more athletes are following Kaepernick's lead amid the national uproar over racial injustice. The research shows how influential athletes can be. Their growing political influence, Towler said, isn't strictly limited to the Black community; more white athletes and more white coaches are starting to stand up and speak out about racial issues that the white community has ignored for too long, and Towler recognizes the potential ripple effects those added voices could have on social activism, too.

SEATTLE SPORTS STARS Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe and Russell Wilson each wore a Black Lives Matter T-shirt as they hosted ESPN's annual awards show, The ESPYS, filmed remotely from their Seattle homes in June. The show's opening segment took on a somber, serious tone as each athlete spoke about the national movement following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

"For centuries, there have been fights for justice and equality in this country, led by Black people," Rapinoe, the OL Reign and U.S. soccer star, said during the show. "This movement is no different, but as white people, this is the breaking point. This time, we've got to have their backs."

"Trust us: We know that sports are important. It's why we're gathered here tonight," added Bird, the Storm point guard. "But do Black lives matter to you when they're not throwing touchdowns, grabbing rebounds, serving aces? If that was uncomfortable to hear, good. I used to shy away from moments like this, because it's convenient to be quiet. To be thought of as safe and polite. Colin Kaepernick never shied away. He knew that discomfort was essential to liberation and that fighting the oppression against Black people is bigger than sports."

Added Wilson, the Seahawks quarterback: "Our country's work is not anywhere close to done. We need justice. We need true leadership. We need a change, and we need it now. ... As millions of people of all colors protest, I see a world of hurt, pain and despair. But I also see a new generation. A generation that is calling out in desperate need for lasting change."

OTHER SEAHAWKS have been outspoken on social issues in recent years. Michael Bennett, one of the stars of the Seahawks' defense during their Super Bowl runs in 2013 and 2014, was one of a handful of NFL players to support Kaepernick and protest during the national anthem. In 2017, Bennett sat on the team bench during the performance of the anthem; before some games, Justin Britt, a white offensive lineman, stood next to Bennett and put his arm on Bennett's shoulder in a show of solidarity.

After one game, Britt posted a quote from Benjamin Franklin on his Twitter page: "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll also has talked publicly about race relations and racial injustices this summer, doing so in a new podcast, "Flying Coach," with Steve Kerr of the NBA's Golden State Warriors. Carroll and Kerr are among the most accomplished coaches in their respective sports; both are white coaches in leagues comprised predominantly of Black athletes, and both have been lauded in the past for cultivating a locker-room culture of respect and openness.

But even that kind of environment isn't enough, Kerr acknowledged. "We've got to dig even deeper," he said on the podcast. "We've really got to try to understand where our players come from. And how do you as a coach, how do you create a culture that allows that conversation to happen organically? I think that's the challenge coaches face out there. But it's critical. Because the more we can understand each other with empathy, with humanity, the better chance we have of creating change."

In the wake of Floyd's killing on May 25, Carroll and the Seahawks have had ongoing dialogue about race relations and social injustices during virtual team meetings. Carroll told listeners that those conversations have been "extraordinarily impactful and moving."

"In our lives, we were aware of things, but yet we didn't talk about them; we didn't know how to express our feelings or we just ignored them, and unrightfully so. Now, we can't do that anymore," Carroll said.

"I just hope everybody at this time continues to be open to the world around us and realize it's important to love everybody and care for everybody. They all need our care and love in all directions. It's calling for a big change, because there's a lot of people that don't think that way. ... We have to work our way through this with great resolve. We have to do this."

WHITE ATTITUDES TOWARD racial inequalities have shifted dramatically. In July 2020, 55% of white Americans surveyed in a Washington Post-ABC News poll acknowledged discrimination against Black people, up from 33% in 2012. Further, 54% of white people said they supported Black Lives Matter.

Mariners outfielder Braden Bishop is one white athlete who wants to be part of the positive momentum toward racial equality, and he said he has been having open dialogue with teammates of color this summer. His message to them: " I'm with you. I will be with you. I see you as a Black man, and I'm here for you. And while I'll never understand directly the pain you feel, when you hurt, I hurt. "

Bishop played at the University of Washington; he was a Law, Societies and Justice major there. He isn't a star player for the Mariners, but he feels obligated to keep the conversation going publicly. Perhaps more than any local white athlete, he has sparred on social media with those who have pushed back against his support of Black Lives Matter. "Athletes should not just stick to sports. Serve others!" Bishop tweeted on July 23 (@bradenbishop7).

