Joe Louis Barrow had passed his physical exam a few days before with the comment: “Guess I haven’t got those flat feet I was afraid of.” Asked what he would do if he saw a Jap, he drawled ...

He was born Joseph Louis Barrow on May 13, 1914 ... a bed in Alabama before the family moved to Detroit in the twenties. Joe was learning cabinetmaking in a vocational school and taking violin ...