{"id":313,"date":"2021-01-20T11:43:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/?p=313"},"modified":"2021-01-20T11:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:43:54","slug":"celebrating-black-innovators-jesse-owens-and-stevie-wonder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/celebrating-black-innovators-jesse-owens-and-stevie-wonder\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Black Innovators: Jesse Owens and Stevie Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, historians! As part of our discussions about historical changemakers and innovators, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we read short biographies about 2 more influential people: Jesse Owens and Stevie Wonder.<\/p>\n<p><b>Stevie Wonder:\u00a0<\/b><b><i>Singer-Songwriter &amp; Music Producer<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stevland Judkins (\u201cStevie Wonder\u201d) was born in 1950. He always loved music, and showed a remarkable talent at a very young age. Stevie was visually impaired, but not being able to see did not stop him from pursuing his dream. He auditioned for MoTown records at only 11 years old! His first #1 hit album was released in 1963, and he continued to make music with messages of love, compassion, justice, and unity through his entire career. He even collaborated with Ariana Grande on a song, \u201cFaith\u201d, in 2016!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stevie Wonder played the piano, harmonica, and sang. He felt the music, and could often be seen dancing and swaying as he performed. He loved music and loved to perform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wonder used his voice to change the world, writing about the problems facing oppressed groups of people, particularly the racism that African-Americans faced. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we are sick and tired of hearing your song \/ Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he sang in 1974.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wonder continues to inspire musicians with his message, his heart, and his legacy. Feel free to click the link below to watch Wonder&#8217;s live performance on Sesame Street.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stevie Wonder - Superstition live on Sesame Street\" width=\"863\" height=\"647\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_ul7X5js1vE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Jesse Owens: <\/b><b><i>Track-and-Field Champion &amp; Olympic Athlete\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jesse Owens was not only an amazing athlete, but his success in the Berlin Olympics shook up an entire nation (and the world). Born James Cleveland Owens, Jesse had several health conditions that made him feel sick and weak most of his childhood. But by 5th grade, Jesse grew into a strong athlete who could beat almost anyone in a race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He began setting world records for sprinting and jumping. His athletic skill and talent led him to be a member of the American Olympic track-and-field team. His coach once said it seemed he could \u201cfloat on the air\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But there was one problem with Jesse\u2019s dream to compete in the Olympics&#8230; they were going to be held in Berlin, Germany (which in 1936 was under Hitler\u2019s government). Hitler and the Nazi party were confident that no Black athlete could beat their Aryan athletes (white, blonde, blue-eyed).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The audience was shocked when Jesse began to beat German athletes in several different races and competitions (the 100, 200, and 400 meter sprint as well as long jump). He even won a gold medal! But when the time came for him to receive his award, Hitler refused to shake his hand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jesse later pointed out that the racism he experienced in Germany was something he also experienced in America, saying \u201cI wasn\u2019t invited to shake Hitler\u2019s hand, but I wasn\u2019t invited to shake our President\u2019s hand either\u201d. Jesse proved to the world that the colour of your skin does not limit your athleticism or what you can achieve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click the link below to watch Jesse competing in his gold medal winning race in the 1936 Olympics:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jesse Owens Wins Gold Medal 1936 In Full Color\" width=\"863\" height=\"647\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZfRIeCqdpRA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, historians! As part of our discussions about historical changemakers and innovators, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we read short biographies about 2 more influential people: Jesse Owens and Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder:\u00a0Singer-Songwriter &amp; Music Producer Stevland Judkins (\u201cStevie Wonder\u201d) was born in 1950. He always loved music, and showed a remarkable talent &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/celebrating-black-innovators-jesse-owens-and-stevie-wonder\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Celebrating Black Innovators: Jesse Owens and Stevie Wonder<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8574,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sd41blogs.ca\/wardk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}