That kind of public support from white teammates can be another significant mobilizing force for political action, Towler suggested.

"It's not just that they're speaking up to support their teammates or the people around the league," Towler told me. "Their voices do make a difference when it comes to the general population and to the fans and to the people around the country and the world that watch them and follow them."

THE MARINERS OPENED this season with nine Black players on their roster, the most of any team in Major League Baseball. Mariners players and coaches wore Black Lives Matter shirts before the team's first game of the season in July, and six players raised their fists during the playing of the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

"It means a lot just to be a team with so many African American players and be able to represent that community as well," Kyle Lewis, a Black rookie outfielder whom the Mariners consider a cornerstone piece to their future, told reporters this summer. "We were able to come together and just show unity with the whole team, too. I appreciate all my teammates and everybody coming together and just showing unity. It really means a lot to everybody in that clubhouse."

Bishop is encouraged by the current movement for racial equality, and he can sense his Black teammates are encouraged, too. "But at same time," he told me, "I think they're tired. I can feel that, and I can sense that in their voice, just speaking out publicly the past month. Getting the responses I've gotten (on social media), I'm tired - so I can't even imagine having to go through that my whole life and fighting that battle."

Bishop grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area playing football, as well as baseball, on a diverse team with friends of various backgrounds. Learning about their experiences, he said, initially opened his eyes to racial inequalities. One of his goals now is to help make baseball more accessible, and more affordable, to youth athletes of color.

"I don't know what the solution is," he said, "but I want to be part of it."

AS PRO SPORTS leagues returned to play in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic this summer, athletes' demonstrations for social justice moved to the forefront. Before Major League Soccer's first game, more than 100 players stood in silence, their right fists raised, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of George Floyd. Before the Seattle Storm tipped off the WNBA season against the New York Liberty on July 25, players had a 26-second moment of silence to seek justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman killed by police in her Louisville home in March.

The magnitude of the movement trickled down to Tacoma, and to the Lakes High School football team. Dave Miller, who is white, has been Lakes' coach since 1986, and he said he's never seen or heard anything like the reaction he felt from players in the wake of Floyd's killing. Miller had set up a Zoom call and invited his players to join; he wanted to give them an opportunity and a forum to express themselves, to share their stories.

One of things Miller has enjoyed most about coaching at Lakes is working with kids from culturally diverse backgrounds, with many students coming from military families stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. As a coach, he told me, he sees it as his job to find common ground among young athletes, to bring them together for a common purpose as a team.

Love, Miller said, is a word he uses a lot in his program and with his players. "I love you," he'll tell them. Some of those teenage boys, when they first join the team, are taken aback at how freely he says that. ("It's important," Miller said, "to tell them you believe in them.") Eventually, and almost always, those players start to say it back to him: "Love you, Coach."

Miller described feeling shocked and overwhelmed in the days after Floyd was killed. He found his players grappling with their own frustrations and fears in that first Zoom call. What transpired during their conversation, he said, was uplifting and motivating, and helped reinforce his ideals for his program, and why he became a coach in the first place. Several senior leaders on the team had steered the conversation forward, and one of them made a simple yet powerful point that resonated with the coach.

"You know, Coach, you always tell us to love each other, and we try to do that," Miller recalled the senior leader saying. "Obviously, not every team and every person is going to love each other, but we do need to respect each other. Even if we don't want to love each other, we have to treat each other with value."

Professional stars, it seems, aren't the only athletes discovering their voices for social change. Young athletes are asking to be heard, too, and they're starting to realize how influential they can be.

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How Colin Kaepernick inspired activism, awareness and Seattle athletes to speak out against racial injustice

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ATHLETES, NOW MORE than ever, are demanding to be heard on social-justice issues. Their fans are watching, listening and - yes - engaging in ways never seen, too. The Backstory: Conversations about race and equality resonate at all levels in sports - not just the big leagues Many athletes took courageous stances on social causes before our current social-justice movement.

