Mar. 28, 1990 - Jesse Owens received the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. President George Bush
The highest honor Owens received came a full ten years after his death. Congressman Louis Stokes from Cleveland lobbied tirelessly to earn Owens a Congressional Gold Medal. The award was finally given to Owens’s widow by President Bush in 1990. During the ceremony, President Bush called Owens “an Olympic hero and an American hero every day of his life.”
