Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan (born May 11, 1933) is the highly controversial
leader of the largely African-American religious movement, the Nation of Islam.
Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
In 1955 he joined the Nation of Islam, inspired by Malcolm X, and took the name Louis X. He headed the Nation of Islam's Harlem Mosque from 1965 to 1975, and became head of the movement in 1977.
Farrakahan has been a prominent voice in favor of racial segregation, based on his belief that African Americans would do better living independently from whites. On January 12, 1995 Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, was arrested for conspiring to kill Farrakhan.
He has been banned from entering the United Kingdom since 1986 as "someone whose presence is not conducive to good public order" (David Blunkett, 2002) despite several legal attempts to overturn the exclusion order.
In 1995, he was a speaker at the Million Man March.
He is considered an excellent classical violinist and considered a career as a clasical musician in his youth. He performed as a calypso singer in the 1950s and released three albums under the name "The Charmer".
