Reverend Charles Kenzie

Steele: The Local Black

HeroAlex Yu, Kevin

Kim, and Matthew Kang

The Prologue

• Charles Kenzie Steele was born February 17th, 1914 in Bluefield, West Virginia, as the son of a coal miner. He wanted to preach the gospel at an early age, and so by the age of 15, he was already preaching.

Moving Away

• Reverend Steele moved to Atlanta in 1938 to attend Morehouse College a well known all-black college, and began preaching later in Toccoa and Augusta, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama.

Coming to Town

• On the way to Tallahassee, he met Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., whose father had once met at Morehouse as a student. He began preaching at Bethel Baptist Church and for a few years the capital was calm for him. But not for long.

The Fighting Begins

It all started in 1956 when two FAMU students, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson were arrested for refusing to give up their seat to a white woman. Steele was elected president of the Inter-Civic Council, a group formed to boycott the city bus company. They boycotted the bus system, bringing it to a halt. Car pools set up by Steele were effective, and by July 1st, the bus system had fully halted.

The Public Protest

Steele was arrested the many times during the altercation that left Tallahassee without a mass transportation system in 17 years.

Cross burnings and other acts of terrorism against blacks were common during the public protests.

BibliographyBibliography I. http://www.floridamemory.com/

FloridaHighlights/Steele/

II. http://www.africanamericans.com/CharlesSteele.htm

III. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921231.html