Jesse Owens had outstanding performances as a schoolboy and, later, as a track star at Ohio State. But what we remember him for, what has etched his name permanently in our minds, happened 85 years ago — at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. We remember Jesse Owens standing up to Hitler and, with his four gold medals, exposing as nonsense the Nazi doctrine of Aryan supremacy.
Despite the legend, most of us probably don’t know what really happened at those games. We think of the heroic Owens going alone, a solitary Black face amidst a sea of Nazi flags and Hitler salutes.