Keeping History Intact

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

might want to attend. Another thing we do is take them to museums, especially Black history museums. We just try to expose them as much as we can.” The First Lady spent 25 years as a former Alabama educator and is listed in a 1994 book of Who’s Who Among America’s Best Teachers, thus the classroom is an integral part of the programmatic thrust. “I let them express how they feel about life; what’s going on at home, and what they really want to achieve. So, to me sex trafficking prevention is not just about talking about sex trafficking. We give them examples of girls that have been sex trafficked, but it is also about exposing them to the world that is available to them. Justice for Girls is about teaching.” Says Ms. Furby about her honoree, “Ms. Steele is a physical embodiment of God’s plan for women. Mrs. Steele’s life of service and compassion are twined to Justice for Girls.” It is believed that Ms. Steele’s education efforts on behalf of young women, are in effect, a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement. “The Civil Rights Movement never ends because I am seeing things now that I would never have imagined when my parents had me to integrate the schools. You would think things that happened then would not happen now. Racism doesn’t really disappear. It is how we navigate through it, and around it because it is not going anywhere.” The ongoing political policymaking to debunk or dismiss CRT (critical race theory) or the intersection of race, society and law in the classroom is a disturbing phenomenon for Ms. Steele. “It is ridiculous, and we have to fight it,” she says. “How can you teach history if you are going to eliminate a whole part of history? That is selective teaching. You are not trying to make young students feel guilty. All you are trying to do is let them know this is what happened in that era and look where we are now. Are we going backward or forward? So many of us do not even know our own history.” Ms. Steele says being the First Lady of SCLC, “is an opportunity to teach.” She adds, “as long as I am here, I’m still a history teacher.”

Photos are courtesy of American Kinetics LLC /Photographer Faith Swift

Patron Chapter Listings

The National Office of the SCLC wants to acknowledge and appreciate the support of our 63rd Convention Chapter Patrons

Prince Georges County MD Josephine Mourning President Cobb County (GA) SCLC Dr. Ben Williams, President Tuscaloosa AL SCLC Rev. James Williams, President Cleveland OH Rev. E.T. Cavinesss President