Karen Stewart, a fourth great-granddaughter of Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton and Jonas and Delse Rhine Cathey and the founder and president of the Shelton Heritage Society, is a seasoned urban educator of 22 years, a former freelance journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, and a dedicated family historian and genealogy researcher, with a special focus on the Cathey and Shelton families of Rome, Georgia—her maternal ancestral homestead, and other lines of her family. Born in a small Texas town where the elders knew her family and raised everyone in the neighborhood, Karen is rooted in heritage, truth, healing and a belief in creating inclusive ideological spaces for connection and cultural exploration. A contributing author to Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation (Rutgers, 2019) in collaboration with Coming to the Table, a national multicultural racial reconciliation organization, in which she shared her healing journey of the discovery of her Cathey family roots, Karen has been using DNA analysis and genealogical research since 2016 to advocate as part of a descendant collaboration team for the acknowledgement of the Shelton family’s settlement, founded in 1874 by her 4th great-grandparents, Hardy and Mary, in and near Possum Trot at Berry College in Rome, Georgia and to reunite descendants of the Cathey and Shelton families after decades of separation.

Her research, combined with essential collaboration with descendants and community members, not only provided a key part of the foundation for the installation of an interpretive historical marker and the renaming of Possum Trot Cemetery to Shelton Family Cemetery in 2021, but also resulted in the first written documentation of the Shelton family’s history, inclusive of detailed information pertaining to family land purchases in Flatwoods (Pleasant Hill), migration details of family members, in some cases, and the family connections of each son and daughter of Hardy and Mary, including their spouses and children, submitted to Berry College. In addition to her research and descendant reconnection efforts, Karen has brokered partnerships with key organizations such as the Historic Black Towns and Settlement Alliance (HBTSA), and the Rome Area History Museum to further preserve and celebrate African American history.

Since 2015, Karen, the founder of the Descendants of Hardy and Mary Shelton and Jonas and Delse Cathey Facebook group and the creator of the Shelton Family Settlement at Possum Trot website and social media pages, has achieved several significant breakthroughs in her research. Among them are the discovery of Hardy Shelton's pivotal 1874 land documents and the early 19th-century Guion Miller Commission application for Mary Bearden Shelton, which uncovered Mary’s Cherokee ancestry and identified her siblings, mother, and grandparents. Through a combination of DNA analysis and documentation, Karen also traced the descendants of a previously unknown relative, Laura Shelton, and confirmed the marriage of Lawrence and Lillie Powell—children of Hardy and Mary’s daughter Mary Shelton Powell—to Pearl Freeman (a Cathey/Freeman descendant) and John R. Freeman of the Freemantown settlement located near Possum Trot.

With extensive experience in programming and fundraising in the educational realm, Karen, who is also a descendant of the historic African American town of Littig, Texas and Freedmen’s Town in Houston, Texas, has served as a panelist and presenter for organizations such as the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage (SDUSMP) and the Slave Dwelling Project (SDP). Currently, she is researching her maternal grandmother’s family’s contributions to Freedmen’s Town, as well as deep ties to Cape Verde (West Africa) and Free People of Color in Virginia and North Carolina. Additionally, Karen is a member of the Society of the First African Families of English America’s (SOFAFEA) Forgotten Patriots project which honors African American Revolutionary War heroes - both free and enslaved.

A lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Karen is a 2024 recipient of SOFAFEA’s Forgotten Patriots Award. She is an active member of numerous social, educational, genealogical, and historical societies. These include, but are not limited to, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in which she has served as a judge for REALM, a literary magazine contest for middle and high school students, the National Genealogical Society (NGS), AAHGS, where she has served as a co-chair for the annual conference journal and currently serves as a co-chair for its conference college internship program, the American Historical Association (AHA), the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the Georgia Historical Society (GHS), the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation (GHP). Karen has also reclaimed her Fulani, Igbo, and Côte d'Ivoire ancestral names through the embassies of Côte d'Ivoire and other cultural organizations.

Karen received her bachelor's degree in journalism from Howard University and her master's degree in teaching from Virginia Commonwealth University where she dual mastered in education and counselor education. She is currently preparing to pursue another advanced degree. Deeply committed to preserving African American history, honoring her ancestors' legacy and healing the past, Karen’s passion for researching family history and reconnecting descendant communities in an effort to combat erasure continues to drive her work. In her spare time, you'll likely find her cooking, traveling or immersed in a good book, especially anything by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Zora Neale Hurston.