Recy Taylor: A Symbol of Jim Crow's Forgotten Horror
After her brutal gang rape, Recy Taylor became a global symbol of American injustice and helped inspire the civil rights movement. So why has nobody heard of her today
Sept. 3, 1944: It's a damp evening in the Alabama black belt, nearly midnight, but services at Rock Hill Holiness Church in the small town of Abbeville have just let out. Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old sharecropper, sets out along the town's fertile peanut plantations, accompanied for the walk home by two other worshippers from the African-American congregation. Moments later, a green Chevrolet rolls by -- and their routine journey takes a horrifying turn.
Wielding knives and guns, seven white men get out of the car, according to Taylor and witnesses from a state investigation of the case. One shoves Taylor in the backseat; the rest squeeze in after her and ride off. Her panicked friends run to tell the sheriff.
After parking in a deserted grove of pecan trees, the men order the young wife and mother out at gunpoint, shouting at her to undress. Six of them rape Taylor that night. Once finished, they drive her back to the road, ordering her out again before roaring off into the darkness.
Days after the brutal attack, Taylor's story traveled through word of mouth, catching the attention of a Montgomery NAACP activist named Rosa Parks. A seasoned anti-rape crusader, who focused on the sexual assaults of black women that were commonplace in the segregated South, Parks would eventually help bring the case international notice. Despite her efforts, however, in Jim Crow-era Alabama, Taylor's assailants were never punished.
It's curious, to say the least, that Taylor's name is not mentioned in history books. While most analyses of circumstances that inspired the civil rights movement focus on black men -- being lynched or railroaded into jail, or facing down segregationists -- the stories of countless black women like Recy Taylor, who were raped by white men during the same era, have gone understated, if not overlooked entirely.
Nearly 70 years later, having such a brutal attack swept under the rug is still a source of pain for a surviving victim.
"Wasn't nothing done about it," Taylor, now 91, told The Root in a phone interview from her Florida home. "The sheriff never even said he was sorry it happened. I think more people should know about it … but ain't nobody [in Abbeville] saying nothing."
Organizing a National Movement
At the time, others -- more than she ever knew -- did speak out in defense of Taylor. Her brother Robert Corbitt, now 74, was just 8 years old when his eldest sister was kidnapped, but he remembers that night well, and all that followed.
He recalls crying on the porch of their childhood home as their father, Benny Corbitt, went out looking for her. "He came back by the house about three times, and each time, his shirt was wringing with sweat," he told The Root. "Nobody slept that night."
Two days later, he remembers, someone threw a firebomb at the home of Taylor, her husband and their 3-year-old daughter. "After that, they moved in with us," said Corbitt. "At night, my father would sit in a tree and guard the house with a shotgun."
The following month, in a farce of a grand jury trial at which none of the assailants even showed up, an all-white, all-male jury elected not to indict.
The family didn't know it back then, but Parks, dispatched by the Montgomery NAACP to investigate the case, was setting the gears in motion for a far-reaching campaign. "Miss Parks told me to go with her to Montgomery until things were clear," said Taylor, who stayed for three months in a rooming house, arranged for by Parks, before returning home. "She was trying to get something done. I'm not sure what. I was young and didn't know nothing about law and stuff like that."
Parks saw an opportunity to hold up Taylor's story as a national example of Southern injustice. She partnered with other progressive groups -- including the now mostly forgotten Southern Negro Youth Congress, the defense team of the Scottsboro Boys, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and other labor organizers, as well as communist networks -- to form the Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor. The coalition became a national movement that the Chicago Defender called "the strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade," and daily stories on the case were printed in newspapers across the nation, from Baltimore to Los Angeles.
But not in the tiny town of Abbeville, where Taylor's family was largely unaware of the proceedings. Corbitt had quite a shock, years later, as a soldier stationed in Germany. "A German guy asked me where I was from, and when I told him Alabama, he started to tell a story he knew about that happened there," he said. "He was talking about my sister."
Danielle McGuire, an assistant professor of history at Wayne State University and author of the recently published book At the Dark End of the Street, documenting Taylor's story as well as others from the civil rights era, says that the broader goal of the Committee for Equal Justice was to quash the legacy of Jim Crow. "They used the horror of her story to highlight the hypocrisy of the United States -- at war around the world for democracy, and yet there was no democracy at home," McGuire told The Root. "They might have not seen Recy Taylor as sophisticated enough to be a spokesperson for the campaign, so a lot of this was organized without the family's knowledge."
The effort included a massive letter-writing campaign to Alabama Gov. Chauncey Sparks in order to shame the state into bringing Taylor's abductors to trial. Worried about the impact on Alabama's reputation, Sparks arranged an investigation and even got admission statements from the assailants. "He and the attorney general believed the guys were guilty, and they were ready to do something," explained McGuire. The only problem was that in Alabama law, a criminal case can't proceed without an indictment in the county where the crime happened.
