Patricia Stephens Due (December 9, 1939 – February 7, 2012)[1][2] was one of the leading African-American civil rights activists in the United States, especially in her home state of Florida. Along with her sister Priscilla and others trained in nonviolent protest by CORE, Due spent 49 days in the nation's first jail-in, refusing to pay a fine for sitting in a Woolworth's "White only" lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960.[3] Her eyes were damaged by tear gas used by police on students marching to protest such arrests, so she has had to wear dark glasses the rest of her life. Due served in many leadership roles in CORE and the NAACP, fighting against segregated stores, buses, theaters, schools, restaurants, and hotels, protesting unjust laws, and leading one of the most dangerous voter registration efforts in the country in northern Florida in the 1960s.[4]
With her daughter, Tananarive, Due wrote Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, documenting the struggle she participated in, initially as a student at Florida A&M University, and later working for civil rights organizations and Florida communities, sometimes in partnership with her husband, civil rights attorney John D Due, Jr. She has been an activist all her life and continues teaching the next generation about the fight for civil rights through speaking engagements.
Biography
Patricia Stephens was born on December 9, 1939 in Quincy, Florida to Lottie Mae Powell Stephens and Horace Walter Stephens. She was the second of three children. In 1963, she married Florida A&M University (FAMU) law student John D. Due, Jr., who went on to become a prominent civil rights attorney.[5] They have three daughters.[4]
Due's university studies were repeatedly interrupted by protests and arrests that sometimes got her suspended, as well as speaking and fund-raising tours. Though she entered Florida A&M University in 1957, she did not receive her degree until 1967.[1]
Civil rights activism
Due and her sister Priscilla started fighting segregation when Due was 13 by insisting on being served at the "white only" window of their local Dairy Queen, instead of the "colored" window.[1]
The summer of 1959, the sisters attended a nonviolent resistance workshop organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On Feb. 20, 1960, eleven FAMU students, including Patricia and Priscilla, were arrested for ordering food at a "white only" Woolworth lunch counter. On March 12, dozens of FAMU and Florida State University students who participated in sit-ins at McCrory’s and Woolworth’s were arrested. A thousand students began marching from the FAMU campus toward downtown Tallahassee, but were stopped by Police officers with teargas. At the head of the march, Due was teargassed right in the face, and suffered permanent eye damage.
Due and the other sit-in participants were tried and found guilty on March 17, 1960. Eight refused to pay the $300 fine, deciding instead to go to jail. Eight students served 49 days at the Leon County Jail: FAMU students Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, John Broxton, Barbara Broxton and William Larkins, and three other students—Clement Carney, Angelina Nance, and 16-year-old high school student Henry Marion Steele (son of activist pastor Rev. C.K. Steele).
The "jail-in" gained nationwide attention, and the students received a supportive telegram from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Due sent a letter to baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, who published it in a column he wrote. Robinson later sent the jailed students diaries so they could write down their experiences. After the jail-in, Due and the others traveled the country in speaking tours to publicize the civil rights movement. Due met Eleanor Roosevelt, author James Baldwin, and many other activists on those tours. She went on to be jailed multiple times as a leader in the movement.[4]
Bibliography
- Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights with Tananarive Due (Ballantine, 2003)
Honors
Due has received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Leadership, the Gandhi Award for Outstanding Work in Human Relations, and the Florida Freedom Award from the NAACP. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[6]
The National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. also honored Patricia Stephens Due at its national convention in 2008.[7]
Legacy
In February 2010, FAMU students gathered on campus to re-enact the sit-ins, jail-in, and protest march that had occurred 50 years previously in Tallahassee.[8]
The John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Freedom Endowed Scholarship provides $1000 annually to a FAMU student who plans to use the legacy of the civil rights movement to do his or her part to make a better nation.[9]
Interviews
- Patricia Stevens Due and Tananarive Due on NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, January 16, 2003 (Audio)
References
- ^ a b c Patricia Stephens Due Biography, The History Makers. Retrieved February 23, 2011
- ^ Obituary on BBC Radio 4's Last Word http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01by9ll#p00pb1j2
- ^ University of Florida Hosts Event Celebrating Civil Rights Movement Leaders by Katelyn McKey Retrieved February 23, 2011
- ^ a b c Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due (Ballantine, 2003)
- ^ Civil Rights Pioneers John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Bob Graham Center for Public Service (includes video)
- ^ Biography: Patricia Stephens Due Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, UFL
- ^ National women’s organization to honor Patricia Stephens Due of Quincy originally published in the Tallahassee Democrat
- ^ Passing the Torch, Assessing the Toll: The FAMU Jail-In 50 Years Later by Tananarive Due, The Defenders Online March 1st, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2011
- ^ Florida A&M University Division of University Relations FAMU Foundation Scholarships Listing
Works about Patricia Stephens Due
- The Letter from Leon County Jail: Patricia Stephens Due and the Tallahassee, Florida Civil Rights Movement] Master's thesis by Marna Rinaldo Weston, available through http://digitool.fcla.edu/
The Letter from Leon County Jail: Patricia Stephens Due and the Tallahassee, Florida Civil Rights Movement] Master's thesis by Marna Rinaldo Weston, available through Florida State University theses listings: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07182005-134930/unrestricted/MarnaWestonThesis30June2005v9.pdf
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