Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights

(Paperback)

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Patricia Stephens Due fought for justice during the height of the Civil Rights era, surrendering her very freedom to ensure that the rights of others might someday be protected. Her daughter, Tananarive, grew up deeply enmeshed in the values of a family committed to making right whatever they saw as wrong. Together, they have written a paean to the movement-its struggles, its nameless foot-soldiers, and its achievements-and an incisive examination of the future of justice in this country. Their mother-daughter journey spanning the struggles of two generations is an unforgettable story. In 1960, when she was a student at Florida A&M University, Patricia and her sister Priscilla were part of the movement's landmark "jail-in," the first time during the student sit-in movement when protestors served their time rather than paying a fine. She and her sister, and three FAMU students, spent forty-nine days behind bars rather than pay for the "crime" of sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter. Thus began a lifelong commitment to human rights. Patricia and her husband, civil rights lawyer John Due, worked tirelessly with many of the movement's greatest figures throughout the sixties to bring about change, particularly in the Deep Southern state of Florida. Freedom in the Family chronicles these years with fascinating, raw power. Featuring interviews with civil rights leaders like Black Panther Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and ordinary citizens whose heroism has been largely unknown, this is a sweeping, multivoiced account of the battle for civil rights in America. It also reveals those leaders' potentially controversial feelings about the current state of our nation, a country where police brutality and crippling disparities for blacks and whites in health care, education, employment, and criminal justice still exist today. A mother writes so that the civil liberties she struggled for are not eroded, so that others will take up the mantle and continue to fight against injustice and discrimination. Her daughter, as part of the integration generation, writes to say thank you, to show the previous generation how very much they've done and how much better off she is for their effort-despite all the work that remains. Their combined message is remarkable, moving, and important. It makes for riveting reading.

Reviews

Fascinating . . . [Freedom in the Family] chronicles the rich details of the struggle.
The Miami Herald

The two generations provide a bifocal view of the Movement and affirm the stories of those who lived, marched, protested, suffered, survived, and died during those tumultuous times.
Ebony

Freedom in the Family is American history, written by those who lived it. Tense, human, inspirational, and all true, a testament to character and endurance by women who took active roles in the dramatic events that forever changed the face of this nation.
EDNA BUCHANAN, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face and The Ice Maiden

Revisit[s] an essential era in America, and in doing so not only add[s] another layer of information to understanding that time but, as important, introduce[s] its reality to todays young.
The New York Times

A MUST-READ FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW HOW MOVEMENT IS MADE AND SUSTAINED.
JULIAN BOND
Chairman of the NAACP

An important, affecting joint memoir that examines the struggles of . . . the civil rights movement.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Compelling . . . Testaments to the unsung women of the civil rights movement and the visionary local leaders who often toiled in obscurity while facing savagery they knew would go unavenged.
Newark Star-Ledger

A fascinating and important new book . . . A memoir so absorbing and essential that it takes two people to tell.
Oregonian

This book is the celebration of an extraordinary womans life; its well-written, interesting, and certainly not the end of the story.
The Denver Post

An ennobling insiders look at the civil rights movement. Patricia and Tananarive Due are two of my new heroes.
CHARLES JOHNSON
National Book Awardwinning author of
Middle Passage

Underscores the fact that for blacks in America, the struggles of the past are definitely not past. A must-read tale . . . that connects the dots between then and now.
NATHAN MCCALL
Author of Makes Me Wanna Holler:
A Young Black Man in America

POWERFUL . . .Mother and daughter write with an energy that is cathartic in its recounting of past obstacles, and optimistic in its hopes for the future.
Publishers Weekly

A living testament to the enduring personal and family consequences of the struggle for freedom and equality.
GLENDA ALICE RABBY, author of
The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for
Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida

The Dues make it easy for the reader to transition from past to present, but impossible to overlook the sweet sorrow of a mother and daughter having to walk some of the same testy ground on matters racial.
DEBORAH MATHIS
Author of Yet a Stranger:
Why Black Americans Still Dont Feel at Home

This book, an insiders look at the twentieth-century civil rights movement, is personal history at its best.
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

Freedom in the Family . . . succeeds at doing exactly what the Dues wanted: to write of ordinary people, black and white, doing extraordinary things.
Book Street USA

Rare is the book that can take a reader through two generations of activismand from two womens points of view. That makes Freedom in the Family a unique way of exploring history and change.
Cape Cod Times

Readers will quite likely be both charmed and educated by these dedicated, candid, brilliant women.
Kirkus Reviews

POIGNANT . . . MOVING ACCOUNTS . . .AN AMAZING AMOUNT OF COURAGE.
Contra Costa Times

Their stories are compelling and an important tribute to the thousands who struggled to bring about these necessary changes. . . . An important reminder that people continue to fight against such discriminatory practices with quiet determination every day.
Boulder Daily Camera

The civil rights movement that swept across the United States starting in the 1950s is most often told in broad-brush strokes. . . . The Dues, however, abandon the broad brush strokes for a narrative technique more akin to pointillism. . . . The book is a testament to the individuals, black and white, famous and obscure, who made racial equality an achievable goal rather than a hopeless dream. It ought to have a long shelf life, because the race question will unfortunately be part of everyday existence throughout the United States for a long time.
San Jose Mercury News

A salute to the foot soldiers of the movement . . . This family history is an important book to help us understand the sacrifices by people like Patricia Due, and by the many others whose voices wont be heard.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

An incredible insiders view of one of our nations most turbulent times. Told in alternating chapters, each writer offers a unique and unforgettable voice of the civil rights struggle from the 1950s onward.
Florida Today

Wow! This book touched me like To Kill a Mockingbird did and still does. . . . A tale of courage and perseverance.
The Chuckanut Reader

A unique approach to shedding light on the civil rights movement.
The Crisis

A moving tribute to the civil rights movement and its foot soldiers.
Library Journal

This book is a testament to the individuals, black and white, famous and obscure, who made racial equality an achievable goal rather than a hopeless dream. It ought to have a long shelf life.
The Seattle Times

Author Bio

Tananarive Due is a former features writer for the Miami Herald. She has written many highly acclaimed novels, including The Black Rose and My Soul to Keep. She received a 2002 American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood. Ms. Due makes her home in Longview, Washington, with her husband, novelist Steven Barnes. Patricia Stephens Due was a civil rights activist with CORE while attending Florida A&M University. In 1960, based on her nonviolent stand during a landmark "jail-in," she received the prestigious Gandhi Award. She is married to a civil rights lawyer, has three daughters, and continues to work for change in America. Over the years, she has conducted civil rights workshops and re-enactments for colleges, public schools, civic groups, and churches. She lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband, John Due. From the Hardcover edition.