First, Best

Lessons in Leadership and Legacy from Today's Civil Rights Movement

By: Steven L. Reed, Fagan Harris

Narrated by: Steven L. Reed

The first Black mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, shares his story of making his way in a world that wasn’t built for him, drawing on his rich heritage as the son of a civil rights leader.

As a proud son of a civil rights leader, Steven L. Reed grew up hearing stories about how his father integrated Montgomery lunch counters and took advice directly from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy. However, it wasn’t until Reed was in the fourth grade and received a death threat against his father that he began to understand more fully the importance of the lessons his father was trying to impart. At this pivotal moment, his father explained, “My job is to prepare you to be a cross-bearer and not just a crown-wearer. Bigotry has no place in our household. It will only hold you down and make you small.”

First, Best is an essential antidote to the perpetual dehumanization and distortions of Black men in our culture and media. By sharing the story of forging his own path, Reed offers an alternative narrative to Black men coming of age, catalyzing their hope and sense of possibility. Although Reed took a circuitous path to the office of mayor that began by forging his identity at Morehouse College, pursuing entrepreneurship and exploring the wider world, and serving as a probate judge, each step was guided by the values of his father’s generation. First, Best is not just about assuming the mantle of manhood or leadership, nor is it only about the expectation of greatness. Fundamentally, it’s about responsibility and preparation, serving others, and being willing to pay the price of leadership by carrying the weight of each decision. First, Best affirms the next generation of Black men and women by showing, through story and example, their power and potential in a world that doesn’t always root for them.

Permission to reproduce 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March (2015) mural provided by the artist Sunny Paulk and the City of Montgomery’s Public Art Commission.

©2023 Steven Reed and Fagan Harris (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“From his conscious upbringing in Montgomery, Alabama where decades earlier a movement was born, to his trailblazing election as that city’s first Black mayor, Steven Reed knows a lot about the journey Black men must take not only to manhood but to excellence. Journey with him through this book and be both inspired and informed. His is an important voice as a new movement is waiting to be born.”—Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock, author of A Way Out of No Way

“Steven Reed's election inspired the nation and was a major civil rights achievement that began 65 years ago with a bus boycott. This is an important American story.”—Bryan Stevenson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy

“Mayor Steven Reed’s moving memoir is a reminder that leadership is a choice, and indeed, everyone can lead. Reed’s story begins with his dynamic childhood upbringing and culminates in his historic election as the first Black mayor of Montgomery, Alabama—the former capital of the Confederacy and birthplace of the modern civil rights movement. Mayor Reed’s chronicles of civil rights leaders and their lessons offer us deeply important insights as we navigate our own consequential times.”—April Ryan, author of Black Women Will Save the World

Lessons in Leadership and Legacy

Insightful, influential and informative. As a resident of Montgomery, I truly appreciated the insights Mayor Reed shared and especially his leadership lessons learned.

This type of book ought to be required reading in our schools and higher places of learning.

Reed deeply shares his heart from growing up as a young teen to life as a Mayor who has impacted great change for our communities and the world.

I bought the audio version and then when back and bought the physical book because it’s that good.