‘The Struggle Continues.’ A new generation pays homage to 1960s activist Patricia Stephens Due. John Due, Tananarive Due
. Patricia Stephens Due arrested for protesting segregation at the Florida Theater in Tallahassee in 1963. (State Archives of Florida)
John D. Due Jr. It’s an iconic image that even the woman featured in it never saw before her death. But recently her image was used in Florida and Georgia as a call to action to combat the assault on voting rights. It is the visible determination, grit and refusal to relent in the face of injustice on the woman’s face that both Stacey Abrams of Georgia and the Dream Defenders in Florida recognized could reignite a movement. And the woman in the image is my late wife, Patricia Stephens Due.
Marion County native Edmond Fordham navigated a world of racial segregation as he served in the U.S. Air Force and the public school system. Fordham s daughter, Krista, said her father always commanded respect in every role he filled, despite even the harshest discrimination.
Fordham, now 93, was born in rural Fort McCoy, about 15 miles east of Ocala, and lived near the intersection of the main crossroad. His father drove a truck, and was a laborer and a farmer. His mother worked for the Cooks, a white family that owned a store in the community.
Fordham said his parents, Sadie and Louis Fordham, strongly encouraged him to get a good education.