Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1901, even though he sometimes said later in his life that he was born on July 4, 1900. He was raised by his mother and grandmother after his father, who was a factory worker, left the family while Armstrong was still a child. His family was very poor, and as a child Armstrong worked many odd jobs to help support the family. Armstrong was surrounded by music while working and playing in the streets of New Orleans. Since he could not afford an instrument, he learned to sing and joined a vocal quartet that sang on street corners for a little extra money.
B.B King Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1945 on a plantation in Itta Benna, Mississippi. More well known as B.B King, he was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. As a child, he was raised by his grandmother when his mother left him for another man. His music career began during his childhood when he would sing in his church choir. When B.B was 12 years old he bought his first guitar.
Desmond Tutu was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp. His father was a teacher and his mother a domestic worker. Tutu grew up in the apartheid era but seems to have made the best out of it. He was completely dedicated to the anti-apartheid cause. From being an Anglican priest, Tutu became general secretary of the South African council of Churches and then rose to become the first black Archbishop of Cape Town.
He grew up on the family plantation known as Fairfield in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. As a young man Lamar moved to Cahawba, Alabama, where he became a partner in a general store and the town newspaper called the Cahawba. Then he moved back to Georgia because his job failed. Once he moved
Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, hoped to be a music hall dancer but was forced to be a washerwoman. Her father, Eddie Carson, was a vaudeville drummer. He left Josephine Baker and Carrie McDonald shortly after birth. Carrie McDonald had 3 more children in the coming years.
Their pasts were very different from each other. Roy Lichtenstein was, “born October 27, 1997.” Lichtenstein grew up in, “Manhattan on the Upper West Side,” with both parents and his sister. Father, “Milton Lichtenstein, a real-estate broker,” and mother, “Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein, a homemaker,” tried their very best to give their children the best future that they could. Both parents came from a German-Jewish background.
Ray Charles Robinson, known to many as Ray Charles “The Great” was born on September 23, 1930 in a small town of Albany, Georgia. He was a pianist, songwriter, and singer. Ray’s mother was a sharecropper and his father was a mechanic, when Ray was little they moved to Greenville, Florida. In Mr. Charles early years of life he was a witness of his little brother drowning to death. In some type of way, Charles began to lose his eyesight right after the death of his little brother.
J.R.R. Tolkien was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein, which is today in South Africa (J.R.R. Tolkien Biography). His parents were
Whitney Elizabeth Houston, born on 9th August 1963, in Newark, New jersey. The daughter of gospel star Cissy Houston, and the goddaughter of soul legend diva Aretha Franklin. She started her first singing experience in the choir at her church, The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. After graduating, she continued to model and sing, backing up Lou Rawls and Chaka Khan. When she was 19, Whitney Houston was discovered in a nightclub by the renowned Clive Davis of Arista Records, who signed her immediately and took the helm of her career as she navigated from gospel to pop stardom. Her debut album “Whitney Houston” became the biggest-selling album by a debut artist.
After years of poverty he was able to find his talent and it took him far. In New Orleans on August 4, 1901 Armstrong was born to a poor family in a community nicknamed ¨the Battlefield¨(¨Louis Armstrong biography¨). His childhood was a struggle without his father in such a brutal neighborhood.
Oprah Winfrey was born to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey on January 29, 1954. She was born in Kosciusko Mississippi. Shortly after she was born her parents got a divorce and Oprah was left to live with her maternal grandmother. At the age of 6, Oprah was sent to be with her mom and her two half brothers in the poor and dangerous neighborhood of Milwaukee. When she was 12, she was then sent to live with her father in Nashville Tennessee.
James Nathaniel Brown, widely known as Jim Brown, was an Australian politician, actor, activist, and Hall of Fame professional football player. He was born on St. Simon’s Island in Georgia on February 17, 1936, to Theresa and Swinton Brown. Jim Brown had a very difficult childhood, the difficulties beginning at the young age of two weeks when his father, a professional boxer, left his family. His mother left him shortly after, leaving him with his great-grandmother to accept a job as a maid in Manhasset, New York. Jim faced many racial tensions, being a young African American boy in the South.
He was born to southern Baptist sharecroppers Ray Cash and Carrie Rivers Cash. John grew up in Dyess Colony, Arkansas, where at age four he worked as a water boy in the cotton fields. Throughout his childhood, he was surrounded by music, whether it was in the fields, at church, or playing on the radio live from the Grand Ole Opry ("Johnny Cash Biography"). At age 12, J.R. began playing the guitar and writing songs. While in high school, he regularly performed on local radio station KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas (Simon et al., 2001).
At a early age basquiat showed his talent for drawing. This talent led his mother to enroll him as a junior member of the Brooklyn museum when he was only six. Jean Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn New York, on December 22 1960. Basquiat had a Haitian American father and a Puerto Rican mother. Basquiat and his mother attended New York City museum exhibitions which led to him being enrolled as a junior member of the Brooklyn museum.
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. She was born in her home on 300 North Commons Street West in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Helen’s parents were Colonel Arthur Keller and Kate Adams Keller. Arthur Keller was a Captain in the Confederate Army.