As a 12 year old Boy he arrived in Detroit, a small part of the migration that brought 5 million black folks to the urban ghetto's. The City by that time had spawned Joe Louis of Alabama and Walker Smith of Georgia into Boxing immortality and there was this scrawny, failed amateur by the name of Gordy looking to cut records. Little Emanuel would ride the wave of that magical Brewster neighborhood to an amateur career of 94-3 and a love affair with Boxing and Detroit that never waned. Years later when Lennox Lewis had Mike Tyson badly hurt Emanuel Steward despite all that he'd amassed Steward spit hot fire; telling Lewis in "Detroit style" like he'd told so many kids in that sweatbox called Kronk to take care of his business.Integration took a lot from the African American Community, and by the time Steward walked into Kronk in 1971 all he had was a love of the game- in time he proved to have so much more. Young men like Hilmer Kenty and Thomas Hearns got more than elite training, they got the attentiveness,love and direction only a Father can give.They recieved the tough, male administered direction that left Black households as the Social Services were coming in. Men like Steward in the midst of Urban and Cultural destabilization represented a community oriented brand of success, by staying in Detroit and giving what he had to young men he was a symbol of daily continuity that Politicians could never provide people in need.Watching him speak on his great love, even when you disagreed made you feel included and let in on a great line of wisdom dating back to Joe Louis himself- because Steward like Ted Kennedy was one of the last men of authentic Scholarship. And you knew it. The last 30 years of Boxing were his watermarks, from Kenty to Klitschko but the affection of (and for) Detroit will be his true legacy. It was rare what Steward maintained long after he should have outgrown the Motor City-so rare that it must live on. Tommy Hearns, chief beneficiary of Stewards love has vowed to BE at Kronk and keep the doors open for the man who impacted his life- a gesture worth more than any Championship Belt to a young man thinking about Boxing.While the return of a once great American city is in limbo and subject to far away interests we can only pray that people there consider the impact of its most faithful son- because i am convinced Emanuel Steward did not intend on being the last "Lion" of Detroit.
