Official Kids Mag

14 To advertise, please call www.kidscoop.com © Vicki Whiting July 2021 Standards Link: Language Art: Use nouns, adjectives and verbs correctly. German athlete, Luz Long, competed against Jesse in the long jump. Even though he was a competitor, it is believed that Luz gave Jesse a tip that helped him win the event with a record-breaking jump of 26 feet, 5 5/16 inches. Luz was the first to congratulate and shake the hand of his new friend. Why do you think Luz Long helped Jesse? In 1936, Jesse Owens became the first American to win four Track and Field Olympic __________ medals in one year. The fact that he was the grandchild of slaves and that he grew up in ______________ make his athletic achievements even more remarkable. The 1936 Olympic Games took place in Berlin, _______________. At that time, Germany's leader was Adolf Hitler, a man who thought Jewish people, black people and other groups of people were inferior to the people of Northern Europe. Jesse __________________ not going to the 1936 games because of Hitler's views. But then he thought it would be a chance for him to show the _________, and Hitler's Nazi party, what a black man could do. In his first race, the 100-meter sprint, Jesse Owens crossed the ___________ line in 10.3 seconds—a new world record! Instead of inferior, Jesse Owens was the ________ of the best! While the German people cheered him on, Adolf Hitler never shook Jesse's hand or _______________________ him. Jesse went on to win three more gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, making him the first track-and-field star from the United States to win four gold medals at the Olympics. He showed the world that people of any race could _______ based on hard work and dedication, not race. Replace the missing words. 40 years later, President Gerald Ford invited Jesse to the White House and gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can achieve. Jesse went on to win many more awards and he talked to people about the importance of sports, the Olympics and democracy. He never stopped working to be better in his own life and to make lives better for others. New York City gave Jesse a ticker-tape parade when he came home from the Olympics, but he was still not treated equally in his own country. "When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus," Jesse said. "I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either." Homecoming Long-Awaited Honor Photo: Shutterstock www.kidscoop.com © Vicki Whiting July 2021 Official Kids Mag

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