He adopted the name Louis X before being named Louis Farrakhan. In , he officially adopted the name "Nation of Islam", reviving the group and establishing its headquarters at Mosque Maryam.
Due to health issues, he reduced his responsibilities with the NOI in Farrakhan is known for antisemitic statements and racist remarks directed at white people.
His mother was born in Saint Kitts , while his father was Jamaican. The couple separated before their second son was born, and Walcott says he never knew his biological father. After Walcott's stepfather died in , the Walcott family moved to Boston , where they settled in the largely African-American neighborhood of Roxbury. Walcott received his first violin at the age of five.
By the time he was 12 years old, he had been on tour with the Boston College Orchestra. In , he was one of the first black performers to appear on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour , [ 19 ] where he also won an award. Walcott and his family were active members of the Episcopal St.
Cyprian's Church in Roxbury. In the s, Walcott began his professional music career as a singer billed as "The Charmer". It was during a tour in Montreal , Quebec , Canada , that he took this nickname. When Farrakhan first joined the NOI, he was asked by Elijah Muhammad to put aside his musical career as a calypso singer. Farrakhan intimated that his performance of a concerto by a Jewish composer was, in part, an effort to heal a rift between him and the Jewish community. Mendelssohn's family converted to Christianity.
