Science & invention / Politics
Ben Carson
born 1951 · pediatric neurosurgeon, author, politician
Detroit-born pediatric neurosurgeon who led the first separation of twins joined at the back of the head, later a presidential candidate and U.S. housing secretary.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 75- Birth name
- Benjamin Solomon Carson
- Also known as
- Benjamin Carson
- Detroit years
- 1951–1969
- Field
- Science & invention, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Carson was born in 1951 in southwest Detroit and was raised largely by his mother, who had little schooling herself but required her sons to read library books and write reports on them. After a few years in Boston the family came back to southwest Detroit, where he attended Higgins Elementary, Wilson Junior High and Southwestern High School, graduating third in his class and rising to cadet colonel in the JROTC. He went on to Yale and to the University of Michigan Medical School, and in 1984 he became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. His 1987 separation of conjoined twins and his memoir Gifted Hands made him a national figure. He launched his 2016 presidential campaign at Detroit's Music Hall and served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A Detroit public high school bore his name from 2011 to 2022.
Highlights
- Director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins from 1984, at age 33
- Led the 1987 separation of twins joined at the back of the head
- Memoir Gifted Hands (1990), later made into a TV film
- U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 2017–2021
- Graduated from Southwestern High School in southwest Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1960s–1969
Southwestern High School
Demolished · 1916–2012
His high school, where he graduated third in his class. Detroit Public Schools closed it in June 2012, and the building was torn down around 2022–2023 after Bedrock bought the site.
Memorial · 2011–2022
Crockett Midtown High School (Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine, 2011–2022)
A science and medicine high school opened in his name in 2011, across Mack Avenue from Children's Hospital of Michigan; the school board removed his name in November 2022.
Related place · 2015
orsa Music Hall (Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts)
He formally announced his 2016 run for the Republican presidential nomination here on May 4, 2015.