"They just were not going to indict their neighbors and sons in Abbeville," said McGuire. There was no further hearing.
A Forgotten History
As the years passed, talk of the incident faded out. Somewhere along the way, it seems that history also forgot Recy Taylor and black women like her, many of whom also testified about the crimes committed against them. Although some African-American historians, such as Darlene Clark Hine, have cited incidents of rape as catalysts for the Great Migration, it hasn't been part of the civil rights story in the major historical world.
"I think that has to do with, on some level, historians having a narrow focus on what 'civil rights' means," said McGuire. "It has always meant voter registration and desegregation of public accommodations and schools, but in the 1940s in particular, the movement was really focused on human rights."
Meanwhile, Taylor and her family did their best to forget and move on. Corbitt eventually settled in New York City, but during a visit home in 1999, he and his sister got to talking about the rape. "She started to cry," he said. "I didn't realize she was still hurting that bad. She tried to hold it inside all those years, but she talked freely to me. When I retired in 2001 and moved back to Abbeville, I decided to devote my time to trying to find some way to help her get justice."
Corbitt spent days at the library, poring over microfilms of newspapers from the era. Nothing turned up but missing pages. The county courthouse had no record of the incident. He had nearly given up when, in 2008, he typed his sister's name into an online search engine. Up popped an essay by Danielle McGuire referencing the case. Finally: historical recognition that this had happened.
"The article said the name of the man that held the gun on her and forced her to get in the car," Corbitt said. "Just exposing this man's name was a little measure of justice."
After meeting McGuire and learning more about Abbeville's handling of his sister's assault, he redirected his anger from the rapists to the police. "All of the men admitted that they kidnapped and raped her, but the police covered for them and said they didn't do it," he said. "That was a hard pill to swallow."
Corbitt doesn't think he's asking for much these days. "I'd like a public apology from the city of Abbeville and the state of Alabama," he said. "Most of the white people here don't know anything about what happened, because the police kept it such a secret."
It's unclear what legal options the family has today, but because Alabama has no statute of limitations on rape, McGuire posits that Taylor's case could potentially be reopened if the assailants are still alive. "There may be a possibility that they could sue the county or sheriff's department for obstruction of justice, given the cover-up," she said. "A creative attorney could certainly find a way."
As for Taylor, she agrees with her brother that an apology is the least anyone could do. She also blames herself for some of the hush-hush nature of her story. "I should have talked more about it too myself," she said. "At the time, I didn't want nobody to think something like that happened to me. I thought folks were going to talk about me and say, 'You was raped.' I was ashamed of it, and I didn't know how to go about talking about it."
She pauses, lost for a moment in her thoughts. "It was a long time ago," she says finally. "But I still think something should have been done about it."
Cynthia Gordy is the Washington reporter for The Root.
Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
Why 1944 rape case still resonates with African-Americans
Recy Taylor (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File) By Leslie Pitterson Clutch Magazine
The story of Recy Taylor's rape is making news decades after it occurred. Taylor is a 91-year-old black woman who was abducted and raped at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Alabama on Sept. 3, 1944.
Now, many years after the horrible incident, Mrs. Taylor has received an apology from leaders in rural Southeast Alabama. Yesterday, at a press conference Democratic State Rep. Dexter Grimsley of Newville addressed members of Taylor's family acknowledging the failure of authorities to investigate and pursue justice for her case.
I would like to extend a deep, heartfelt apology for the error we made here in Alabama. It was so unkind. We can't stand around and say that it didn't happen.
Many have said that the apology should have come from the entire state of Alabama. They say that the onus is not only on this community but on those in the federal government to respond as well. They certainly have a case and should pursue an apology on behalf of the government to Mrs. Taylor and the countless other black women whose rapes at the hands of white men went systematically unpunished by a racism plagued government.
But reading the news reports on yesterday's press conference, I was struck by a small detail in the report. Taylor's youngest brother, , has fought long and hard to get officials to recognize the wrong done against his sister. Though he was only a child when his sister was brutally raped, he has gone over the rejection of her case by an all-white grand jury with a fine toothcomb. He learned how prosecutors false accused his sister of being a prostitute. He studied how Rosa Parks and other prominent activists launched the Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor on his sisters' behalf.
Mrs. Taylor's brother had also kept tabs on the seven men accused in the gang rape of his sister. According to Corbitt's interview with the Anniston Star, six of the seven men identified as his sister's attackers were dead.
What stood out to me in reading reports on the story was Corbitt and Taylor's lack of concern over the fate of remaining living offender. Alabama is one of six previously segregated Southern states with no statute of limitations on rape. Yet, bringing this man forward to face trial was neither Corbitt nor Taylor's concern. Instead, Corbitt says that he was focused on an apology from the State because of what he thought mattered more:
I would like to see her have some peace before she leaves this earth. What hurt her the most was their saying this never happened.
