SCLC’s First Lady Honored by Georgia Secretary of State By Maynard Eaton, Editor in Chief Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has become a national news notable because he rejected former President Donald Trump’s demand to “find” 11,780 votes ahead of the infamous Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and has admitted Trump was “trying to intimidate me and cajole me into something” recently honored SCLC and the First Lady. It was an Outstanding Business Proclamation to Justice for Girls and Ms. Cathelean Steele. “I am honored by the recognition, but I don’t do the work for the recognition,” says Steele who launched Justice for Girls in 2012. “I do the work to make a difference.” And, she has done just that according to robust Georgia Politico J’Lyn Furby and others. “Cathelean Steele is the last remaining business person, wife, mother, sister, and daughter of the Civil Rights era. The honors that we presented to her were well past due. We as a community need to give her flowers now by honoring and supporting her legacies as a Pillar of the Civil Rights Era and founder of Justice for Girls,” opines Furby, Director of American Kinetics LLC, who presented her with the Georgia W.O.M.A.N of Triumph Award 2022 and the 8th Annual Georgia W.O.M.A.N Monthly Mixer’s National Small Business Week Conference and State Awards Luncheon. During Furby’s successful May 4th event First Lady Steele talked about the racism she has witnessed since childhood, and how her medical battles as three-time brain tumor survivor has yet to deter her from her true calling of teaching young girls about sex trafficking and self-protection so they will be prepared for world. That is her present passion and pursuit. “At this point in my life, I am happy that for several years now we have been working with an initiative I named Justice for Girls, and the purpose of that initiative is to educate our young girls on sex trafficking,” she tells this reporter. “That is so prevalent in this country and many of our girls do not know how easily they can be kidnapped or tricked or trafficked. And they are unaware how rampant it is around them and in their communities. So, we try to educate them.”
Cathelean Steele, SCLC First Lady and J’Lyn Furby, President, American Kinetics LLC
And her program goes beyond that to include college tours and hiking for young women among other activities. “For example, we did an Alabama tour one year that the girls loved,” she said. “We started out in Auburn, then Tuskegee, Alabama State, the University of Alabama, all the colleges in the state so they can get a feel for a college they
SCLC National Magazine/ Spring 2022 Issue
Convention 2022.indd 28
7/5/22 7:56 PM
