Patricia Stephens Due

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[3] 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.[4] 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, 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.[5]

Patricia Stephens Due
Patricia Stephens Due with articles about her civil rights involvement, circa 2000
Born
Patricia Stephens

(1939-12-09)December 9, 1939
Quincy, Florida, U.S.
DiedFebruary 7, 2012(2012-02-07) (aged 72)
Smyrna, Georgia, U.S.
OccupationCivil rights activist
Known forTallahassee jail-in

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.

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.[6] The couple had three daughters.[5]

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
Patricia Stephens (in sunglasses) in a boycott and picketing of downtown stores: Tallahassee, Florida. December 1960.
Patricia Stephens Due at the memorial service for Judy Benninger [Brown] in Gainesville, Florida, June 1991.

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.[1]

During the summer of 1959, the sisters attended a nonviolent resistance 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.[7]

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, 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 and author James Baldwin, and was jailed on numerous occasions as a leader in the movement.[5]

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.[8]

In 2008, the National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. honored Due at its national convention.[9]

In 2017, Due was inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame.[10]

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.[11]
  • 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.[12]
  • Patricia Due was honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011 as Patricia Stephens Due Day.

Interviews

References
  1. Patricia Stephens Due Biography Archived 2017-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, The History Makers. Retrieved February 23, 2011
  2. Obituary on BBC Radio 4's Last Word http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01by9ll#p00pb1j2
  3. "The Sit-ins and the New South". American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  4. University of Florida Hosts Event Celebrating Civil Rights Movement Leaders Archived 2011-02-04 at the Wayback Machine by Katelyn McKey Retrieved February 23, 2011
  5. Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due (Ballantine, 2003)
  6. Civil Rights Pioneers John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Bob Graham Center for Public Service (includes video)
  7. Martin, Douglas (2012-02-11). "Patricia Stephens Due, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 72". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  8. Biography: Patricia Stephens Due Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, UFL
  9. "National women's organization to honor Patricia Stephens Due of Quincy"; originally published in the Tallahassee Democrat
  10. Byron, Dobson. "Patricia Stephens Due, two others to be named to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame". USA Today. Retrieved 2017-06-08.
  11. Passing the Torch, Assessing the Toll: The FAMU Jail-In 50 Years Later by Tananarive Due, The Defenders Online March 1, 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2011
  12. Florida A&M University Division of University Relations FAMU Foundation Scholarships Listing

Works about Patricia Stephens Due
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