Early Life, Education, and Career
Keith Ellison, the third of five sons, was born and raised Roman Catholic in Detroit, Michigan, by his parents, Clida (née Martinez) and Leonard Ellison, a social worker and a psychiatrist, respectively. Ellison and three of his siblings became lawyers; his other sibling became a doctor. One of Ellison's brothers is also the pastor of the Baptist "Church of the New Covenant" in Detroit. Ellison's youth was influenced by the involvement of his family in the civil rights movement, including his grandfather's work as a member of the NAACP in Louisiana.
Ellison graduated in 1981 from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, where he was active in sports and a senator in the student government. At age 19, while attending Wayne State University in Detroit, Ellison converted from Catholicism to Islam, later giving the following explanation: "I can't claim that I was the most observant Catholic at the time . I had begun to really look around and ask myself about the social circumstances of the country, issues of justice, issues of change. When I looked at my spiritual life, and I looked at what might inform social change, justice in society... I found Islam."
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1987, Ellison married his high-school sweetheart and moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota Law School. While there, he wrote several articles in support of Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Ellison graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1990.
Ellison and his former wife Kim, a high-school mathematics teacher, had four children between 1989 and 1997: a daughter, Amirah, and three sons, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Isaiah. Kim Ellison is not Muslim, but their four children have been raised in that faith. During Ellison's 2006 campaign, Kim Ellison revealed that she had been living with moderate multiple sclerosis for several years. Ellison filed for a legal separation from Kim in 2010, and their divorce was finalized on May 2, 2012.
After law school, Ellison worked for three years at the firm of Lindquist & Vennum, where he was a litigator specializing in civil rights, employment, and criminal defense law. Ellison then became executive director of the nonprofit Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis, which specializes in the defense of indigent clients. Upon leaving the Legal Rights Center, Ellison entered private practice with the law firm Hassan & Reed Ltd, specializing in trial practice. Ellison has also been regularly involved in community service. He served as the unpaid host of a public affairs talk program at KMOJ radio, and has also often volunteered as a track coach for several organizations, working with youth between the ages of 5 and 18. He said, "It’s a great community-building device because it’s for all ages and all genders. Everyone can find a way to fit in."
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