Nie News
The Resilience of Different African Americans
Martin Luther King
Rosa Parks
Ruby Bridges
Jesse Owens
It took a long journey for Jesse Owens to be one of the best in track and field. With his resilience and determination however, he came to be one of the fastest men in history. Owen’s was fast because he strived for excellence. The first step in Owen's journey for excellence was preparation for what was coming. It was 1936, Owens was trying out for the Olympics and won all three of his events entering him into the most anticipated event of the summer. With all the excitement, and enthusiasm going on, Owens had to keep in mind the racism he would have to deal with. He would obviously be discouraged through his events repeatedly. The next step in attaining excellence was perseverance. Jesse Owens raced in front of millions of white people and most important of all, Adolf Hitler. The only way Jesse could get through this hatred and not break down was with perseverance and thankfully he had a lot of it in him. Even with his perseverance however, Jesse could not hold up with the hate all the time. This led to the final step which was the most important of them all: resilience. Jesse was most successful with his mental game in the Olympics because of it. Hitler the host of the Olympics was obviously racist and Jesse knew Hitler insulted him. However, Jesse bounced back with his own insults, his speed and talent. All these steps to excellence led to Jesse Owens winning four gold medals in the Olympics. Clearly Jesse Owens was a resilient, persistent man who succeeded through utmost determination.