Activist Patricia Stephens Due Dead at 72
http://www.theroot.com/patricia-stephens-due-dead
Civil rights legend Patricia Stephens Due has died, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
The 72-year-old, whom they called the Joan of Arc of the civil rights movement in Tallahassee, Fla., succumbed on Tuesday after a long fight with thyroid cancer. She died in Atlanta, where she had moved to to be closer to her three daughters.
During the civil rights era's peak in the 1960s, Due led demonstrations at segregated theaters and pools and conducted voter-registration drives. Her landmark moment was a "jail-in" at Florida A&M when she and eight other black students tried to integrate a Tallahassee lunch counter. When faced with paying a fine or going to jail, she chose the latter. Her courage attracted the attention of Martin Luther King Jr., who sent her a letter in jail. Her activism garnered her an FBI file that ran more than 400 pages.
A member of several civil rights organizations, Due went on to become the local field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality.
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RIP, may her significant efforts never be forgotten.