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How Muhammad Ali influenced the Civil Rights Movement

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Muhammad Ali galvanised the Civil Rights Movement by appealing to people who otherwise agreed on little politically.

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Tennis champion Arthur Ashe was an African American who triumphed in a traditionally white sport. He was ranked among the top 10 players in the world for 12 years.Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr., was born in Richmond, Virginia, on July 10, 1943. He started playing tennis as a child.

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Icon. Activist. Champion. — The Legacy of Arthur Ashe

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A tennis champion, social activist and style icon, Arthur Ashe stood at the nexus of sport, politics and culture, and exemplified the power of grace through his sportsmanlike approach to all on- and off-court matters. His towering legacy continues to inspire.

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Jesse Owens (1913-1980) gained lasting fame as a track and field star in college and for his four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Owens's athletic feats, and his later public relations work in a segregated society, were a source of encouragement and inspiration to the African American struggle for recognition and equality.

Owens, Jesse James Cleveland Owens was born on September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Lawrence County. Known to his family as J.C., he was the ninth of 10 children born to Henry and Emma Owens. Shortly after World War I, his family abandoned their sharecropping struggles in Alabama and joined many other African Americans who left the South to seek new opportunities in the North and West in what became known as the Great Migration. The family settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and initially prospered in the city's industrial economy. Owens was enrolled in an integrated elementary school, where popular lore suggests that a teacher mistook his nickname for Jesse, instead of J.C., and the nickname stuck among his peers. The Great Depression and a car accident that crippled his father caused financial setbacks for the family. Wishing to aid his struggling family, the practical Owens enrolled at East Technical High School in 1930, believing that a vocational education would guarantee future employment.

Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics Owens developed into a track and field star in the sprints and long jump. He dominated interscholastic competition and by the summer of 1933 was challenging world-class sprinters in national Amateur Athletic Union meets. A host of colleges coveted his athletic talents, and Owens eventually chose to enroll at the Ohio State University (OSU). Although OSU claimed to be an integrated campus, Owens found himself barred from the dormitories and kept out of public view in his job as a freight elevator operator in the state government office complex. Adopting a stance that he maintained throughout his life, Owens did not directly confront the racial slights and focused on developing his athletic abilities. As with many African Americans of his generation, especially those who spent some time in the South, Owens rarely attacked segregation and racism head on. Unlike Jackie Robinson, who was very confrontational, Owens usually remained quiet and focused his energies in other directions. He regularly spoke out against segregation and racism in general, especially after he became famous, but his condemnations were usually broad and historical rather than aimed at specific targets. He did not join the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or the Congress of Racial Equality, but gravitated to the much more moderate Urban League.

Owens became a national star during his time at OSU. In May 1935, at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Owens set world records in the long jump, 220-yard dash, and 220-yard low hurdles and tied the world record in the 100-yard dash, all in less than one hour. Track and field fans consider that performance the greatest in the history of the sport. Owens married Minnie Ruth Solomon in 1935, and the couple would have three daughters. As Owens entered his senior year, many people urged the United States to boycott the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin after revelations of Nazi oppression. Groups in favor of and against a boycott competed to recruit famous athletes for their cause, particularly gold-medal favorite Owens. He initially supported a boycott but then altered his position. In an era when white America paid more attention to the athletic exploits of Owens and the boxing feats of Joe Louis than to any other African American accomplishments, boycotting an immensely popular global event was not an option.

Jesse Owens Wins Gold In Berlin, Owens dominated the Olympics. He won gold medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump, and the 4 x 100-meter relay, a feat that remained unequaled until fellow Alabama native Carl Lewis's Olympic performance in 1984. At a time when the Nazis were promoting the superiority of whites, and the Aryan race in particular, Owens helped challenge these myths of superiority. Reports of Owens's success spread throughout the United States, as did claims that German Chancellor Adolf Hitler snubbed Owens because of his race. Owens returned to the United States a national hero but still a second-class citizen. Huge parades honored his achievements and lucrative offers sought to take advantage of his fame. Owens went back to OSU after the Olympics but never earned a degree. He lost out on several professional opportunities, including a job as head track coach at Wilberforce College because he failed to graduate. In the absence of a professional track and field circuit, Owens was unable to take advantage of his running and jumping abilities, and the Olympic Games were halted because of World War II.

