Ben Carson Bio
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon, author, academic, and government official who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of pediatric neurosurgery, Carson became the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the country when he took the position at Johns Hopkins in 1984, at the age of 33. He gained international recognition in 1987 for leading the surgical team that separated conjoined twins joined at the back of the head.
After retiring from medicine in 2013, Carson turned to writing and public speaking, eventually entering politics. He ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and later served in the administration of President Donald Trump as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He is one of the most prominent Black conservatives in the United States.
Ben Carson Early Life and Background
Early Life and Background
Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951. His parents were Robert Solomon Carson Jr., a World War II U.S. Army veteran and Baptist minister, and Sonya Carson (née Copeland). Both of his parents came from large families in rural Georgia and met in Tennessee, where his mother was only 13 years old at the time of their marriage. After his father completed his military service, the family moved to Detroit, where they settled in the Indian Village neighborhood before later purchasing a small home on Deacon Street in the Boynton area of southwest Detroit.
Carson’s parents separated when he was eight years old, and he and his older brother Curtis were raised primarily by their mother. Sonya Carson worked multiple jobs to support the family, and the household relied on government assistance during difficult years. She encouraged her sons to read and limited their television time, an approach that Carson has credited with shaping his academic success. Carson has described a difficult childhood that included a violent temper, which he said he overcame after reading the Book of Proverbs.
Carson attended Southwestern High School in Detroit, where he graduated third in his class. He participated in forensics, chess club, the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and played the euphonium in the school band. He also worked as a laboratory assistant in his high school’s science classrooms and at Wayne State University during the summer before his senior year.
Ben Carson Path to US Politics
Path to US Politics
Long before entering politics, Carson built a national reputation through his medical work and his autobiographical books, including Gifted Hands. His personal story of overcoming poverty and a difficult childhood in Detroit made him a popular motivational speaker, particularly among religious and conservative audiences. His mother, a Seventh-day Adventist, played a central role in shaping his faith and discipline, both of which became important elements of his later public identity.
Carson’s national political profile rose sharply after he delivered a speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., in which he offered pointed policy critiques that were widely interpreted as critical of President Barack Obama. The speech was widely shared and is widely regarded as a turning point in his transition from medical celebrity to political figure. Media appearances and conservative interest soon followed, and Carson announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in May 2015.
Ben Carson Career
Early Career (1973-1983)
After graduating from Yale University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, Carson entered the University of Michigan Medical School, where he initially struggled before improving his grades and earning his medical degree in 1977. He was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society during this period. Carson then began his neurosurgical training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, completing a surgical internship and five years of residency, and serving as chief resident in his final year.
Following his residency, Carson spent a year as a Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. He returned to Johns Hopkins in 1984, where he was appointed the university’s director of pediatric neurosurgery at the age of 33, becoming the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States.
Breakthrough (1984-2013)
At Johns Hopkins, Carson specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, epilepsy, and congenital disorders. He played a central role in reviving the hemispherectomy procedure, a drastic surgery in which part or all of one hemisphere of the brain is removed to control severe pediatric epilepsy, refining the technique in the 1980s and performing it many times. He also performed the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb and developed new methods to treat brain-stem tumors.
His international fame grew in 1987 when he led a 70-member surgical team that separated Patrick and Benjamin Binder, conjoined twins from Germany who had been joined at the back of the head. The 22-hour surgery, rehearsed for weeks on dolls joined by Velcro, drew worldwide media coverage and helped launch Carson into a wider public spotlight. He later participated in several other high-risk twin separations, including a 1997 operation on Zambian twins Joseph and Luka Banda.
Throughout his career at Johns Hopkins, Carson authored more than 100 neurosurgical publications. In 2001, CNN and Time magazine named him one of the nation’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists, and the Library of Congress named him one of 89 “Living Legends.” In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Carson retired from surgery on July 1, 2013, saying he preferred to leave “at the top of my game.”
Republican Era (2014-Present)
After his retirement, Carson focused on writing, philanthropy, and conservative political advocacy. He officially declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on May 4, 2015, in his hometown of Detroit. Carson performed strongly in early polls and was considered a frontrunner for the nomination during the fall of 2015, but his support declined during the primary contests, and he withdrew from the race after Super Tuesday. He subsequently endorsed Donald Trump.
Following Trump’s election, Carson was nominated to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 2, 2017, by a vote of 58-41. He served as the 17th HUD Secretary from 2017 to 2021. In May 2025, President Donald Trump appointed Carson to serve as Vice Chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, a body created to advise on religious liberty policy and recommend protections for religious expression.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among the signature achievements of Carson’s career was the 1987 separation of the Binder twins, the first-known operation of its kind on twins joined at the back of the head. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008, named to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010, and elected as an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation. In 2009, the biographical television film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story was released, with Cuba Gooding Jr. portraying Carson.
Ben Carson Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Carson married Lacena “Candy” Rustin, a fellow Detroit native, in 1975. The couple met as students at Yale in 1971. They have three sons and several grandchildren, with their oldest son having been born in Perth, Australia, while Carson was working at the city’s hospital during his registrar year.
After leaving public office, Carson and his family have resided in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He is a longtime member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has served as a local elder, and co-founded the Carson Scholars Fund in 1994 with his wife, an organization that has awarded thousands of scholarships to students in grades 4 through 11 for academic excellence and humanitarian qualities.