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8 Black Celebrities Who Were Raised By Single Mothers And Made It Big

Posted byBy ABS Contributor | Published on: | Updated on August 13, 2015 CommentsComments (1)

Superstar rap mogul Jay Z and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter, after their father Andes Reeves abandoned the family.

Carter worked 30 years for the New York City comptroller, moving from clerk to investment analyst. Following her separation from Reeves, after 13 years of marriage, she essentially raised their four children — two sons and two daughters — on her own. “Sometimes I took on an extra job as a security guard to make ends meet,” Carter said.

Today, Jay Z has an estimated net worth of $520 million.

KANYE-WEST-AND-MOTHER

At age 3, hip-hop star Kanye West’s parents divorced and he relocated with his mother, Donda West, from Atlanta to Chicago.

Donda West was chair of the English Department at Chicago State University and raised her son in a middle-class household.

When he was 10, Kanye and his mother moved to Nanjing, China, for a year, where she taught at Nanjing University as part of an exchange program.

Kanye has an estimated net worth $100 million.

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