Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story by Don Keith


Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story
Title : Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1603063137
ISBN-10 : 9781603063135
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 320
Publication : First published July 15, 2013

Shelley Stewart was five years old when he and his brothers watched in horror as their father murdered their mother with an ax. Homeless at the age of six, Stewart found what shelter he could, suffering physical and sexual abuse and racism. Despite heartbreaking setbacks and the racial strife that gripped the South in the 1950s and 1960s, Stewart graduated high school and entered the broadcasting profession. There he became a hugely popular radio personality, rubbing shoulders with the top recording artists of the day and becoming one of the nation’s first black radio station owners. He helped Dr. Martin Luther King mount the historic Children’s March through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama. Later Stewart would use his powerful communication skills to help convict one of the men who bombed the city’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Then this often-honored man turned his business skills to the creation of a foundation named after his mother; the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation works to convince high school students to stay in school and graduate, a topic Stewart speaks on in his many engagements around the country. Stewart, with author Don Keith, tells his story in his memoir Mattie C.'s Boy .

Mattie C.'s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story Reviews

  • FreeFormLady

    Mr. Stewart's story is the epitome of the phrase "Started from the bottom. Now we here!" The struggles he faced at such a young age are just unimaginable.
    I usually like memoirs written in first person, but the author did an excellent job telling this story.
    I learned a lot about Mr. Stewart as well as the city of Birmingham and the Civil rights movement.
    I highly recommend!

  • Sassa

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
    “Mattie C.’s Boy” is an inspirational, non-fiction book about the importance of encouraging people, a stable home and an education in every young person’s life. The story opens in the 1930s in Birmingham, Alabama, with the murder of a devoted mother of four small boys by their own father. The horror took place in the boys’ presence. How do the boys survive? How did their individual lives evolve? What was a factor that predicated success?
    Shelley Stewart, the second son, is the primary focus of this biography. Much is written of his contribution to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and his work in minority business leadership. Read how Stewart overcame the odds and became an asset to his city and to his country. It is not all a pretty picture and there are parts that bring me pause but it is eye-opening into an era.

  • Sharon

    An excellent story detailing the life of a successful businessman in Birmingham, AL. To say he had a rough start in life is a gross understatement of the horrors of his childhood. I spent a few years in Birmingham and I wish I had the opportunity to meet him.

  • The Indie Bob Spot

    This book needs more national attention. Outstanding true story of growing up black in the 1930s and 1940s and experiencing and surviving the extreme segregation and racism in Birmingham, AL. It is unbelievable how Shelley Stewart survived his upbringing and beyond all odds grew into adulthood well educated and became a force for change in the civil rights movement. This is an incredible story and more people need to find out about it. Truly, a rose that was able to bloom in a sidewalk. Highly recommended.

  • Vicki Boyd

    Why isn't this book topping lists?! A true story of triumph. And the setting is only a few miles from my home, and the epicenter of human rights changes.

  • Melody

    We had Shelley Stewart come to visit with our book group, but I was out of town and missed it. He had a tough life, but has persevered. His story is an interesting one.