Benjamin Carson

To grow up and become a Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital, Benjamin Carson was born on September 18, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of Minister Robert Carson and Sonya Carson, which got divorced when Ben was only eight years old. Benjamin has one brother, Curtis Carson, who is two years older than him. Benjamin and Curtis came from a poor family and their mother worked two to three jobs at a time trying to provide the best lives for the boys as she possibly could. Ben and Curtis fell behind in school, and ended up being at the bottom of their classes. At this time, Ben was being picked on by the other students and they called him names such as “Dummy”, which caused Ben to have an unruly temper and become violent. Ben’s mother finally realized what was going on and was in distraught when she found out about their falling behind in school. Considering she dropped out of school in third grade, she knows the importance of a good education. She took matters into her own hands by limiting their television time and only let them watch select programs, refusing to let them play outside until their homework was finished, and making it mandatory for them to read two books a week and give her written reports on each. Mrs. Sonya Carson was determined to ensure that her children would have more opportunities than her.

A few, short weeks later, the students in Ben’s classes were amazed by his newfound education and within a year Ben was at the top of his class. Benjamin started to feel the urge and the hunger for more knowledge and began to read on all different subjects. He finally realized he wanted to pursue a career as a physician. He started learning to control his temper, which he knew could greatly threaten his future. He graduated from Southwestern High School as an honor graduate. Immediately after high school he began to attend Yale College where he got his Psychology degree and met his future wife, Lacrena Rustin. He then...