page_title: Charles Kenzie Steele
section_title: Tallahassee bus boycott
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Kenzie Steele / Tallahassee bus boycott
caption_attribution_description: English: Reverend C.K. Steele at the Florida Capitol for silent vigil supporting government aid to the poor.
context_page_description: Charles Kenzie Steele was a preacher and a civil rights activist. He was one of the main organizers of the 1956 Tallahassee bus boycott, and a prominent member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. On March 23, 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed CS/SB 382 into law, designating portions of Florida State Road 371 and Florida State Road 373 along Orange Avenue in Tallahassee as C.K. Steele Memorial Highway.
context_section_description: The Tallahassee bus boycott began in May, 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott. Like other bus boycotts during the Civil Rights Movement in America, it started because black people were forced to ride in the back of the bus, and when two students refused to give up their seat to a white woman, they were arrested. An organization was formed to protest and boycott against the city bus system. The organization was called Inter-civic Council and Steele was elected president. Steele and other protesters boycotted the system by starting car pools and the bus system had stopped for the first time in 17 years on July 1. Steele was arrested many times during this period.
  The people in Tallahassee thought that the protesters' demands were outrageous. Steele and the other protesters met a lot of rich and influential opposition. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in front of Steele's church, marched in front of his house, and threw bottles through his windows. The city commissioners were firmly opposed to integration of the buses. The bus system was integrated two years later.
  He was also the lead plaintiff in the school desegregation suit, which led to the desegregation of public schools in Leon County.
  Steele was also a part of many other protests, marches, and boycotts, where he helped to accomplish integration in many public places. Steele helped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. He was made the First Vice President under Dr. King at the time of the formation of SCLC.
  Steele participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965.
  Steele died from bone marrow cancer in 1980 at the age of 66 in Tallahassee.
caption: Steele at the Capitol for silent vigil supporting government aid to the poor in 1968.
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