Capturing Black Lightning
By: Carl Boisson
Tags: Civil Rights, Sports, Olympics, Track And Field, Jesse Owens

Pressure Cooker

We’ve all been there. You’re in class at your desk staring at some midterm/final exam/term paper that, for some reason or another, your academic survival hinges on you receiving a favorable grade. A single score, you reason, can tear you away from the newfound freedoms and festivities of campus life. This could be the low grade that sends you back home to your family as a failure! The pressure is palpable as the hours of lectures you took the time to record on your smartphone aren’t coming to mind. You’re even drawing a blank recalling the pages of meticulous notes and screenshots you took on the topic. Breathe! You’re supposed to clear this hurdle.

Outside of your expectations and those which your parents have placed on you (as unreasonable as they may be), statistically, the cards are still stacked in your favor. Every academic fact you’ve acquired since Kindergarten has prepared you for this moment and are at your disposable. The rigorous admissions process you endured while in high-school has proven beyond a doubt to all the gatekeepers that, you belong here. College is big business, where there’s a will (and some cash), there’s always another opportunity to retake the exam (even if you have to pay out of pocket). The point is your parents, your university, your professor, even the head of the PR department at your academic institution who just finalized a design for the brochure that will highlight how fun & pressure-free their campus is for next semester’s freshmen, are all rooting for you and are incentivized to see you through the next step.

Now instead, picture being indoctrinated since Kindergarten, about your limitations and shortcomings. How would taking that exam feel when what comes to mind are lectures by instructors and coaches alike about wide-held societal beliefs regarding your inferiority and the futility of your dreams? Imagine the pressure in knowing millions need you to succeed while tens of millions desire you to fail (even making it their mission). Consider those who, somehow passed those tests, even having among the top scores, despite the unfavorable odds and general expectation of failure.

There are a few brave athletes who’ve cleared the hurdles of their day despite some really poor odds. Although most played team sports, their most notable accomplishments had them stand out as individuals en route to becoming the first black athletes to play their respective sport professionally. While today’s high-flying, cash-cow American sports leagues are probably the world’s finest examples of the meritocratic and inclusive space that athletics should be, this hasn’t always been the case. Soley due to the color of their skin, our history includes social and legal barriers barring some of the nation’s best athletes from even participating!

Detroit, 1942

Fast As Lightning

Yes, there was a time in America where being a black athlete was taboo. A boy, who would come to be known Jesse Owens and should be regarded as one of the truest champions of sport and pioneers from the lead-by-example-era, was born at an apex of those times. On September 12, 1913 a sharecropper named Henry Cleveland Owens and Mary Emma Fitzgerald gave birth to James Cleveland Owens, their last of 10 children. Born in Oakville, Alabama, Jesse Owens would eventually move to Cleveland Ohio due to the economic conditions of the times.

You see, some of the harsh realities of slavery that had pretty recently been abolished still took a toll on families of former slaves. A “Great Migration” of sorts resulted in over a million African Americans moving en mass from the south to the north looking for better opportunities for their families. Although Jesse’s family successfully migrated, things weren’t easy. In fact, the reason we know him as “Jesse” today is one of his teachers couldn’t understand his strong southern accent. When she asked him name, she heard ‘Jesse’ rather than J.C. (James Cleveland).

His family members worked in local steel mills while he worked various hard jobs to contribute to the household. At times he would be delivering groceries or working at a shoe repair shops or even loading freight cars to make ends meet. In the midst of this, he found time to fall in love with running!