There is still room for improvement in areas many fought to make progress in during the Civil Rights Movement, according to civil rights activists who spoke Wednesday night at Pugh Hall.
More than 200 students, Gainesville residents and civil rights workers from across the state crowded into Mackay Auditorium to hear a discussion with John and Patricia Stephens Due called “An Evening With the Dues: Pioneers in the Civil Rights Movement.”
The Dues talked about their past work and the work that still needs to be done to improve social justice.
Patricia first came to fame in 1960, when she and five other Florida A&M University students served 49 days in jail for sitting at a “whites-only” lunch counter. It was the first jail-in of the Civil Rights Movement.
She and her husband, John, a civil rights attorney, have continued to fight for civil rights and social justice ever since their days at Florida A&M and went to jail several more times for nonviolent protesting.
Joshua Porter, a political science junior, agreed with the activists, who said a fight for racial equality still exists in areas such as education.
“I think there is a sentiment out there that everything is OK because Barack Obama was elected,” Porter said. “The quality of education for whites and minorities has never been equal.”
