Rodney Page

The Temptations’ dance steps were taught and rehearsed. In 1965, Motown hired choreographer Cholly Atkins into its Artist Development department, and he began working with the Temptations, the Supremes, the Four Tops and others. Atkins had danced professionally since his teens, and pioneered what became known as “vocal choreography,” steps built around the singing. Otis Williams said that Atkins’s steps were not easy, with a lot of little hitch steps and subtle movements. He said that Atkins would pick up something on the record that you would have to strain to hear, and build a step around it. Once a group got a Cholly Atkins routine down, they stood apart from the other acts. The idea started inside the group. Paul Williams pushed early on for the Temptations to be a group of action and excitement, and Berry Gordy brought in Atkins to teach them. A Boston College paper says that Atkins and Paul Williams worked out the “Temptation Walk” together. Atkins won a Tony for choreography in 1989, and passed on April 19, 2003, at 89. Smooth on stage, and a lot of work behind it.

Jesse Owens entered the 1936 Berlin Olympics with the world watching, but his greatest opponent was not simply on the track. Nazi Germany had turned the Games into a showcase for Adolf Hitler’s claims of Aryan racial superiority. Owens answered that propaganda with four gold medals. Born James Cleveland Owens in Alabama in 1913, he moved with his family to Cleveland as part of the Great Migration. His athletic ability became obvious in high school, and at Ohio State University he reached another level. In 1935, at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Owens set three world records and tied another within roughly 45 minutes, a performance still regarded as one of the most remarkable stretches in track and field history. At Berlin in 1936, he won the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and 4x100-meter relay. His long-jump victory was particularly memorable because German athlete Luz Long openly encouraged him during the competition. The two became friends despite the racial ideology surrounding the Games. A popular story claims Hitler personally refused to shake Owens' hand. The reality is more complicated. Hitler stopped personally congratulating individual medalists after Olympic officials told him he would need to greet all winners or none. Owens later recalled that the treatment he received at home was deeply disappointing too. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not invite him to the White House after his victories. Owens returned to a segregated United States, where winning four Olympic gold medals did not protect him from racism or discrimination. His achievements exposed a painful contradiction: America celebrated his victories abroad while Black Americans continued fighting for basic equality at home. Jesse Owens died in 1980 at age 66, but his legacy reaches far beyond four medals. He became one of the most powerful symbols of athletic excellence confronting racism on an international stage.