As with most strong, powerful women, Patt never lead with her accomplishments. As with most great partnerships, she could be serene and quiet while her husband, Hodding Carter, commanded the stage, but turn that table in a heartbeat with a rapier wit. I met Patt Derian shortly after meeting Hodding, former president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami.
Patt was deeply experienced and fiercely intelligent about the ways of the world. As the Carter administration's chief human rights advocate, she tangled with the worst of the worst in diplomatic settings. There, Patt stared down men who had inflicted horrific human suffering out of view. Exposure to corrosive behavior only fortified her sense of humanity and kindness.
Patt and Hodding had a wonderful partnership until Alzheimer's gradually took her away. He cared for her loyally and lovingly in North Carolina, their home after leaving Florida. She loved spending winters in Miami, but I could tell she felt Miami was not a serious place compared to others where she had put down roots. Still, Patt delighted to learn about battles to protect the environment against an entrenched status quo; Big Sugar, developers gone wild with halos of virtue around their heads, and corrupt politicians. Her beat was inequity, and she could sense it from a mile away.
Patricia Derian was formed within that generation of whites who fought great battles to defeat segregation in the American South. She was not only part of the Freedom Riders, she owned the car with Mississippi registration when others arrived from the cold north to make constitutional rights a reality; the great battle of our times and the one from which our politics is still reeling.
Miami today is a diverse city bubbling with people from somewhere else. It is hard to imagine the commitment and determination of those in the civil rights movement at its inception where that "somewhere else" always lead back to slavery. Patt and Hodding, and their closest friends -- Joanne and Ron Goldfarb, who live on Key Biscayne -- have that in their bones.
The social inequities that Patt Derian fought to illuminate haven't disappeared. They are still here and continue to ripple as an undercurrent through American society, if not rage as they do in nations where prejudice and oppression bring out the worst of human traits.
When I think of the energy it takes to fight our battles in Florida -- whether against deniers of climate change, Big Sugar billionaires wrecking Florida's water supply and quality, or Florida Power and Light -- Patt Derian is never far from my mind. She joins other great soldiers who have passed, and in my mind at least she would head that platoon, walking point.
Patricia Derian, Diplomat Who Made Human Rights a Priority, Dies at 86
New York Times
By PAUL VITELLOMAY 20, 2016
Patricia Derian, a civil rights veteran who tangled with repressive dictators as President Jimmy Carter's chief advocate on behalf of human rights abroad, died on Friday at her home in Chapel Hill, N.C. She was 86.
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