Little Richard shatter racial divisions in the music industry. Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia. He was the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon who sold bootlegged moonshine on the side and owned a nightclub, the Tip In Inn. His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church. Initially, Little Richard's first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo" but an error resulted in "Richard" instead. The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill.
Nick Penniman could be no more important or timely book"; New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who referred to it in one of his pieces as an "eye-opening new book about money in politics"; former Republican Senator Alan Simpson; Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders; among many others. Penniman has appeared on and been featured by media outlets, including The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times,The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC and C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Penniman has served on multiple nonprofit boards and advisory boards, including the Homeless Empowerment Project, which publishes Spare Change News, the Center for Responsive Politics and