Louis Eugene Walcott was born 11 May 1933, in Roxbury, Mass., to Mae Clark, a native of St. Christopher (“St. Kitts”) in the Caribbean. His father was Jamaican and his stepfather from Barbados. His mother, who participated in Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement, instilled both racial pride and love of music in her son, who began violin lessons at the age of 5. By age 13, he had played with the Boston College Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony; at 14 he won a violin competition on a popular television show, the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.
He attended Winston-Salem Teachers College in North Carolina for two years before returning to Boston to marry his high school sweetheart, Betsy (now Khadidja) in 1953 in ceremonies at St. Cyprian Episcopal Church of which he was a member. They have 9 children.
Louis Walcott’s musical talent included voice. Known as Calypso Gene or “The Charmer”, he sang in Boston night clubs where, in the early 1950s, he met Malcolm X, then a key member of the Nation of Islam. His second encounter with NOI came during a 1955 engagement called "Calypso Follies" at the Blue Angel in Chicago, when a friend suggested he attend the group’s annual Savior’s Day convention. Louis Walcott heard Elijah Muhammad speak and “the truth dawned on him”. Soon thereafter, he joined NOI Temple #7 in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, and took the name Louis X.
At the insistence of NOI, Louis X gave up his career as an entertainer to devote fulltime to his new calling as a lieutenant in the Fruit of Islam (NOI’s paramilitary wing), where he developed his skill at public speaking. As a protégé of Malcolm X, he also became assistant minister (later, minister) and captain of the Fruit of Islam at NOI’s Temple #11 in Boston.
Although he could no longer perform, Louis Walcott’s musical talents were put to use in other ways. He wrote and directed two stage productions centered on NOI beliefs, and composed several popular NOI songs, including “White Man’s Heaven is Black Man’s Hell.”
In 1964, Louis X was named to replace Malcolm X as the minister of Temple #7, and successfully weathered the crisis following Malcolm X’s assassination by three gunmen at the start of a speech on 21 February 1965 in the Aragon Ballroom in Harlem. Three years later, he became national representative of Elijah Muhammad, and around this time also changed his name to Louis Farrakhan.
When Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, his son Wallace D. Muhammad (now W. Deen Mohammed) was named successor as head of NOI. At first, Louis Farrakhan accepted the decision. But, the son initiated a reformation process designed to bring NOI closer to mainstream Sunni Islam, and dissention between the two men over inheriting the mantle of Elijah Muhammad increased.
Following visits to Africa and the Caribbean, Farrakhan moved to assert his claim. In November 1977 he signaled his intention to reestablish the NOI, calling it a “return to the teachings and program with a proven ability to uplift and reform blacks.” Farrakhan announced the reconstituted NOI during Savior’s Day celebrations in February 1981. His organization remains the largest survivor of the 17 or more splinter groups formed by NOI members after Elijah Muhammad’s death.
During the 1980s, Farrakhan was said to be successful in drawing adherents to the reborn NOI at least in part due to the economic dislocations in the black community caused by policies of the Reagan presidency. His personal charm and media celebrity also brought worldwide attention to the NOI.
In 1988, NOI repurchased its former flagship temple in Chicago for $2.3 million, and dedicated it as Mosque Maryam, the National Center for Re-training and Re-education of the Black Man and Woman of America and the World. The National Center includes a preschool and K-12 University of Islam.
In 1992, Farrakhan drew 60,000 people to the Atlanta Dome for the NOI Savior's Day celebration, and in 1995, NOI sponsored the successful Million Man March in Washington, D.C. The same year, NOI also purchased farmland in Dawson, Ga., and opened a restaurant in Chicago.
Farrakhan re-registered to vote in June 1996 and formed a coalition of religious, civic and political organizations to “represent the voice of the disenfranchised on the political landscape”
By the 21st century, NOI claimed mosques and study groups in more than 80 cities in North America, United Kingdom and Ghana. Membership numbers, however, are not released by NOI. Estimates range from less than 5,000 to around 20,000; however, Farrakhan’s media savvy gives NOI a larger place on the American scene than those numbers would indicate.
In 2002, despite occasional well-publicized bouts with illness and rumors of financial problems, Farrakhan continues to lead NOI as a black nationalist religious movement of African-Americans, maintaining its tightly-knit network of mosques, schools and newspaper, “The Final Call”, which is the official communications organ of the Nation of Islam.