Patricia Stephens Due (December 9, 1939 – February 7, 2012)Patricia Stephens Due Biography
, ''The History Makers''. Retrieved February 23, 2011 was one of the leading

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

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 one of the nation's first jail-ins, refusing to pay a fine for sitting in a Woolworth's "White only" lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960.University of Florida Hosts Event Celebrating Civil Rights Movement Leaders
by Katelyn McKey Retrieved February 23, 2011 Her eyes were damaged by tear gas used by police on students marching to protest such arrests, and she wore dark glasses for the rest of her life. She served in many leadership roles in CORE and the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

, 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.''Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights'', by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due (Ballantine, 2003) With her daughter,

Tananarive Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

, 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.

Biography

Patricia Stephens was born on December 9, 1939, in Quincy, Florida to Lottie Mae (née Powell) 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.Civil Rights Pioneers John Due and Patricia Stephens Due
Bob Graham Center for Public Service (includes video) The couple had three daughters. 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.

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 (name of business: The Polar Bear) in Belle Glade, instead of the "colored" window. During the summer of 1959, the sisters attended a

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...

workshop organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On February 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 Martin Luther King Jr. Due sent a letter to baseball pioneer

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

, 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. She met with such leaders as

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

and author

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, and was jailed on numerous occasions as a leader in the movement.

Death

Patricia Stephens Due died in 2012, aged 72, following a battle with cancer.

Bibliography

* ''Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights'' with Tananarive Due ( Ballantine, 2003)

Honors

Due 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.Biography: Patricia Stephens Due
Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, UFL In 2008, the National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. honored Due at its national convention. In 2017, Due was inducted into the

Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame The Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame honors people who have worked on behalf of civil rights in Florida. It is located in the Florida State Capitol and is administered by the Florida Department of Management Services. It was created in 2010 by una ...

Legacy

*In February 2010, Florida A&M University (FAMU) students gathered on campus to re-enact the sit-ins, jail-in, and protest march that had occurred 50 years previously in Tallahassee. * 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.Florida A&M University Division of University Relations FAMU Foundation Scholarships Listing
/ref> *Patricia Due was honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011 a
Patricia Stephens Due Day

Interviews

Patricia Stevens Due and Tananarive Due
on NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, January 16, 2003 (Audio)

References

Works about Patricia Stephens Due

Letter from Leon County Jail: Patricia Stephens Due and the Tallahassee, Florida Civil Rights Movement
Master's thesis by Marna Rinaldo Weston, available throug
Florida State University
theses listings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Due, Patricia Stephens 1939 births 2012 deaths African-American activists Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) Florida A&M University alumni History of civil rights in the United States Nonviolence advocates People from Quincy, Florida Place of death missing 20th-century African-American women Women civil rights activists 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women Activists for African-American civil rights