Jump To Louis Farrakhan's Stats
Louis Farrakhan is one of those guys who would never ever get a nickname. There's no calling the recognized leader of the African-American Nation of Islam in the U.S. by something other than his proper name. He won't respond to Lou, Lewey or Lou baby. Now, he has been called a few other names during his 35-year plus position guiding his flock. Names like 'racist', the Black Hitler or Malcolm X's killer have all been hurled his way.
With his calm, smiling demeanor though, you would never know whether those digs got under his skin. His responses seem to always fit snuggly into his ideology that his disdain for the white race or the Jewish race has always been steeped in logic, reason and evidence.
Farrakhan didn't start out as a controversial figure. Growing up in a Caribbean neighborhood in the Boston area, Louis Eugene Wolcott has schooling down pat. He excelled in his studies all the while mastering the violin. His talent on the string instrument raised him to a level of virtuoso and he even began recording and playing commercially before his recruitment and conversion to Islam. He gave that all up when he converted.
Even when he entered the Muslim realm, his study habits and keen observations propelled him up the ranks. As he was becoming more recognized and influential between New York, Chicago and New Jersey mosques, Malcolm X was assassinated in the main Harlem, New York mosque. The family of Malcolm X has long held the belief that Farrakhan played a critical role if not the ringleader in the death of their father and husband. Farrakhan was named to take over Malcolm's exalted duel leadership roles – the face of NOI and the Iman for the New York mosque.
As Farrakhan has become less of a media seeker and more attentive to his health, he rarely stirs up the media hornets nest like he did before. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf area in 2005, Farrakhan blamed the powers that be of trying to rid the area of black people by intentional weakening the levies. When the pandemic of H1N1 bird flu began its scourge, Farrakhan announced that it was a coordinated effort to lessen the world's population be administering a vaccine that may be other than its advertised purpose.
