Joe LOUIS

Family tree of Joe LOUIS

Boxing

AmericanBorn Joseph Louis BARROWS

World heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949

Born on May 13, 1914 in LaFayette, Alabama, USA , United States

Died on April 12, 1981 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

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Joe Louis was born in a ramshackle dwelling about six miles northwest of La Fayette, in rural Chambers County, Alabama. Louis was the son of Munroe Barrow and Lillie (Reese) Barrow, and seventh of eight children. Both Louis's parents were the children of former slaves, alternating between sharecropping and rental farming. Munroe was predominantly African American with some white ancestry, while Lillie was half Cherokee.



Louis spent twelve years growing up in rural Alabama, where little is known of his childhood. He suffered from a speech impediment, and spoke very little until about the age of six. Munroe Barrow was committed to a mental institution in 1916, and as a result Joe knew very little of his biological father. Around 1920, Louis's mother married Pat Brooks, a local construction contractor, having received word that Munroe Barrow had died while institutionalized (in reality, Munroe Barrow lived until 1938, unaware of his son's fame).

...   Joe Louis was born in a ramshackle dwelling about six miles northwest of La Fayette, in rural Chambers County, Alabama. Louis was the son of Munroe Barrow and Lillie (Reese) Barrow, and seventh of eight children. Both Louis's parents were the children of former slaves, alternating between sharecropping and rental farming. Munroe was predominantly African American with some white ancestry, while Lillie was half Cherokee.



Louis spent twelve years growing up in rural Alabama, where little is known of his childhood. He suffered from a speech impediment, and spoke very little until about the age of six. Munroe Barrow was committed to a mental institution in 1916, and as a result Joe knew very little of his biological father. Around 1920, Louis's mother married Pat Brooks, a local construction contractor, having received word that Munroe Barrow had died while institutionalized (in reality, Munroe Barrow lived until 1938, unaware of his son's fame).



In 1926, shaken by an altercation with the Ku Klux Klan, Louis's family moved to Detroit, Michigan, forming part of the post-World War I Great Migration. Joe's brother worked for Ford Motor Company (where Joe would himself work for a time at the River Rouge Plant) and the family settled into a home at 2700 Catherine (now Madison) Street in Detroit's Black Bottom neighborhood.



Louis attended Bronson Vocational School for a time to learn cabinet-making, and his mother attempted to get Joe interested in playing the violin.



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Geographical origins

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