Ben Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18,
1951. His mother, though undereducated herself, pushed her sons to read
and to believe in themselves. Carson went from being a poor student to
receiving honors and he eventually attended medical school. As a doctor,
he became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33, and became famous for his ground-breaking work separating conjoined twins.
Early Life
Benjamin Solomon Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on
September 18, 1951. The second son of Sonya and Robert Solomon Carson,
Ben grew up in the hardened climate of inner-city Detroit. Ben's mother
was raised in Tennessee in a very large family. She dropped out of
school in the third grade.
With not much hope or prospects in life, she married Baptist minister
Robert Carson when she was 13, believing that he would change her
life. The couple moved to Detroit, Michigan, and for a time, the
marriage was a success. Carson showered his wife with gifts and
attention. But over time, Robert Carson changed. Though benevolent, he
could also be domineering and erratic. In time, Sonya felt it was best
for her sons if she and Robert divorced.
Ben was 8 and Curtis, Ben's brother, was 10 when Sonya was left to raise the children on her own. The family was very poor, and to make ends meet Sonya sometimes took on two or three jobs at a time in order to provide for her boys. Most of the jobs she had were as a domestic servant. There were occasions when her boys wouldn't see her for days at a time, because she would go to work at 5:00 a.m. and come home around 11:00 p.m., going from one job to the next.
Carson's mother was frugal with the family's finances, cleaning and
patching clothes from the Goodwill in order to dress the boys. The
family would also go to local farmers and offer to pick corn or other
vegetables in exchange for a portion of the yield. She would then can
the produce for the kids' meals. Her actions, and the way she managed
the family, proved to be a tremendous influence on Ben and Curtis.
Sonya also taught her boys that anything was possible. By his
recollection many years later, Ben Carson had thoughts of a career in
medicine, though it was more of a fantasy many young children harbor as
they grow up. Because his family was on medical assistance, they would
have to wait for hours to be seen by one of the interns at the
hospital. Ben would listen to the pulse of the hospital as doctors and
nurses went about their routines.
Occasionally, there'd be an emergency and he could hear in people's
voices and in their quick movements the pace and emotions rise to meet
the challenge. He'd hear the PA system call for a "Dr. Jones" and
fantasized that one day they'd be calling for a "Dr. Carson."
Both Ben and his brother experienced difficulty in school. Ben fell to the bottom of his class, and became the object of ridicule by his classmates. He developed a violent and uncontrollable temper, and was known to attack other children at the slightest provocation.
The poverty he lived in and the difficult times he experienced in school seem to exacerbate the anger and rage.
Determined to turn her sons around, Sonya limited their TV time to
just a few select programs and refused to let them go outside to play
until they'd finished their homework. She was criticized for this by her
friends,
who said her boys would grow up to hate her. But she was
determined that her sons would have greater opportunities than she did.
She required them to read two library books a week and give her
written reports, even though with her poor education she could barely
read them. She would take the papers and review them, scanning over the
words and turning pages. Then she would place a checkmark at the top of
the page showing her approval.
At first, Ben resented the strict regimen. While his friends were
playing outside, he was stuck in the house, forced to read a book or do
his homework. But after several weeks of his mother's unrelenting
position, he began to find enjoyment in reading. Being poor, there
wasn't much opportunity to go anywhere. But between the covers of a book
he could go anyplace, be anybody and do anything.
Ben began to learn how to use his imagination and found it more
enjoyable than watching television. This attraction to reading soon led
to a strong desire to learn more. Carson read books on all types of
subjects and found connections between them. He saw himself as the
central character of what he was reading, even if it was a technical
book or an encyclopedia. He read about people in laboratories, pouring
chemicals into a beaker or flask, or discovering galaxies, or peering
into a microscope.
He began to see himself differently, different than the other kids in
his neighborhood who only wanted to get out of school, get some nice
clothes, and a nice car. He saw that he could become the scientist or
physician he had dreamed about. Staying focused on this vision of his
future helped him get through some of the more difficult times.
Within a year, Ben Carson was amazing his teachers and classmates
with his improvement. The childrens' books he read while he was confined
to quarters now had relevancy in school. He was able to recall facts
and examples from the books and relate them to what he was learning in
school. In 5th grade, Ben astonished everyone by indentifying rock
samples his teacher had brought to school.
As he recalled several years later, he began to realize that he
wasn't stupid. Within a year he was at the top of his class, and the
hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him. It wasn't easy in the
predominantly all-white school, though. After Ben received a certificate
of achievement at the semester break, one of the school's teachers
berated the white students for letting a black student get ahead of them
academically.
Ben also had several teachers along the way who expressed a strong
interest in his success. After he demonstrated his proficient knowledge
of rocks in his 5th grade class, his teacher asked Ben to come by the
school's lab after classes ended for the day.
There Ben found squirrels to feed and a tarantula to observe. He
discovered the wonders of using a microscope to study water specimens,
and learned about paramecium and amoebas.
Later, at Southwestern High School in inner-city Detroit, his science
teachers recognized his intellectual abilities and mentored him. Other
teachers helped him to stay focused when outside influences pulled him
off course.
After Ben graduated with honors from high school,
he knew he wanted to pursue a medical career. But because his
mother was not financially well off, Carson had to work through most of
his time in college. The automobile industry was facing a downturn in
Detroit during the 1970s, making it tough to get a summer job.
But Carson was determined to achieve his goals. He knocked on doors
looking for summer work and usually, through persistence, was able to
obtain one. From this work, and a scholarship, he attended Yale
University and earned a B.A. degree in psychology.
Despite his academic successes, Ben Carson still had a raging
temper that translated into violent behavior as a child. One time he
tried to hit is mother with a hammer because she disagreed with his
choice of clothes. Another time, he inflicted a major head injury on a
classmate in a dispute over a locker. In a final incident, Ben nearly
stabbed to death a friend after arguing over a choice of radio
stations.
The only thing that prevented a tragic occurrence was the knife
blade broke on the friend's belt buckle. Not knowing the extent of his
friend's injury, Ben ran home and locked himself in the bathroom with a
Bible. Terrified by his own actions, he started praying, asking God to
help him find a way to deal with his temper. He found salvation in the
book of Proverbs in a passage that went, "Better a patient man than a
warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city."
Ben began to realize that much of his anger stemmed from putting
himself in the center of everything. Anytime anything happened that was
not to his liking, he internalized it and made it his problem. Once he
took himself out of the equation, he could see that not everything was
directed at him and that he wasn't the only one with troubles.
He began to see things from other points of view. He soon realized
he could control his anger, rather than it controlling him. He realized
his future depended on the choices he made and the degree of energy he
put into his life. Seeing that living in the inner city was only
temporary, Carson believed he had the full power to change his
situation.
After graduating from Yale in 1973, Carson enrolled in the
School of Medicine at the University of Michigan, choosing to become a
neurosurgeon rather than a psychologist. In 1975, he married Lacrena
"Candy" Rustin whom he met at Yale. Carson earned his medical degree,
and the young couple moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he became a
resident at Johns Hopkins
University in 1977. His excellent eye-hand coordination and
three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a superior surgeon early on.
