Louis Farrakhan - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

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Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Wolcott (also mistakenly spelled Walcott) in The Bronx, New York, the younger of two sons of Sarah Mae Manning (16 January 1900 – 18 November 1988) and Percival Clark, immigrants from the Caribbean islands. His mother was born in Saint Kitts and Nevis. His father was a Jamaican native and worked as a taxicab driver. After Louis' father died in 1936, the Wolcott family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where they settled in the West Indian neighborhood of the Roxbury area.

Starting at the age of six, Wolcott received rigorous training in the violin. He received his first violin at the age of six, and by time he was 13 years old, he had played with the Boston College Orchestra, and the Boston Civic Symphony. A year later, he went on to win national competitions. In 1946, he was one of the first black performers to appear on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, where he also won an award. He and his family were active members of the Episcopal St. Cyprian's Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Wolcott attended the prestigious Boston Latin School, and later the English High School, from which he graduated. He completed three years of college at Winston-Salem Teachers College, where he had a track scholarship.

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