Joe Louis is thought of by many as the greatest boxer and the first African-American hero in this country. He was a great man, taking time out of his boxing career to do service in the United States Army. Since he was at his peak during World War II and he had his first loss was to a German boxer, the entire country was looking up to Joe as the American hero. His childhood was a huge struggle but with all the racial discrimination he made it to the top of the boxing world and stayed there longer than any heavyweight ever. .
Joseph Louis Barrow was the son of an Alabama sharecropper, "Munn Barrow," on May 13th, 1914. His family struggled with poverty throughout his childhood. When Joe was only three years old his father had walked out on him and his family. Several years later his mother married another tenant farmer, Pat Brooks. She moved with him and her family to Detroit in 1924, which is where Joe got his first taste of boxing. Joe's mother couldn't give her children much in the way of money or educated advice, but she had a strong sense of right and wrong, and had a firm hand when needed. .
Joe grew up with a tough Detroit street gang. His name, Joseph Louis Barrow, was shortened to Joe Louis, and that's how he's been known ever since. These gangs got into a lot of trouble, sneaking there way into movies, slipping fruit from passing trucks, throwing mud at the police, and fighting amongst themselves. No one in the gang was to enthusiastic about school, and Joe never got past the fourth grade. Since he couldn't learn what the books and school had to teach him, he went to trade school for a while, but that didn't stick for long. H worked on an ice wagon, sold papers, and made money doing whatever he could. .
Since Joe had grown up in the harsh, old south he had the instinct and anger of a true fighter. And in his gang they held street fights and boxing matches, which were the chief sport of the gang, and Joe showed that pound for pound he was the best fighter of them all.
