David Steward grew up in a small Missouri house without indoor plumbing or heat. His family raised livestock and grew vegetables for the family, and his father worked several jobs to support eight children.
Today, the visionary St. Louis businessman is worth an estimated $12.3 billion, making him Missouri’s richest person and the wealthiest Black man in America who publicly identifies as Black, according to Forbes’ newly released ranking of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
His fortune far exceeds those of Oprah Winfrey, worth an estimated $3.4 billion, and Jay-Z, whose wealth is estimated at $2.8 billion. Forbes lists Palantir co-founder Alexander Karp, who has expressed ambiguity about his racial identity, ahead of Steward…