WHEREAS, The Reverend Doctor Charles Kenzie Steele, Sr. was born on February 17, 1914 in Bluefield, West Virginia to Henry and Lyde Steele; and WHEREAS, C.K. Steele graduated from the Gary Colored High School (Gary, West Virginia), earned a B.A. Degree from Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia) and was the first African-American to be conferred with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Florida State University; and WHEREAS, C.K. Steele pastored churches in Toccoa, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama before accepting the pastorate of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee in 1952; and WHEREAS, C.K. Steele led the successful protest to desegregate Tallahassee’s city buses in 1956 and he co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 as Executive Vice President alongside his friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and WHEREAS, C.K. Steele was an unrelenting advocate for civil rights and an unbending crusader against poverty, oppression, racism and bigotry; he participated as a national leader in many of the seminal events of the civil rights movement, including the Albany Movement, Birmingham Movement, the March on Washington, St. Augustine Movement, and the Selma to Montgomery Marches; and WHEREAS, the City of Tallahassee is proud to call the Rev. C.K. Steele an icon of our community; and WHEREAS, the City supported 2017 Legislation seeking to designate State Road 371/373 Orange Avenue in between State Road 263/Capital Circle Southwest and State Road 61/Monroe Street as “C.K. Steele Memorial Highway” in honor of Dr. Steele’s courageous work and influence during the Civil Rights Movement; and WHEREAS, on December 6, 2017 the Tallahassee City Commission voted unanimously to pass a resolution in support of Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 382 in the 2018 Legislature of Florida, ultimately having Florida State Roads 371 and 373 designated as C.K. Steele Memorial Highway. NOW, THEREFORE I, Mayor John E. Dailey, along with my colleagues on the City Commission, on this date, January 30, 2019, do hereby designate the City’s portion of Orange Avenue in between Blair Stone Road and Southwood Plantation Road as C.K. Steele Memorial Highway John E. Dailey Curtis Richardson Elaine W. Bryant Jeremy Matlow Dianne Williams-Cox Mayor Mayor Pro Tem Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner .