Patricia Stephens Due was a civil rights activist who was known to start the “jail-in” protest method. Due believed “history happens one person at a time.” Holding to that belief, she refused to pay her bail after she and other Florida A&M University students were arrested at Woolworths’ lunch counter in 1960. She spent 49 days in jail. Later, in continued protest, Due and other FAMU students launched a protest march in which a police officer lodged a tear gas bomb in Due’s face, leaving her with permanent eye injury.
Due’s bravery gained the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who sent her a letter in prison. She was also applauded by Jackie Robinson, Daisy Bates, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, John H. Johnson and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Decades later, Mayor John R. Marks III of Tallahassee declared May 11th Patricia Stephens Due Day.
Click here to view the rest of this post as found on blackamericaweb.com!