Pursuing the typical avenues then open to African Americans, Owens found roles in the entertainment industry that ranged from fronting a swing band to racing against horses at county fairs. Although racism certainly limited his opportunities, Owens made a good living through his entertainment pursuits. He also received substantial sums from the Republican Party to support their candidates against Democrats, who were then eager to win over African American voters who until the 1930s had supported the Republicans as the "party of emancipation." Owens lost most of his newfound riches in unsuccessful business ventures and through spending. Fortunately, World War II marked a turning point in Owens's post-athletic career. In 1942, he was offered a job with the federal government as a liaison to the black community for a national fitness program sponsored by the Office of Civilian Defense. In 1943, the Ford Motor Company recruited Owens away from the federal government to oversee corporate relations with black employees, and he relocated to Detroit.

Jesse Owens and George Case Owens's fortunes briefly declined when World War II ended. Ford replaced Owens in a management reorganization in 1945, and a sporting goods store he opened in Detroit that same year quickly failed. Owens then went back on tour, running in theatrical races against horses and his old Olympic teammate, Helen Stephens. In 1949, he relocated to Chicago and took executive positions for several companies, including the Mutual of Omaha Insurance Corporation, the Illinois Athletic Commission, and the South Side Boys Club. He also opened several businesses, including a successful public relations agency. In 1953, the Republican governor of Illinois appointed Owens head of the Illinois Youth Commission and over the next decade Owens oversaw the state's recreational and educational programs targeting adolescents.

During the 1950s, in the midst of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, Owens reemerged as a symbol of American freedom and social mobility and offered himself as living testimony that an African American could succeed in the land of opportunity. The administration of Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower noticed Owens's worldwide popularity and his ease with audiences and sent the Olympic hero on international goodwill tours, which continued through the 1960s and 1970s. He also continued to support Republican politicians, such as Richard Nixon, at a time when most African Americans supported the Democratic Party. When the Democrats took power in Illinois in the election of 1960, Owens's support for Republicans cost him his seat on the Illinois Youth Commission, and he was replaced by the new administration. Though his political opportunities had been derailed, his career as a corporate spokesperson for a variety of companies, including Quaker Oats, Sears and Roebuck, and Johnson & Johnson, flourished. Owens endorsed corporate products and also lent his credibility as a symbol of fair play and racial progress to the firms with which he partnered.

Jesse Owens Stamp Throughout the turbulent social changes of the civil rights era, Owens was invoked by the white establishment as the one of the movement's trailblazers. Owens espoused the message of his longtime hero, Booker T. Washington, promoting gradualism and individualism as the path toward racial equality. Regarded by a new generation of civil rights activists as racially naïve, Owens continued to endorse the promise of American egalitarianism, even leading the charge against advocates of black power who protested racism in the United States at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. During the 1960s, Owens remained a conservative Republican, rejecting the Democrats' "Great Society" programs. While he admired Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles, he opposed King's tactics of confrontation in the civil rights struggle. Owens had no patience with more radical elements of the struggle, condemning Muhammad Ali for refusing induction into the military and only referring to the boxer by his Christian name, Cassius Clay. He vociferously condemned the Black Power movement as out-of-touch with the "silent black majority" in a 1970 book entitled Blackthink, which was praised by the Nixon Administration and much of the white press. A few supporters in the African American community lauded Owens for his position but the vast majority, even his fellow moderates, condemned his claim that racism no longer kept blacks from achieving success in American society. Responding to the criticisms that African Americans heaped on Blackthink, in 1972 Owens offered a mild retraction in I Have Changed. He belatedly gave credit to the civil rights movement for changing the American racial landscape, reluctantly recanted his claim that all forms of activism were inherently flawed, and briefly admitted that racism fundamentally hampered access to equal opportunities. Long after the marches and protests in Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery had remade the Alabama of his birth, Owens finally expressed admiration for the courage of those who took on segregation directly. The dismantling of legal segregation in the South was not a struggle in which he participated personally, and when he remembered the Alabama of his childhood it was as a part of his testimony about his "born again" spiritual experience rather than a reflection on the evils of Jim Crow.

