Patricia S. Due dead: Civil rights leader, dies at 72

The leader of the nation's first jail-in, Patricia S. Due, died Tuesday at age 72. Due's family said that she died fighting a tough fight against cancer. As a civil rights leader Due is known for being arrested for sitting at a Woolworth's lunch counter at the age of 20. CNN reports:

The stories we tell often leave room for only one hero.

In America, our civil rights hero is Martin Luther King.

But even he recognized the sacrifice of heroines like Patricia Stephens Due.

"Going to jail for a righteous cause is a badge of honor and a symbol of dignity. I assure you that your valiant witness is one of the glowing epics of our time and you are bringing all of America [to] the threshold of the world's bright tomorrows," King said in a telegram to Due and fellow students.

Patricia Stephens Due stayed in jail for 49 days, refusing to pay bail after she was arrested for sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida.

"We are all so very happy to do this so that we can help our city, state and nation. We strongly believe that Martin Luther King was right when he said, 'We've got to fill the jails to win our equal right'," she wrote in a letter to the Congress of Racial Equality's James Robinson.

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