Going into the first grade, David Steward was the first person of color to attend Clinton’s newly integrated elementary school.
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“Separate schools, sitting in the balcony at the movie theater, being barred from the public swimming pool, the for-whites-only Wiley’s restaurant, and so on.” Desegregation “I vividly remember segregation,” Steward ponders in his book, Doing Business by the Good Book. Regardless of the racial barriers that made up Ellison’s surroundings, he is sure to make clear that before he left home for college and the greater world which beckoned beyond their impoverished plot of land, his parents instilled within him a boundless creed, “that you couldn’t make excuses and your ability to go out and take on life’s challenges and prepare yourself for the future would allow you to achieve anything you wanted.”įor historical context, much of Ellison’s upbringing occurred just after the Civil Rights Act of 1968, meanwhile, Steward, who is about 15 years older, was raised in the thick of an American south dominated by abhorrently legal, institutionalized racism. Lowe’s CEO, Marvin Ellison, also grew up in a rural farmhouse that lacked plumbing, and he too watched his dad work the family’s farm, bartend on occasion, and do whatever it’d take to ensure his family didn’t go hungry – this man also refused government assistance due to pride. “He was an entrepreneur out of necessity.”įurthermore, it’s a fairly noteworthy observation that another African-American man who has ascended to the heights of global industry points to his own parents’ work ethic when describing the origin of his values. “My father was the first entrepreneur I ever knew,” says David. In addition to tending to the farm, his father worked a number of odd jobs – mechanic, trash collector, janitor, security patrolman, bartender – to ensure his family made ends meet. Having two parents who understood their roles and their responsibilities – and then watching them work together to provide for their family – made them the best teachers in the world.” He and my mother were caring and committed to the next generation. “He was a master mechanic and should have been able to make good money working at the nearby power company, but they weren’t hiring people of color. “He did what he had to do to support his wife and children,” David explained to the Horatio Alger Association. Their modest home lacked heating and plumbing, and although the family probably would have qualified for welfare, David’s father was too proud to accept any form of government aid. “But it was just the way we grew up, and it was all just a part of our lives.” Parents’ Work Ethic “My jobs included emptying the chamber pots, shaking down the ash in the potbelly stove and then spreading it on the driveway for traction, cleaning the barn, feeding the cows and pigs, milking the cow, and skimming the cream for the butter churn. The man bought a few acres of land on the outskirts of Clinton and operated a small farm that consisted of a couple of cows, a few chickens, and some hogs – enough to feed his family of ten. Herold was a veteran of the United States Navy and had invested years into becoming a trained mechanic, however, when it came to creating the best circumstances for his children’s upbringing, he sacrificed his own future for theirs. Right after my birth, our family returned to Missouri.”
I was the fifth of their eight children, the last one born in the city. “My grandfather did factory work in Chicago during World War II, which is when my parents met and married. “Her parents wanted her to finish her education, so they moved to Chicago,” reveals David. The only reason she originally left was in order to receive a high school diploma, which at the time, due to racist local policies, wasn’t possible for a young scholarly woman of color. His mother, Dorothy, had grown up in that small town and convinced her husband, Herold, that their children ought to be raised on a farm. Education: Bachelor of Arts/Science, Central Missouri State University Early Lifeĭavid Steward was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1951, and shortly thereafter, his family moved from the big city to rural Clinton, Missouri.
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