Jesse Owens Museum In the last decade of his life Owens was a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Olympic Committee and enjoyed the accolades of an appreciative nation. He gave constant public lectures, retelling stories of his athletic experiences, his recipes for success, and his faith in the American dream. In the early 1970s he relocated to Arizona. On March 31, 1980, 66-year-old Jesse Owens succumbed to lung cancer in Tucson, Arizona. At a funeral attended by thousands of admirers and dignitaries, he was laid to rest in Chicago. His life and accomplishments are celebrated at the Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum in his birthplace of Oakville, Lawrence County. Owens is remembered as the nation's greatest Olympian and a symbol of triumph over obstacles and achievement of the American dream of social mobility.
Additional Resources
Baker, William J. Jesse Owens: An American Life. New York: Macmillan, 1986.

Dyreson, Mark. "Jesse Owens and American Racial Mythologies." In Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of the African American Athlete, edited by David W. Wiggins. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2006.

Owens, Jesse, and Paul Neimark. The Jesse Owens Story. New York: Putnam's, 1970.

---. Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man. New York: William Morrow, 1970.

---. I Have Changed. New York: William Morrow, 1972.

---. Jesse: A Spiritual Journey. Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1978.

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Jesse Owens (1913-1980) gained lasting fame as a track and field star in college and for his four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Owens's athletic feats, and his later public relations work in a segregated society, were a source of encouragement and inspiration to the African American struggle for recognition [...]

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Wilma Rudolph was an outstanding athlete in track and field events. She was the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. People called her the world's fastest woman.

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, near Clarksville, Tennessee. As a child Wilma had many illnesses, including polio. This disease made her unable to walk without a leg brace or a special shoe. By age 12, however, she could walk normally.

Rudolph became a graceful yet powerful sprinter. She won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics. She won her three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics. She set world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and in the 4 × 100-meter relay.

After these victories Rudolph's hometown of Clarksville planned a welcome-home parade for her. Rudolph, who was African American, refused to participate unless Blacks and whites could attend the event together. This was the first time that both races had gathered together in Clarksville.

Rudolph retired from running in 1962. She later became a track coach and a national sports commentator. She died on November 12, 1994, in Brentwood, Tennessee.

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Wilma Rudolph was an outstanding athlete in track and field events. She was the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. People called her the world's fastest woman. Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, near Clarksville, Tennessee. As a child Wilma had many illnesses, including polio.

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Despite being told as a child she would never walk again, Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star. At the height of her career, "the fastest woman in the world" used her platform to shed light on social issues.

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. As one of 22 children, she was constantly surrounded by support and care, which she needed given her poor health. Rudolph survived bouts of polio and scarlet fever. Her illness forced her to wear a brace on her leg. Rudolph's diagnosis was very bleak, "my doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother." Together, Rudolph's parents and siblings took turns taking care of her. They would often remove her leg brace and massage her injured leg. At the age of six, Rudolph began to hop on one leg. By eight she could move around with a leg brace. At the age of 11, Rudolph's mother discovered her playing basketball outside. She quickly turned to sports, becoming a natural athlete. She was nominated as All-American in basketball during high school. However, after a chance meeting with a college coach she turned to track and field.

While still in high school Rudolph competed on the collegiate level. She competed in the 1956 Olympic games and won a bronze medal in 4x100 relay. Four years later, Rudolph headed to the 1960 summer Olympics determined to get gold. Her performance in Rome cemented her as one of the greatest athletes of the 20 th century. She won three gold medals and broke at least three world records. Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic game. Her performance also earned her the title of "the fastest woman in the world."

Returning home an Olympic champion Rudolph refused to attend her homecoming parade if it was not integrated. She won the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award in 1961. The following year, Rudolph retired from track and field. She went on to finish her degree at Tennessee State University and began working in education. She continued her involvement in sports, working at several community centers throughout the United States. She was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame and started an organization to help amateur track and field stars. In 1990, Rudolph became the first woman to receive the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Silver Anniversary Award. The indoor track and dormitory at Tennessee State University are named in honor of Rudolph. In 1977, her life was the subject of a prime-time television movie. Rudolph died of a brain tumor on November 12, 1994.

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Wilma Rudolph relentlessly pursued her dreams becoming an international track and field star.