Influential Black Athletes

Jesse Owens: Owens, who was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, competed in track and field and won eight NCAA national championships (1935, 1936) in addition to four Olympic gold medals (1936).

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which gave his athletic achievements a larger significance than any other athlete in history. Adolf Hitler, the ruler of Nazi Germany, was enraged by Owens’ triumphs in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump, and 400-meter relay because he wanted to highlight German athletes’ dominance and advance his “superior race” ideology.

Muhammad Ali: Ali, who was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, rose to fame as the heavyweight champion of the world. He won an Olympic gold medal and was named Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year six times (1960).

In 1964, at the age of 22, he defeated Sonny Liston in an unexpected upset to win his first championship. Following that, he won the title two more times, including once after a four-year break during which his title had been revoked for refusing to enlist in the Vietnam War.

After his boxing career came to an end, Ali enthralled audiences all over the world with his fighting prowess and charm. Ali passed away in 2016 at the age of 74 after battling Parkinson’s disease for the past 20 to 30 years of his life.
Althea Gibson: Born on August 25, 1927 in Clarendon County, South Carolina, Gibson participated in tennis and golf, where she became a two-time Wimbledon champion (1957, 1958), two-time U.S. Open champion (1957, 1958), French Open champion (1956), and two-time Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year (1957, 1958).

In her professional tennis career, Gibson won five Grand Slam singles titles and six Grand Slam doubles crowns. She was also the first Black woman to compete on the LPGA Tour.

Additionally, Gibson’s fortitude in the face of racism early in her career—she was frequently turned away from white-only clubs—laid the foundation for the great generations of Black and minority tennis players who would follow her.
Jackie Robinson: Robinson, who was born on January 31st, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia, played baseball and won the World Series in 1955. He was also the National League MVP in 1949, a six-time MLB All-Star (1949–54), the MLB Rookie of the Year in 1947, a member of the MLB All-Century Team, a member of the Negro League All-Star team in 1945, and the NCAA long jump champion (1940).

Robinson became the first Black player in MLB history in 1947, breaking the color barrier and opening the door for future generations of players in all professional sports.

Robinson’s legacy was about so much more than what he did on the field, where he was one of the greatest players of all time. Robinson’s aplomb in handling the racist vitriol that came his way when he broke the color barrier was something to behold and revealed an inner strength we can still learn from to this day.