USDA Celebrates Black History Month with Jesse Owens’ Granddaughter

USDA’s Farm Service Agency celebrated Black History Month at an event highlighted by Jesse Owens’ granddaughter Marlene Dortch.

Owens actually came from an agriculture background Dortch noted.

“His inspiration as a poor sharecropper’s son to a world record setting athlete lives on.”

Dortch said that Owens embodied the triumph of the human spirit, even if he couldn’t take advantage of his fame.

“He had hoped to be like Johnny Weissmuller and Esther Williams and be able to capitalize on that opportunity when he came back to the states and that just wasn’t the reality for a black man in 1936.”

Dortch is the Secretary of the FCC.