https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/06/stax-founder-jim-stewart-dead/
What a collection of talent – Otis
Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Booker
T. & The MG’s, Isaac Hayes, just to name a few. I loved this stuff when
I was growing up, and still do.
[T]he label
released more than 160 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and 243 on the
R&B chart, according to the Stax Museum. The company also became known as a
haven for racial integration in the segregated South: Black and White musicians
performed together in bands including the Bar-Kays and the M.G.’s while Mr.
Stewart, who was White, worked with Black business partners including Al Bell,
the company’s head of promotions, who eventually became co-owner.
“The spirit that came from Jim and
his sister Estelle Axton allowed all of us, Black and White, to … come into the
doors of Stax, where you had freedom, you had harmony, you had people working
together,” Bell said in an interview for “Respect Yourself.”