United Publishers Incorporated

Publishers of The Carolina Times

436 East Pettigrew Street

Phones 5-0671 and 2-29 13

Durham, North Carolina

April 14, 1960

Miss Patricia Stephens

Leon County Jail

Tallahassee, Florida

Dear Miss Stephens:

Those of us in North Carolina who have watched with interest your courageous and inspiring fight for freedom and justice in Florida are heartened by your steadfast determination now to serve out unjust jail sentences imposed on you because you sought to act like any other American citizen.

You might be interested to know that the protest movement against segregation, sparked by the lunch counter demonstrations, is gaining momentum here in North Carolina. In Durham, students from the white high schools and Duke University have joined Negro students on the picket lines. More than 500 Duke University faculty and staff members have signed a petition urging the stores in Durham to integrate their lunch counters. In addition, several white patrons of the boycotted stores have removed their credit accounts and have written the stores asking the management to change its policy. In Chapel Hill, the picketing was organized by University of North Carolina students. In Salisbury, some 60 miles southwest of Durham, merchants have opened lunch counters to everyone on an equal basis. Also, it is believed that Chapel Hill merchants and Durham merchants are planning the same thing.

These are but a few of the encouraging signs of progress. Of course, on the other side of the picture, there have been some unfortunate incidents. But you know better than anyone else perhaps the cost of making a stand for progress toward racial freedom and justice in the South.

Please continue the fight. There are thousands of North Carolina citizens, of both races, who are silently applauding what you are now doing.

Sincerely, 

[Signature] Clathan M. Ross

CMR/bfp