The Road South: A Memoir

by Shelley Stewart and Nathan Hale Turner Jr.

Book Overview

As a five-year-old in Home-wood, Alabama, Shelley Stewart watched his father kill his mother with an axe. Two years later, Stewart escaped the care of abusive relatives, making a living as a stable hand. A stint in the army led to electroshock treatments for trying to integrate whites-only dances. But despite numerous setbacks, he never gave up his will to succeed. Eventually, odd jobs at radio stations laid the foundation for a 50-year career in...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446530271
• ISBN13: 9780446530279
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Review of the book The Road South

A few weeks ago, I not only read Mr. Stewart's book, The Road South, I also had the pleasure of interviewing him for WQSW-LP 100.5 FM during my radio talk-show; Let's Talk. I found his book to be brutally honest at times. However, it is both well written and informative. In fact, there were occasions when as the reader, I felt as though I was an observer to the incidents of abuse and neglect he suffered as a child. In the book he candidly discussed having been a witness to the killing his mother at the hands of his father. He also remembered the abuse by relatives who were suppose to protect him. I cried and cheered for him when he rescued his younger brothers from another state where they had literally being sold into slavery by their father. I recommend The Road South; to anyone who believes that his/her unfortunate childhood will keep them from ever becoming successful adults. I believe that Mr. Stewart is a perfect prototype of a person who had the will to achieve. He did not allow his past to define his present nor the person he was destined to become in the future. I congratulate him as a phenomenal businessman, CEO of 02 Ideas a media advertising organization, and wish him continued triumph and success with the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation.

An Inspiration!

This book was truly an inspiration to me! I read it in only two days because I just could not put it down! I'm saddened to read another review that gave a negative image of Mr. Stewart. Having met him and worked with him, I have only seen positivity and generosity in him. Anyone who thinks that they can use their past as an excuse not to go forward should read this book. You cannot dwell on the past, and Mr. Stewart is a great testimony! This book is a must read for all ages!

An Inspiration to me !

Wow, I started reading on a December 12th and finished on January 2nd. Not because the book was not intresting, but for the simple fact I started telling my husband about the book and he began to read it and finished it in two days then he handed it to my mother law who in between prepring the Christmas feast could not put it down. I was lucky to finally get my hands on it on News Years day to finish the last three chapters . This book tuged at my heart strings in so many ways. A picture of Shelly should be in the dictionary next to the word Preserveriance and Determination. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Stewart and he is every bit of exciting,intelligent,hardworking, and personable as he appears in his book. Thank you Shelly for sharing your journey with the world, thank your for chronlizing a piece of history for all of the free world to appreciate.

Unforgettable

I don't know how to start this, but I just got to write something about this book. If this book don't affect you to the point of sadness or tears, I don't know what to say for you. This book was nothing short of a miracle. I have encountered people with similar backgrounds and they just get by, and expect you to feel sorry for them. With Mr.Stewart, you just want to applaud him. The fact that their father would kill his wife in front of his children with an axe and let her fall out the window onto a tree with not so much as remorse,well, I had no sympathy,no nothing for him, and like his sons, I felt nothing for him or that second wife or those aunts for that matter. What kind of woman feeds fried rat to children? Where is your humanity, where is your heart? what kind of man tells his son(a child) such heartless things, and allow such treatment that your own children leave you before puberty? what kind of woman mentally and physically break down a child just so the white man doesn't? Yet, it was a white man that took him in his own family when you didn't want to be bothered? This is just too much, and then here comes the military giving shock treatments just because you speak up for yourself and feel that despite your early life you should just go on? What kind of stuff is that? This is what happens in Shelley Stewart's life. He went through so much abuse, so much living from one pillar to post,so much betrayal(like the high school principal who wouldn't give him a chance at a scholarship despite the fact that he had the grades and know how to do so) yet despite all of that, he STILL makes something out of himself and is one of Birmingham's living legends..Folks, we hear of how we can't do this because of our background, childhood, someone said this or whatever, I say if this man can go through the stuff he went through and still live to tell the story, and is a man(and we know that men just keep their feelings to themselves and all),well, he deserves my salute, and I say GET THIS BOOK. You may want to scream, you may want to cry(Lord knows I did), but if the best thing you can do with this book is give it to some person who needs a lift in the right direction and say,"Read this",perhaps, we have made the life of one person better in order for him to make a contribution to this world.I reccommend this book highly, but, if you are faint at heart and always need a kleenex(which you may need), you have been warned.This ain't no pretty story.It's gritty,and if I could get this man down to my neck of the woods in lower Alabama, I would. Matter of fact, the book deserves 10 plus stars.

The Road South

This is an excellent book. I stayed up two straight nights just to finish it. I couldn't put it down. It will surely become as big as The Color Purple. It is inspiring in that it proves that nothing is out of reach to even society's must unlikely acheivers if only we extend our hands to grab!