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Born in South Carolina on November 24, 1908. He was the second of four children from the union of Sarah Edwards and Robert B. Stroman. This was his father's second marriage. He had at least six older half- brothers and sisters. The family lived on a plantation in South Carolina owned by their father. On the farm they had everything: pigs, chickens, guineas, cows and a mill for cutting lumber. If they needed a tool they could make their own. His father was a farmer and the older boys ( his half-brothers) worked the plantation.
Booker also said that his father was a preacher who had several congregations that he would preach at. Booker was educated in school for a while but did not finish. He went to junior high school part-time and he did not go to high school at all because he had to work on the plantation.
Booker has said that his father not teach any of them about the business of running the plantation. Robert B. had also borrowed some money to purchase more land but when he had his first stroke he could no longer work the plantation. Many of his sons were grown and had moved away, so when he had the second stroke and then died, the family lost the plantation to taxes.
Booker moved to Philadelphia about 1928. He was about 17 years old when he came to live with his brother Preston, who had sent him money. His half-brother Randolph was also living in Philadelphia at this time. After Robert B. died Booker sent for his younger brothers (Marion and William Bailey) and his mother Sarah. He had been living in Philadelphia for about three years by this time. The family lived in a house they were renting on 24th street together. After their mother died (1934/35?) everyone went their seperate ways. Booker moved to an apartment at 17th & Columbia streets. He was working at a cigar factory called Bayoc located at 9th & Columbia (which as since relocated to North Carolina).Booker said that one of the reasons he left the South was because "things were just too bad" down there. He relates that his brother Abraham got beaten up once for nothing. Once while out walking, one of his half-brothers showed him a rope hanging from a tree and told him that a black man had been hung from it the week before. He also tells how his father's uncle, Tommy Jamison, once sent his son out on a "moon-shining night" to deliver a letter or a message and was never heard of again. Booker said how the law wouldn't help you neither and sometimes they would hurt you too. He also told how his older half-brother "Samuel awas once paid $2.00 to beat up another black man or else get beat up himself, maybe even killed". He told of how his father did teach him to own his own.
