How did "Jesse" Owen's get his name as noted in the nonfiction book, The Warmth of Other Suns?

Nine-year-old James Cleveland Owens left Alabama with his parents during the early 1920s to migrate north to Cleveland, Ohio. On his first day of school, the teacher asked him his name. Due to his thick southern accent, the teacher misheard his response. He said his name was JC; she thought he said Jesse. From that day on, James Cleveland Owens was known as Jesse Owens who came to worldwide fame in the 1936 Olympics where he won four gold medals.