Editing Joe Louis (section)

==Amateur career==
The [[Great Depression]] severely affected the Barrow family, but Joe still made time to work out at a local youth recreation center at 637 Brewster Street in Detroit. His mother attempted to get him interested in playing the violin.<ref>[[#Bak|Bak]], p. 22.</ref> He is rumoured to have tried to hide his pugilistic ambitions from his mother by carrying his boxing gloves inside his violin case.<ref name="Great Black Heroes" />

Louis made his debut in early 1932 at the age of 17. Legend has it that before the fight, the barely literate Louis wrote his name so large that there was no room for his last name, and thus became known as "Joe Louis" for the remainder of his boxing career (more likely, Louis simply omitted his last name to keep his boxing a secret from his mother).  After this debut—a loss to future Olympian [[Johnny Miler]]—Louis compiled numerous amateur victories, eventually winning the club championship of his Brewster Street recreation center, the home of many aspiring [[Golden Gloves]] fighters.<ref name="Great Black Heroes" />

In 1933, Louis won the Detroit-area Golden Gloves Novice Division championship against Joe Biskey for the light heavyweight classification.<ref name="Great Black Heroes" /> He later lost in the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions. The next year, competing in the Golden Gloves' Open Division, he won the light heavyweight classification, this time also winning the Chicago Tournament of Champions against Joe Bauer.<ref name="Great Black Heroes" /><ref name="BoxRec">{{Cite web |date=August 3, 2020 |title=Joe Louis |url=https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Joe_Louis |website=BoxRec}}</ref> However, a hand injury forced Louis to miss the New York/Chicago Champions' cross-town bout for the ultimate Golden Gloves championship. In April 1934, he followed up his [[Chicago]] performance by winning the light heavyweight [[United States national amateur boxing championships|United States Amateur Champion National AAU tournament]] in [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]].<ref name="Great Black Heroes" /><ref name="BoxRec" />

By the end of his amateur career, Louis's record was 50–4, with 43 knockouts.<ref name="History Channel">{{Cite web |date=January 16, 2020 |title=Joe Louis |url=https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/joe-louis# |website=History Channel |publisher=A&E Television Networks}}</ref><ref name="Great Black Heroes" />{{refn|group=nb|BoxRec lists Louis's amateur record as 53 wins in 56 bouts; various sources disagree as to his amateur record.}}