A man who found and spread goodness and inspiration, African American track athlete James Cleveland Owens (1913–1980) was born on this day in Oakville, Alabama. His father was a sharecropper; his grandfather had been enslaved.

“One chance is all you need,” believed the legend.

From humble beginnings to greatness, Owens set a world long jump record of 26 feet, 8¼ inches that stood for 25 years. “A lifetime of training for just ten seconds,” he said. Spectators called him a “floating wonder,” a “black arrow,” a “whirlwind.”

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he won four gold medals: 100-meter, 200-meter, long jump, and 4×400 relay—shattering Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy. “That's a grand feeling, standing up there,” Owens said. “I never felt like that before.”

Film showed him standing proud, confident, and composed. Standing tall, he made truth visible. In his autobiography, he confessed to holding back tears.

He once explained, “I hold my breath during the last stretch... I take one big breath, tense all my abdominal muscles and set sail.”

In 1974, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “People come out to see you perform,” he said. “You've got to give them the best you have within you.”

Jesse Owens was a miracle in motion. He gave us permission to believe in our own greatness. At a time when the world seemed eager to define him by his skin color or reduce him to a symbol, he simply ran. And in running, he redefined history.