The Civil Rights and Media Icon,  Shelley Stewart was born on September 24, 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama. He graduated from Rosedale High School.

After his military service, Stewart returned to Birmingham and was hired by WEDR-AM as a radio personality known as, “Shelley The Playboy.”  Stewart worked at WOKJ-AM in Jackson, Mississippi and  WENN-AM in Birmingham, Alabama, serving as the on-air voice of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1967, he co-founded Steiner Advertising, now known as O2. He later worked at WATV-FM and went on to acquire the radio station. In 2007, Shelley founded The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation in an effort to reduce the dropout rate and increase the national high school graduation rate.

Stewart authored two books, The Road South: A Memoir and Mattie C.’s Boy: The Shelley Stewart Story.