(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Between 2009 and 2022, 5 black athletes from college football teams in Alabama have won the Heisman Trophy which is given to the most outstanding player in all of college football.

No one would think twice about this today, but throughout history, there were people who did not think that black athletes could or should win anything.

For example, back in the 1930s and 40s there was a leader in Europe named Adolf Hitler.

He was the dictator of Germany, and he believed that black athletes were inferior human beings.

In fact, he believed that his chosen German athletes were superior to all other people and races, especially black people and Jewish people.

In his mind, German athletes could run faster, jump farther and clear more hurdles than anyone else.

He planned to prove this to the world when his German athletes would win tons of gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.

He thought no one could beat his athletes, especially the son of a poor black sharecropper from Alabama named Jesse Owens.

(crowd cheering) How did Jesse Owens beat Hitler?

If you watched the Summer Olympics, you will undoubtedly see old film of Jesse Owens running races during the 1936 Olympic Games.

This black and white film is an inspiration to many athletes today because when Jesse was growing up in Alabama, no one thought he would ever have a chance to race in the Olympics and beat Hitler.

(upbeat music) Running made Jesse Owens happy.

(mellow music) This replica at the Jesse Owens Memorial Park in Oakville, Alabama, is just like the small house that Jesse grew up in.

There were cracks in the walls.

The beds were just blankets on the floor and Jesse shared this small house with his 10 brothers and sisters.

Jesse's father supported everyone by working as a sharecropper.

Sharecroppers are farmers who do not own the land that they farm, but instead rent a piece of land on a larger farm.

In exchange, the crops they raised went to the landowner to sell.

Sharecroppers get part of the money, minus money for rent and food.

Sharecropping left very little money for Jesse's family.

It was a lot of hard work for not a lot of money.

Things got even harder when an insect called boll weevil destroyed much of the cotton crops in the 1910s.

With no crops to sell there was no money for Jesse's family.

So they, along with many other sharecroppers decided to move to northern states where factories offered jobs and the possibility for a new life.

So many people moved north that this became known as The Great Migration.

Between 1910 and 1960, over 6 million black people moved north, including Jesse, his brothers and sisters, and his mom and dad.

Although these were difficult times for Jesse he was always happy when he was running.

Running gave Jesse a sense of freedom because he could run whichever way he wanted, as fast as he wanted, and when he ran, he would dream.

He would dream that he could be the first person in his family to go to college.

Jesse Owens ran for his future.

During the Great migration, Jesse and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where their lives were very different.

One of the biggest changes was that Jesse was able to attend an integrated school for the first time in his life.

Unlike Alabama, segregation did not exist in Cleveland.

Segregation were laws that kept black and white people separated.

So when Jesse went to school in Cleveland, some of his school friends and teachers were white.

One day, Mr. Charles Riley, a white teacher saw Jesse running and was impressed with how fast he could fly across the school yard.

Mr. Riley was also a track and field coach and he offered to work with Jesse and help him become a great runner.

Jesse decided to do it even though it meant he would have to work extra hard because in addition to running practice after school Jesse also worked for a shoe repair shop, helped at a greenhouse and delivered groceries.

All his hard work paid off.

Soon he was winning race after race for his high school team.

In his senior year, he ran the 100 yard dash in 9.4 seconds and tied the world record.

Newspapers began to write stories about him and many universities hoped he would run on their track teams.

Jesse achieved his dream of attending college.

It was from there that he would shock the world.

Jesse Owens beat Hitler.

Jesse quickly became the star athlete for the Ohio State Track team.

At one track meet, he broke the world record in a long jump, the 220 yard dash and the 220 yard hurdles, three world records in one day and look at those running shoes he had to use.

They are not high tech athletic sneakers, more like shoes with spikes on the soles, but they didn't slow him down.

He was such a good runner that he easily qualified to represent the United States in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.

But some Americans didn't think that Jesse should go to the games.

They wanted all Americans to stay away ain what is called a boycott to demonstrate that the German dictator Adolf Hitler's treatment of people was wrong.

A boycott is a way to express that you think something is unfair.

Jesse decided that he would not boycott the games.

He would show Hitler that he was wrong by winning races and proving what a black athlete could accomplish.

Jesse won his first race, the 100 yard dash, while Adolf Hitler watched from the stands.

(indistinct) - [Announcer] Metcalfe comes up, but Owens wins (indistinct).

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] After Jesse received his gold medal Hitler declined to shake his hand.

He was not a good sportsman but Jesse did not let that get him down.

He went on to win gold medals in the long jump, the 200 meter dash and the four by 100 meter relay.

Four gold medals.

By the end of the games the German fans were chanting his name.

Jesse had proven that a black sharecropper's son from Alabama was one of the greatest athletes in the world.

Still all his gold medals did not help Jesse overcome racial discrimination.

When he came back to the United States racial discrimination made it hard for him to find a good job.

Some of the only work he could get was to be paid to race a horse.

Eventually, many people, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower began to recognize the importance of Jesse's achievement, and he became a voice for fairness, democracy, and hard work.

(dramatic music) Jesse Owens' Olympic performance has become an inspiration for many athletes today.

Next time you play sports, think about Jesse Owens and how he made a difference in the world.

(dramatic music)