Jesse Owens' gold medal auctioned for nearly $1.5 million, sets record

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/08/us/jesse-owens-medal/

Jesse Owens' 1936 gold medal sold for $1,466,574 at auction Sunday, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for Olympic memorabilia.

New owner Ron Burkle, a billionaire investor and co-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, plans to use it for a future educational tour of historic pieces.

This medal is considered one of the most important in Olympics history and is one of four Owens won at the 1936 games in Berlin, spoiling Adolf Hitler's planned showcase of Aryan superiority.

Imagine the shock to Nazi Party elites when a black American, the son of a sharecropper and a grandson of slaves, stared down fascist propaganda, bested his rivals and took home four gold medals.