🧵1/ 🇺🇸 #BlackHistoryMonth: Black #history is American history.
👟Jesse Owens & the 1936 Berlin #Olympics
🗣️Jesse Owens is often remembered as the athlete who rose above discrimination in #Berlin and was snubbed by Hitler. But that’s only half the story. To counter the whitewashing of history, I want to share a bit about the legend who showed the world what true American excellence looks like.
Did you know?
▪️Roots: The son of sharecroppers and the grandson of enslaved people, Owens was picking
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100 pounds of cotton a day by age seven to help his family survive in Alabama.
▪️1935: He set four world records in 45 minutes at the Big Ten Championships—a feat still unmatched in sports history.
▪️1936: He won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, shattering #Nazi racial #propaganda on the world stage.
👉🏽The Harsh Reality of Jim Crow:
Despite his global triumph, Owens returned to a segregated America. Even as a world champion:
▪️He was forced to use the freight elevator to reach his own