Florida Senate - 2016                                    SB 1594
       
       
        
       By Senator Thompson
       
       12-01142-16                                           20161594__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to special observances; creating s.
    3         683.333, F.S.; designating the third Monday of
    4         February of each year as “Reverend C.K. Steele Day”;
    5         providing an effective date.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, Charles Kenzie “C.K.” Steele was born in 1914, in
    8  Bluefield, West Virginia, and
    9         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele grew up and attended secondary schools
   10  in Gary, West Virginia, and continued his education at Morehouse
   11  College in Atlanta, where he received his bachelor’s degree in
   12  1938, and
   13         WHEREAS, after finishing work toward his bachelor’s degree,
   14  C.K. Steele completed his religious studies at the
   15  Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta and the
   16  Urban Training Center for Christian Mission in Chicago, and
   17         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele was hired as the minister of the Hall
   18  Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1938, where he
   19  met and later married his wife, Lois Marion Brock, and
   20         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele also served as a minister at churches
   21  in Augusta and Toccoa, Georgia, before moving to Tallahassee in
   22  1952 to become the pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church,
   23  and
   24         WHEREAS, in Tallahassee, C.K. Steele gained a reputation as
   25  a civil rights leader through his service as president of the
   26  state and local chapters of the National Association for the
   27  Advancement of Colored People, president of the Inter-Civic
   28  Council, and first vice president of the Southern Christian
   29  Leadership Conference, and
   30         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele remained steadfast in his commitment
   31  to achieving racial equality through his leadership of the
   32  boycott to desegregate City of Tallahassee buses, and
   33         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele was actively engaged in numerous other
   34  activities to help eliminate racial discrimination, such as
   35  freedom rides, voter registration campaigns, the Poor People’s
   36  Campaign, and Operation Breadbasket, despite threats of
   37  violence, incarceration, and harassment, and
   38         WHEREAS, C.K. Steele was awarded an honorary Doctor of
   39  Humane Letters degree by the Florida State University in 1980,
   40  the first honorary degree conferred upon an African American in
   41  the history of that institution, as he continued his work in
   42  battling racial inequality until his untimely death on August
   43  19, 1980, and
   44         WHEREAS, it is appropriate that the life of C.K. Steele,
   45  and his significant contributions toward seeking racial equality
   46  and fairness in this state and nationwide, be recognized and
   47  celebrated on “Reverend C.K. Steele Day,” NOW, THEREFORE,
   48  
   49  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   50  
   51         Section 1. Section 683.333, Florida Statutes, is created to
   52  read:
   53         683.333 Reverend C.K. Steele Day.—The third Monday in
   54  February of each year is designated as “Reverend C.K. Steele
   55  Day.”
   56         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.