Louis Armstrong was arrested for being a 'dangerous and suspicious character' when he was nine, according to newly-surfaced documents from the 'Colored Waifs Home' where he was sent.
It has long been documented that the jazz great was sent to the home in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1913 and a band instructor there is credited with teaching him the horn.
But documents, which were salvaged by the son-in-law of the home's owners and recently released to the Times Picayune, have only just revealed his earlier arrest - and have also led to the discovery of newspaper articles written about him more than a century ago.
Nine-year-old Armstrong was nabbed by the police in South Rampart on October 21, 1910 with five other boys 'for being dangerous and suspicious characters', according to a Daily Picayune report the following day.
Louis Armstrong is pictured front row center during a 1931 visit to a New Orleans boys' home formerly known as the 'Colored Waifs Home'. He was first sent to the home in 1910 when he was arrested age nine
Former home: He was at the home for two weeks for being a 'suspicious and dangerous character' and was sent back again for firing a gun into the air in 1913 - during this second stay, he learned the horn
He was sent to the Colored Waifs Home, an institution for troubled and orphaned children, and was listed as a new arrival with six other boys on October 21. In total, there were 77 boys at the home.
The records shared by the Times Picayune show he was discharged to his aunt on November 8.
Interestingly, the boy's charges appear to change in the documents and he is later noted down as facing a 'pilfer' charge with a 'pending trial'.
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ShareThere is no way of knowing why there was a change but the Times Picuyane noted that the 'dangerous and suspicious' charge was often criticized as being an unconstitutional way for police to detain people at will without any evidence of a crime.
But the 1910 incident was not the only time Armstrong went to the home.
In an event that has been widely documented - including in Armstrong's own autobiography - on New Year's Eve in 1912, he was arrested for shooting a .38-caliber revolver into the air.
Newspaper articles at the time note he was sent to the home in January 1913 and he was marked as an 'old offender'. He remained at the home for 18 months, records show.
Younger years: Armstrong is pictured in 1921, when he was 20, with his mother and sister Beatrice. After leaving the home, he started playing gigs and eventually moved to Chicago and then New York City
Thankful: He is pictured third left during his visit in 1931 with his former music teacher, Peter Davis (second left), and the owners of the home, Captain Joseph Jones (third right) and his wife Manuela (left)
But there was one major difference at the home since his previous arrest: teacher Peter Davis had arrived and had set up a band for the boys.
Bruce Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University, pointed out this important difference to the Times Picuyane.
'The first time Armstrong was in there, there was no band to get involved with,' he said. 'It's almost like he got a second chance.'
With the help of Davis, he quickly picked up the bugle then the cornet and joined band members in performing in parades and picnics around the city.
In May, four months after he was sent to the home, an article in the Daily Picayune writes about Armstrong leading the band during a parade.
'Marching proudly through the streets with drum and fife, they rendered several selections, patriotic mostly, and were loudly encored from the sidewalks,' the article said.
He was released into the custody of his father in June 1914 - but wrote in his autobiography that he was not happy to leave. After his release, he started picking up shows.
He left New Orleans for Chicago and then New York, but returned to the city in 1931, where he visited the home - later known as the Milne Boys' Home - and posed for pictures with his former music teacher and the boys.
Music great: Armstrong performs on the Kraft Music Hall TV show at NBC Studios in Brooklyn in June 1967, four years before his death. He had long credited the boys' home with helping him get his start in music
He also grinned in photos beside Captain Joseph Jones and his wife Manuela, who ran the home and had taken him under their wings when he was a boy.
'Without Joseph and Manuela (Jones) and Peter Davis, there probably would not have been a Louis Armstrong,' their son-in-law Allen Kimble Jr. told the Times Picayune.
He went on to send multiple donations to the home before his death in 1971.
The records were shared by Kimble, who married the Joneses' daughter, Sylvia Washington, and learned of the couple's connection to Armstrong.
In the 1980s, he came across their records and, thinking of Armstrong, picked out some from 1910 and 1913 and took them with him.
After moving several times across Europe and in the U.S., he returned to New Orleans in 2008 and eventually shared the records with the Times Picayune, saying other publications had not been interested in them in previous years.
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