Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, is one of the most influential figures in American and global music. Born the seventh of eight children in Detroit in 1929 to a family that fled the segregated South, he was a boxer, a Korean War soldier, and a factory worker before launching Tamla Records in 1959 with an $800 family loan. Motown went on to launch Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and The Jackson 5, giving Black artists a powerful voice during the Civil Rights Movement. Despite accusations that he exerted excessive control over his artists, Gordy’s legacy endures, from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to the National Medal of Arts.