Is it true that the picture depicts Louis Armstrong in childhood?

In social networks, a portrait of a black boy is popular - the future great jazzman is captured in the photograph. We checked the correctness of such publications.

Internet users often accompany the picture of supposedly little Louis Armstrong posts about how he was adopted by the Jewish family of Carnofsky, whose head of which the musician subsequently devoted the composition of Go Down Moses (this story was “verified” Disassembled previously). Similarly, the photograph was used, in particular, some large publics on VKontakte, among which "5 interesting facts" (4.4 million subscribers at the time of writing this analysis), History Facts (990 000), "Success diary" (972 000), Grand History (816 000), "What inspires ..." (609,000), "New Earth" (460 000), HS (262 000) and "Modern theater" (254,000). Also about the fact that the photographer captured the young Louis Armstrong, users write Facebook* And Twitteras well as authors of biographical notes about the musician on Some sites.

Using a reverse search for the image original It is not difficult to find a picture on the website of the US Congress library. The signature for the photograph reads: “African American boy holds a fruit received from the Red Cross as part of work to provide assistance during droughts In Mississippi. " The photograph was provided by the photographer Lewis Wix Hine, it was made in 1930 or 1931. The card from the online library catalog does not say that Louis Armstrong is depicted in the picture.

However, in 1930-1931 the musician looked different, because he was born 30 years earlier. IN Photo gallery On the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation website, a pipe picture, taken just in 1931 in Chicago:

As for the story itself, told in the audited publications, the Jewish family of Carnofsky really took seven-year-old Louis Armstrong-the boy helped their small enterprise and transported coal, and Karnofsky Sr. even lent him money to buy his first tool. Although in the memoirs Armstrong spoke very warmly about the Jews who helped him, this family I did not adopt, and at the age of 11, the boy was in the shelter.

Authoritative sources do not confirm the truth of other statements in the text, often published along with a photograph of supposedly Armstrong in childhood. For example, there is no evidence that the musician spoke freely on Yiddish (although several photographs in which he wears a pendant in the form of a star of David has been preserved). Ricky Ricardi, Director of Collections Research in New York House-museum Louis Armstrong, last year wrote A large analysis of viral publications that have become viral, complaining that he had already done this when identical texts became popular in social networks in 2016 and 2018.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Library of Congress

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. AFP Fact Check. Dieses Foto Zeigt Nicht Den Musker Louis Armstrong
2. Check Your Fact. No, this is not a picture of louis armstrong as a child
3. Is it true that Louis Armstrong dedicated the song Go Down Moses to his foster father - a Jew?