Jackie Joyner-Kersee is an Olympian athlete, and possesses three gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the heptathlon and long jump events. Named by Sports Illustrated For Women as the "Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century", Joyner set a world record in the heptathlon in 1988 that remains unbroken today.

Milestones in Jackie Joyner-Kersee's ancestry:

1827 Gabriel Connor, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's great, great, great, great grandfather, is forced to move from Virginia to Tennessee when he becomes the property of his owner's son.

1900 Drip Rainey and Ellen Collins, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's great, great grandparents are property owners in Mississippi after having lived as slaves under slavery.

1962 Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is born in East St. Louis, Illinois. In the same year, Malcolm X becomes national minister of the Nation of Islam and embraces a separatist philosophy that is markedly different from the nonviolent civil rights movement's integrationist stance.

1984 Jackie Joyner-Kersee attends her first Olympic games. In the same year, Jesse Jackson becomes the second African American to make a bid for the presidency of the United States.

Put Jackie Joyner-Kersee's life and ancestry in historical context with the Interactive Historical Timeline.

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