The Civil Rights Activist Whose Life Was Forever Changed by Tear Gas

Patricia Stephens Due wore dark glasses for much of her life after being gassed during a peaceful march in 1960

Since the beginning of June, when protests in support of Black Lives Matter began to sweep the nation, police have used tear gas in at least 100 cities, from Asheville, North Carolina, to Wichita, Kansas. Protestors have reported a wide range of medical effects, from the immediacy of burning eyes and throats to long-term effects like missed or erratic periods, or making its victims more susceptible to pneumonia or Covid-19.

Tear gas is banned by the Geneva Convention — meaning it can’t be used on the battlefield. But it has been used against protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention, against John Lewis and the protestors on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and against Patricia Stephens Due during a peaceful 1960 protest in support of students at Florida A&M University who had been jailed for participating in a sit-in.

Due would wear dark glasses for much of her life after police threw a tear gas canister at her face — they would become an iconic part of her wardrobe and are on display at the Florida archives in Tallahassee.

Tananarive Due recently spoke with GEN about the legacy of her mother’s teargassing, and how it affected her for the rest of her life:

No doctor was ever really able to help my mother…