Pennsylvania civil rights activist and minister helped people seeking asylum

Lee Ann Strine, an NAACP member and former chapter president, a minister and community activist, died Feb. 18. She was 67.

According to a Facebook post made by the UCC Penn Central Conference Green Justice Ministry Team, with which Strine was involved, she was believed to have had a stroke at home. Paramedics tried to revive her on the way to the hospital but were unsuccessful.

Strine was an incredibly active member of the York County, Pa., community, friends and associates said. She was perhaps most wellknown for her time as president of the local chapter of the NAACP. She started in that position in January 2009, serving until current president Sandra Thompson took over in 2011.

Before that, Strine had been a member of the local chapter for more than 12 years, according to York Dispatch archives. She also served as the first vice president under the chapter president before her, Eric Kirkland.

In addition to serving as president and vice president, Strine was also the secretary of the local chapter for most of the years she was a member, according to NAACP assistant treasurer Ken Woerthwein. This is a particularly important position because it requires communicating with the state and national NAACP offices, keeping track of memberships and writing up all notes at meetings, he said.

“She was very enthusiastic,” Woerthwein said. “She was a great advocate for getting new members.”

At the time of her passing, Strine was serving as the chapter’s assistant secretary so she could focus on her grandchildren and other volunteer activities, according to Thompson. Strine consistently attended state and national NAACP meetings as well as the local ones.

Thompson described her has someone who liked to be busy but always had a smile on her face.

“Whatever you needed, if she could, she would,” Thompson said.

“The thing that stands out most about Lee Ann is no matter what was going on in her life, she was always so incredibly cheerful,” NAACP secretary Kathleen Lucas said.

Lucas said she originally met Strine when she was working with asylum seekers from different countries in the late 1990s.

In 2001, Strine took in two asylum seekers from Sierra Leone after they were incorrectly jailed upon arriving in York, according to York Dispatch archives. She took an interest in the asylum seekers during her time as a volunteer with the Golden Vision Foundation, an organization established to help undocumented immigrants from China.

Strine was also a licensed pastor of the York Association of the United Church of Christ, according to a Facebook post their group made about her passing. According to Carla Christopher, who was going through a program similar to Strine’s, the activist began taking classes through the Pennsylvania Academy of Ministry. She graduated at the end of 2016.

When Strine found out Christopher was taking courses through the same academy of ministry, she reached out and offered herself as a mentor and study partner to Christopher. The two also knew each other through their work on the executive committee for the south-central Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU.

“She really believed there was a spiritual, moral obligation to do social justice work and activism,” Christopher said. “It came from a spiritual place for her.