Patricia Due died at age 72 two weeks shy of the 52nd anniversary of her leading role in the student sit-ins in Tallahassee in February 1960. As a 20-year old student at Florida A&M University and founding member of the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Due and her sister Priscilla and three other FAMU students spent 49 days in jail rather than pay fines after being arrested for sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter, launching the nation’s first “jail-in” during the civil rights movement.
FAMU will honor Due’s legacy by hosting a memorial service starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, at the university’s Lee Hall Auditorium, 1601 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Tallahassee. A public viewing is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. It will be the day before the 52nd anniversary of the Tallahassee sit-ins.
Interment will take place at St. Hebron AME Church, 1730 St. Hebron Road, Quincy, immediately following the service, with a repast at the National Guard Armory in Quincy, where the couple lived before moving to the Miami area.
Courtesy of The South Florida Times
