Louis Armstrong
Storyboard Text
- My name is Louis Armstrong. I was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans. My parents are Mary Albert and William Armstrong. William Armstrong abandoned the family shortly after. About two years later, he had a daughter, Beatrice Armstrong, who was raised by Albert. Louis Armstrong was raised by his grandmother until the age of five when he was returned to his mother. He spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood known as The Battlefield. At six he attended the Fisk School for Boys, a school that accepted black children in the racially segregated system of New Orleans.
- From the age of 7 I lived with the Karnoffskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews. Mrs Karnoffsky used to sing lullabies for me at night before bed in Yiddish and Russian. The Karnoffskys took me in and treated me like family. Knowing I lived without a father, they fed and nurtured me. My first musical performance may have been at the side of the Karnoffskys' junk wagon. To distinguish them from other hawkers, I tried playing a tin horn to attract customers. Morris Karnoffsky gave me an advance toward the purchase of a cornet from a pawn shop.
- When I was eleven, I dropped out of school and moved in with my mom. I joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. I also got into a lot of trouble. Borrowing my stepfather's gun without permission, I fired a blank into the air and was arrested on December 31, 1912. I spent the night at New Orleans Juvenile Court, then was sentenced the next day to detention at the Colored Waif's Home.
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