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Brian Steward, Attorney, Ketterman, Rowland & Westlund
Brian Steward grew up on the near East Side in the 1960s and ’70s. He attended San Antonio Academy before transferring to the prestigious Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He then went to Duke University, earned his law degree at St. Mary’s University, and has gone on to have a successful career as an attorney. But in the Northwood neighborhood, Steward is afraid that one day, when he’s outside with his 5-year-old daughter, neighbors will mistake him for someone with ill intent.
“Whenever I walk with my daughter, I make a point of having her stand with me – not behind me or in front of me but with me. So that when other vehicles pass or we walk by homes, they will see that she is with me and comfortable with me as opposed to it looking like I’m stealing this fair-haired girl,” Steward said.
Steward is black, his wife is white, and their daughter, he said, “is very light, and if you – if you look quickly and couldn’t really see her features, you would probably think that she was a white child.”
Steward has had to navigate being a black man in a predominantly white environment for most of his life. For the seven years he was at San Antonio Academy, he was the only black student in his class. And when he’d return from prep school to hang out with his San Antonio Academy friends, he’d face experiences they didn’t, including being the only one stopped and questioned by Alamo Heights police despite being with other white kids. He always carefully navigated the drive from college in Durham, North Carolina, back home. So he understands all too well how quickly an opinion about a person or a situation can form.
“We make a point of waving to anyone and everyone, whether you’re in your yard, whether you’re in your car, we wave to you,” Steward said about walks with his daughter. “We also don’t walk after the sun goes down or before the sun comes up. We always want to be visible, we always want to comply with all traffic laws and be as wonderful and joyous as we possibly can when people see us. And I’ve told her that people are looking at us, but really, what they’re doing is they’re looking at you, and then they’re looking at me. And if they felt like there was anything happening or anything inappropriate going on with you, they are going to assume that I am the bad guy. I’m doing something wrong.
“And, you know, she’s just 5 and she doesn’t really understand that, but I think she’s starting to get it and see there’s a difference in the way people are treated.”
