Loius Farrakhan Biography

He married Betsy Ross while at college and she lived in Boston. She was pregnant with their first child leading Wolcott to drop out to devote his time to his wife and baby.

He then worked as a nightclub singer in the early 1950s. He had many talents, such as playing the violin and having a good singing voice.

He was known as 'the Charmer' and enjoyed moderate musical success including a hit single 'Jumbie Jamboree' before joining the Nation of Islam in 1955.

Like many black American Muslims, Wolcott dropped his last name and became known as Minister Louis X, the dropping of a person's family name being seen as a rejection of names imposed on black Americans when they were slaves.

He later adopted the name Abdul Haleem Farrakhan and came to be known as Louis Farrakhan.

In 1963, a split developed between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan sided with Elijah Muhammad and, in the late 1970s, emerged to lead the organisation at a time when it was becoming more mainstream.

In October 1995, Farrakhan organised the "Million Man March" to Washington DC.
During the celebrations that concluded the march, hundreds of thousands of black men vowed to renew their commitments to family, community, and personal responsibility.

Though less than a million men participated in the march, it was widely regarded as having shown the strength of Farrakhan's power base and brought him closer to the political mainstream.

In January 1996, Farrakhan made a twenty nation "world friendship tour" that took in Iran, Libya, and Iraq, states the US regards as rogue nations and sponsors of international terrorism.

He has been accused of appealing to black racism and anti-Semitism, and numerous inflammatory remarks are attributed to him - including expressions of admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Farrakhan underwent surgery to treat prostate cancer in 2000. He resumed public appearances early in 2001.

A ban on Farrakhan's entry into the UK, imposed in 1986, was lifted after 15 years by the British High Court.

He has continued to court controversy in recent years by claiming Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 was God's way of punishing America for warmongering and racism.

On 11 September 2006, he issued a letter to Nation of Islam members and supporters revealing that he was seriously ill. Doctors in Cuba had discovered a peptic ulcer, it was revealed, which had led to subsequent infections. He underwent major abdominal surgery and remained in hospital for five weeks. He lost 35 pounds in weight over this time.

In 2008, he publicly supported then-senator Barack Obama to become the next US president while criticising the country's problems at the same time. The Obama campaign was quick to convey its distance from the minister.

As of 2012, Farrakhan does not support Obama who he has called the "first Jewish president' due to his support of the 2011 military intervention in Libya.