Though he did not say it and did not have to- Mr. Corbitt's sister is a remarkably strong woman. Not only did Mrs. Taylor endure the horrible experience of rape, she had risen above the hatred that fueled the attack. Though she certainly would have every right, she was not placing emphasis on the punishment of her still living attacker, but on the acknowledgment of the injustice inflicted on her and other black women in that time.
Corbitt says that he would like to see his sister have some peace before she leaves this earth, but her emphasis' on justice over hatred suggests she has already found a way within her spirit to create some refuge from the storm.
Mrs. Taylor deserves an apology from the highest levels of our government. She deserved it years ago and certainly before she leaves this earth. But I think what she deserves to be remembered for goes beyond the horrible violence inflicted upon her but also the powerful brand of mercy she carried in her spirit that gave her a freedom from the injustice around her and an ability to endure.
At 91, Mrs. Taylor has outlived six of her seven attackers. Though her health kept her from attending yesterday's press conference, there is no doubt of that woman's spirit or her strength.
As black women, we come from a history of injustice but also triumph. Through the trials still facing us and the challenges we face individually and collectively today, we could do good to remember the spirit of Mrs. Taylor and the strength that comes from finding some refuge within.
quote:A groundbreaking book by Danielle L. McGuire. The author gives us the never-before-told history of how the civil rights movement began; how it was in part started in protest against the ritualistic rape of black women by white men who used economic intimidation, sexual violence, and terror to derail the freedom movement; and how those forces persisted unpunished throughout the Jim Crow era. Black women's protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South that began during WWII and went through to the Black Power Movement. The Montgomery bus boycott was the baptism, not the birth, of that movement.
Posts: 3446 | From: U.S. by way of JA by way of Africa | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
pandora charmsThe particular Ugg boot http://www.best-uggboots.com parchment boot styles usually http://www.buyuggboots-ie.com/ are thought to be http://uggclearance-ugg.net formerly utilized by simply Indigen Aussies as well as were created to meet the distinct wants. http://bootsbestclearance.net Nonetheless, this particular boots or shoes features apparently determined it is technique to the particular http://cheap-uggboots-ie.com/ kisses of modern http://www.uggbootsoutlet-ie.net individuals. They are ghd straighteners cheapneeded with regard to their excellent pattern http://bestukuggboots.net/ ensuring the wearers' wellbeing in addition to the good quality lambskin made use of in which means durability. http://uggsclearanceuggs.net Extra specifically, http://www.best-uggclearance.com most of these brand footwear are generally exclusively made from quality displayed ugg http://uggsclearanceuggs.com/ Manufactured http://www.uggclearance-ugg.com in addition to very well-processed nationwide, which is almost your combined presented made of woll http://www.uggbootsclearance1.us lining having a modern comfortable buckskin aspect in addition to obtusely set made of wool fleece coat conversely. http://www.bootsuggoutlet.net/ Due to ghd saleemployed product of high quality, this specific brand name shoes is very special plus charming. http://bestuggclearance.net Simply yet thus modern, ugg degree boots are supposed to present luxurious ease for your toes. They are created to become tear-resistant, winter protected that's why people like getting no less than a pair of these http://www.uggclearance-shop.net individuals. These kind of flatted soled sneakers tend to be preferred by both women and men in order to use above rugged terrain making sure http://www.uggbootsstore-ie.com security with regard to their paws but without doubt cozy to be http://www.uggbootsclearance1.net able to sense. Ordinarily, the following sneakers will really come out after they help to make the first appearance. Even though the huge cumbersome seem appears breakaway in the manner tradition, this kind of http://uggbootsclearance-ie.net unusual overall look will surely find most sight and for that reason these types of shoes or http://uggson-clearance.com boots usually are ghd canadaadored by means of somebody that consider a little something actually particular to check distinctive and stylish. There are actually cool variants around the common flatsoled shoes or boots which will make that sneakers interesting and interesting. This Uggs http://www.uggclearance-onsale.com can be bought in many colors and humorous styles which could surely repast sight. Apart from those people classic types which signify this merely sheepskin manner inside greatest, there's also stylish along with bold types as well as colorings to match any vivid palate. Knitted types of any constructed from wool http://www.uggboots-outlet-ie.net blend will be the high light of your revolutionary Uggs manner series. ghd canada This particular winter weather is said for being the particular most frigid season of an thousand several years. http://www.uggbootsoutletus.net What have you well prepared for this? Puberulent and comfortable, parchment Uggs are viewed as to be a must-have http://www.uggonclearance.net got to think that winter to help maximum.
Posts: 138 | Registered: Oct 2011
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic