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10 Black Child
Geniuses You Should
Know
By Amir Shaw
August 2013
If you only watched the evening news
or depended on pop culture to paint
a picture of young Blacks, you would
probably think that the majority of
Black youngsters were only ambitious
about sports and music - or caught up
in crime and debauchery.
By the age of 7, Loiseau spoke French,
Creole, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and
Russian. She also plays the harp, clarinet,
violin, drums, guitar and piano.
Raised by a single father, Autum was
ridiculed by highly regarded conserva
tives at the age of 7 for writing a poem
that highlighted the travesty of slavery.
Autum never wavered and mastered
languages such as Arabic, Swahili and
Spanish. She scored 149 on the stan
dard IQ test. At age 13, she was accept
ed into the University of Connecticut.
However, the face of Black success isn't
limited to the fields that are occupied by
Jay-Z, Beyonceand LeBron James. There
are a multitude of young Blacks who
are achieving at a high level in science,
math, classical music, chess and other
knowledge-based areas and preparing
to change society.
Stephen entered Morehouse College
at the age of 11 and picked up three
majors. Now 16, he is currently studying
computer science and mathematics. He
will likely graduate at 17.
The Imafidon family is known as the
smartest family in the U.K.The youngest
siblings, Peter and Paula, made history
by becoming the youngest students to
enroll in secondary school. Their older
sister, Anne-Marie, was the youngest
student to pass A-level computing at
the age of 13.
At 17, Rochelle Ballantyne is one of the
top chess players in the world. She is
currently on the verge of becoming the
first Black American female to earn the
title of chess master.
Andrew is a master violinist based
out of Atlanta. He was named con-
certmaster of the Georgia Music
Association's All-State Middle School
Orchestra. The title goes to the most
skilled musician in the section.
Ginger Howard is the youngest
Black American woman to become
a pro golfer. Howard is competing
to become the fifth Black Ameri
can woman to join the LPGA Tour.
Amir Shaw is a fiimmaker and music and sports
director for Roliing Out magazine. Follow him on
Twitter @arshaw. This story first appeared in Roli
ing Out.
The AC Phoenix
Tony used failure as inspiration. After
he didn't place in the eighth grade
science fair, Tony interned at Shands
Hospital and developed a method of
reducing the amount of time it takes
to perform hysterectomies and poten
tially reducing the risk of complications
after the procedure. He was honored
for his contributions.
Chelsea has been an accomplished pia
nist since the age of 5. Now 13, Chel
sea has performed at Madison Square
Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of
Art and Steinway Hall. She's also an
artist and straight A student.
Daquan created a walkie-talkie, bul
letproof helmet at the age of 12. He's
currently working with Johns Hopkins
University to gather funding to patent
the idea.
FACT: Young men were molested
by older and stronger inmates. The
younger men then became suicidal
because what happened to them.
Prison officials took away their belts
to prevent them from hanging
themselves. That ended up being
a symbol that the young man was
actually someone's girlfriend!
Sagging is not cool! It is a disgrace! It
is unacceptable to girls, women and
ladies! And it should be unaccept
able to you too!