Black History Month isn't without its detractors. Plenty of good arguments can be made against designating a month to the millions of black Americans, when really, they should be honored as human beings year-round. "You're going to relegate my history to a month?" asked the actor Morgan Freeman on 60 Minutes in December, 2005. "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."

But there's also the counter-argument, that if nothing else, each February we're a little more conscious of the tremendous strides made by blacks since they first arrived here, ingloriously, disenfranchised, enslaved.

This month we'll be posting a series of articles commemorating a few of the men and women whose achievements have helped this country -- and the world -- recognize that blacks are anything but 3/4 human.

This clip shows Jesse Owens's remarkable performance in the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin so that Hitler could show off his city and prove the superiority of the Aryan race to the whole world. Owens bested his competition in four events, winning four gold medals and ruining Hitler's plan.

Even today, just months after Usain Bolt's electrifying races in Beijing, watching Owens run still inspires awe. That he also made a political statement makes this race, truly, one for the ages.