Florida Memory • Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

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Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

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Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

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Description

Letter of encouragement from Alfred L. Brown of Philadelphia to Patricia Stephens praising Stephens' stand against segregation and discussing injustices of apartheid in South Africa, segregation and racial violence in the United States.

Creator

Brown, Alfred L.

To

Due, Patricia Stephens, 1939-2012

Date

1960 (circa)

Subjects

Apartheid
Chessman, Caryl, 1921-1960
Collins, LeRoy (Thomas LeRoy), 1909-1991
Florida. Governor (1955-1961 : Collins)
Segregation
imprisonment

Geographic Term

Philadelphia (Pa.)
Tallahassee
Leon County

5020 Kingsessing Ave

Philadephia 43, Pa.

Dear Miss Stephens,

I am hoping that this little note will find you well and in the best of health.

I have been keeping up with the student protests through our local and Negro papers and I believe in everything that you all have done so far. I am a former resident of the south and I know from experience how humiliating it is to be accepted in one part of a store

Title

Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

Subject

imprisonment

Segregation

Apartheid

Description

Creator

Brown, Alfred L.

Source

State Archives of Florida, Collection N2015-1

Date

1960 (circa)

Format

letters (correspondence)

Language

eng-US

Type

Text

Identifier

n2015-1_b001_f11_01

Coverage

Postwar Florida (1945-1968)

ImageID

n2015-1_b001_f11_01_01

n2015-1_b001_f11_01_02

n2015-1_b001_f11_01_03

n2015-1_b001_f11_01_04

Thumbnail

/fmp/stephens_sisters/thumbnails/n2015-1_b001_f11_01.jpg

Transcript

5020 Kingsessing Ave

Philadephia 43, Pa.

Dear Miss Stephens,

I am hoping that this little note will find you well and in the best of health.

and being refused service in another part. We in America like to boast of our freedoms and the freedoms of other free nation but we will fight to the death if we must too give freedom to peoples of darker hue.

I look at South Africa today. The senseless murders of the true Africans by their oppressors and yet we do nothing about it. Chessman, a murderer a snake in the grass is sentenced to die in the gas chambers and peoples all over the world cry in anger but the darker peoples of the world are beaten, murdered, lynched and you hear only a slight murmur throughout the world.

Your confinement will not be in vain. Already we have seen the walls of segregation tumble in Houston, Miami, Suffolk Va and the statement of your own Gov. Collins about the senseless way the store owners [deny] people the right to purchase food in the stores but invite them to spend their monies on other departments.

Your cause is just - your

demonstrations are right - the time to strike is now - We will win this fight. This reminds me of a statement I read once -

If you hate me because I am dirty, I will wash but if you hate me because of my color, you also hate God because he made me this way.

Please, do not give up the struggle because it is the young like yourself who will lead us and the nation out of this darkness of hatred + ignorance into the light of Love for Thy Neighbor.

Yours truly,

Alfred L. Brown

Alfred Brown

5020 Kingsessing Ave

Phila. 43, Penna.

Miss Patricia Stephens

Leon County Jail

Tallahassee, Fla

Subject - Corporate

Florida. Governor (1955-1961 : Collins)

Subject - Person

Collins, LeRoy (Thomas LeRoy), 1909-1991

Chessman, Caryl, 1921-1960

Geographic Term

Philadelphia (Pa.)

Tallahassee (Fla.)

Leon County (Fla.)

Display Date

ca. 1960

To

Due, Patricia Stephens, 1939-2012

Chicago Manual of Style

Brown, Alfred L. Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960. 1960 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/331257>, accessed 28 February 2025.

MLA

Brown, Alfred L. Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960. 1960 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/331257>

AP Style Photo Citation

(State Archives of Florida/Brown)

Florida Memory is a digital outreach program providing free online access to select archival records from collections housed in the State Library and Archives of Florida. Florida Memory digitizes materials that illuminate the state's history and culture.

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Florida Memory is funded under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Florida's LSTA program is administered by the Department of State's Division of Library and Information Services.

For FY2024-25, the percentage of total costs for the Florida Memory program financed with federal money is 66%; the federal dollar amount to be spent on the program is $614,955. This program does not receive any non-governmental funding.

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Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

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State Archives of Florida

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Related Sites

Reconstruction era voting records

Florida's first automobile registrations

Milestones in Florida's political framework

Letters, ephemera and other historical records

Documenting Florida's chief executive officers

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Letter from Alfred L. Brown to Patricia Stephens, ca. 1960

Description

Creator

To

Date

Subjects

Geographic Term

Title

Subject

Description

Creator

Source

Date

Format

Language

Type

Identifier

Coverage

ImageID

Thumbnail

Transcript

Subject - Corporate

Subject - Person

Geographic Term

Display Date

To

Chicago Manual of Style

MLA

AP Style Photo Citation