Annual Created Equal Event Recognizes 60th Anniversary of Tallahassee Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

 

Annual Created Equal Event Recognizes 60th

Anniversary of Tallahassee Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

Leon County and The Village Square Honor the Past and Look to the Future

 

WHO:             Leon County and The Village Square

WHAT:           Created Equal: 60th Anniversary of Tallahassee Lunch Counter Sit-ins

WHEN:          Thursday, February 13, at 6 p.m.

WHERE:        The Moon, 1105 E. Lafayette St.

 

As part of the Club of Honest Citizens series, Leon County and The Village Square will host the fifth annual “Created Equal: 60th Anniversary of Tallahassee Lunch Counter Sit-Ins” on Thursday, February 13 at 6 p.m. at The Moon, 1105 E. Lafayette St.

To RSVP to attend Created Equal, visit www.LeonCountyFl.gov/CreatedEqual. Dinner and refreshments will be provided.

This year’s Created Equal event commemorates the first Tallahassee-Leon County lunch counter sit-ins held on February 13, 1960. As part of honoring the past and looking to the future, the event highlights our local civil rights history and the actions of the late Patricia Stephens Due, a FAMU student leader who spearheaded the 1960 protests through the local chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). The event seeks to answer the question: are we sitting together now?

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an evening of stories and lived experiences told by members of our own community who led and actively participated in the Tallahassee-Leon County organized lunch counter sit-ins in protest of segregation. Panelists will provide a firsthand understanding of the experiences they faced as they advocated for civil rights under the law.

The event will feature:

• Priscilla Stephens Kruize, sister of Patricia Stephens Due. The sisters held their first sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Tallahassee on February 13, 1960, and a second sit-in at the same lunch counter a week later.

• Rev. Henry Marion Steele, who was jailed at the age of 16 for his involvement in the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins. He is a son of legendary civil rights icon Rev. C.K. Steele.

• John Due, an attorney and husband of Patricia Stephens Due, who passed away in 2012. Due, who lives in Quincy, is a graduate of the Florida A&M University College of Law.

• Dan Harmeling, an active participant in Civil Rights who was arrested several times including Tallahassee as a participant in CORE led protests. Dan and his twin brother, the late James Harmeling, came to Gainesville in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement and paved the way for the integration of the University of Florida.

• Tananarive Due, born in Tallahassee, is the oldest of three daughters of John and Patricia Stephens Due. She's the author of “Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.” She’s also a screenwriter who teaches at UCLA.

To RSVP to attend Created Equal, visit: LeonCountyFL.gov/CreatedEqual.

For more information, contact Eliza Chase, The Village Square at (850) 281-1223 / Eliza@VillageSquare.Us or Leon County Community and Media Relations at (850) 606-5300 / CMR@LeonCountyFL.gov.

 

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