David Steward is the richest black man in America

David Steward ranks highest amongst Black people on the 2024 Forbes 400 list.

Steward ranks 84th with a net value of $11.4 billion secured took over as founder and president of the IT service provider World Wide Technology. He co-founded the company in 1990 and now owns a majority stake in the $20 billion company whose clients include Citi, Verizon and the federal government.

Steward, 73, got here from humble beginnings in the segregated South. He grew up with seven siblings and a father who worked as a mechanic, janitor and garbage collector. After graduating from Central Missouri University, he worked in sales for Missouri Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific and FedEx before co-founding World Wide Technology. Things were still tough before he found financial success, as Steward remembers watching his automobile get repossessed from the office car parking zone.

His philanthropic efforts include donating $1.3 million to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2018 to found the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies. Steward’s rags-to-riches story instilled a robust belief in the accessibility of the American dream.

“The breadth and depth of opportunity we have here, combined with a culture that allows you to be all you can, makes it possible for anyone to succeed,” Steward said, as quoted by the Horatio Alger Association. “We have a competitive advantage over other countries and it is necessary for us to keep up it. It’s great that my story is just one in every of thousands and thousands in America. I feel blessed to live in this excellent country.”

The steward is there involved with various organizations dedicated to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion for historically underrepresented communities, including the National Urban League, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Boy Scouts of America, Boys Hope Girls Hope, BEYA, NPower, National Minority Development Provider and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation.

His family is a passionate supporter of the family of the late Wendell Scott, the first African-American driver in NASCAR and the first to win a race in the current Cup Series. Their support was instrumental in getting NASCAR to officially recognize Scott’s historic achievement, culminating in the presentation of the long-awaited trophy to Scott’s children and grandchildren in 2021 — nearly 58 years after the race and 31 years after Scott’s death.

In addition to Steward, other Black billionaires on the Forbes 400 list include Robert F. Smith, who was ranked 88th.