Supporting Civil Rights in the Capital City

[A black and white photograph shows a large line of people walking across Apalachee Boulevard, most of which are African American students. Some hold protest signs. They are escorted by one police officer to the left of the photo. The Nathan Mayo Building is visible in the background.]

[A color photo shows four individuals standing in a line together at an awards ceremony. From left to right are Patricia Stephens Due, Clifton Van Brunt Lewis, George Lewis II, and Dan Harmeling. The group stands behind a plaque on an easel that is titled “Historical SIte of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.” The group is smiling.]

[A black and white photo shows protesters walking in pairs under the eave of the Florida Theatre. Their signs read “We Shall Win by Love” and “Non-violence Is Our Watchword.” The protesters are African American students.]

Despite the 1961 report by the Florida Advisory Council on Race Relations documenting no problems within the state, Florida’s race relations were not unlike those found in other parts of the segregated South: tense, unequal, but slowly changing. Demonstrations ranged from protesting the segregation of local theatres and swimming pools to lunch counter sit-ins and bus boycotts.

In 1956, a six month boycott of Tallahassee city buses coincided with the well-known Montgomery, Alabama, boycott. Then, in February 1960, the first lunch counter sit-in demonstration took place downtown at Woolworth’s Department Store on Monroe Street. These sit-ins featured the first “jail over bail” demonstrators, where, instead of posting bail, protesters served out their full sentences at the county jailhouse on Gaines Street. Among these protestors were Tallahassee Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) founder Patricia Stephens (later Due), and her sister, Priscilla.

Clifton and George supported the demonstrators by different means: visiting the jailed students, sitting with the defendants during trial and defying segregated courtroom seating, and by providing funds to Tallahassee CORE. They also hosted interracial meetings in their home and participated in committees for good government and human relations. By 1963, George led the Florida Advisory Council on Race Relations and Clifton joined him for almost every interstate meeting.