Apology for 1944 Gang Rape Victim Recy Taylor Heads to AL Gov. Bentley

Change.org members like you are bringing about some amazing successes on the Recy Taylor campaign: yesterday, the Alabama Senate passed the resolution apologizing for the state's role in covering up the African-American woman's Jim Crow-era gang-rape.

The resolution, introduced in the House by Rep. Dexter Grimsley, passed by voice vote in both branches of the legislature. Now, the bill to "declare such failure to act ... morally abhorrent and repugnant" heads to Gov. Robert Bentley for his signature. And there are high hopes that this final step will come soon: according to the AP, Bentley "sees no reason why he wouldn’t sign it."

Change.org has been working closely with Taylor's devoted youngest brother, Robert Corbitt, whose petition on Change.org has attracted almost 20,000 signatures asking for an apology from the state of Alabama and city of Abbeville. This outpouring of support motivated Grimsley, Abbeville's state representative, to introduce the resolution that unanimously passed the House last month, making it seem like the official apology would be a sure thing. But after the resolution languished without being brought to a floor vote in the Alabama Senate, advocates rallied once again, with the Alabama NAACP joining the campaign and calling state senators to urge them to take immediate action on the apology.

"The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP is proud to be part of this significant event in the life of Mrs. Recy Taylor," Benard Simelton, President of the Alabama NAACP, told Change.org. "The NAACP applauds the efforts of the Senate and House for passing this resolution. We are confident that Governor Bentley will sign it when it arrives on his desk. However, the apology in this resolution will not eliminate or repay the pain and suffering that Mrs. Taylor endured for more than 60 years, knowing that those who committed these reprehensible acts walked around as if nothing happened. We hope this is just the beginning of Alabama's efforts to right the wrong of so many people of color who suffered and nothing was done to the perpetrators just because they were white."

Rep. Grimsley has also offered a personal apology, along with Abbeville Mayor Blalock. While Corbitt praises Grimsley for his work on behalf of Recy, he says pointedly: "I’m still waiting for the mayor to do whatever he’s gonna do." As Ben Greenberg of the Cold Case Project writes at Colorlines, neither the mayor nor the city council has been in contact with Taylor's brother since the March apology press conference. And Corbitt is not satisfied. "A personal apology and a official one is two different things," he states, and Recy Taylor deserves an official apology from both the city and the state that wronged her decades ago.

Recy Taylor is 91 years old: she shouldn't have to wait any longer for justice. Tell Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and the Abbeville City Council to take prompt action and issue an apology today. Will you be signer twenty thousand?