August Wilson name was originally named after his grandfather, Frederick August Kittel, Jr., but changed it in 1965 when his father died. He was born on April 27, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was the fourth eldest child out of seven. He was brought up in a poor neighborhood that would later become the setting for many of his plays but had to move away when in mother remarried. He then lived in a white neighborhood where he and his mother faced lots of racism and discrimination. While he was there, he attended a white catholic school but was later expelled from the school. He transferred to another school, however when he turned 16, he dropped out of school. He started to perform odd jobs for a living and taught himself how to read