Clarence Wallace was born in Albany, Georgia in 1938. He and his older brother lived with their grandmother. Wallace's father was in World War II. Wallace, his brother, and grandmother moved to New York to stay with Wallace's aunt.
When Wallace's father came home, they moved to New Jersey. After Wallace's grandmother died, his father ran off. So Wallace and his brother moved back to Albany. Wallace did not return to school, he got a job when he was twelve at a dairy. When he was seventeen, he and his brother returned to New York. Wallace got a job in a hospital. When he was twenty-one he became a Mason.
Wallace went to the Nation of Islam in 1960. The first thing they ask you is do you have a job? If you don't have one, they will help you get one. The Nation is not like some religions; if you can work, you have to get a job. With some Christian churches you can smoke dope, get drunk, and gamble. Under the leadership of the Hon Elijah Muhammad, he said it does not look for Muslim women to go to the beach and lay in the sun with their clothes off. In the Nation you have to live by the law, if not, out you go. No more adultery. Don't be afraid, no one is going to cut your head off. "No more secrets."
