It's Time for an Apology for Jim Crow-Era Gang Rape Survivor
Nearly 70 years ago, Recy Taylor was gang-raped at gunpoint. Her attackers admitted to kidnapping and raping her. And nothing was ever done about it.
As a young African-American woman living in Abbeville, Alabama, in 1944, when Jim Crow laws institutionalized discrimination against black people, her hopes of legal redress were slim. Though Taylor's cause gained international attention through the efforts of a well-known civil and human rights activist, Rosa Parks, she couldn't force racist and sexist law enforcement in Abbeville to take action.
Today, Recy Taylor's name and story have been swept under the rug and go largely unrecognized in America. "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," Taylor lamented in an interview with The Root.
"It's curious, to say the least, that Taylor's name is not mentioned in history books," Cynthia Gordy criticizes in her article at The Root. "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." The modern ignorance of a case that launched a major campaign run by an impressive coalition of progressive groups, one that was successful in pressuring the Alabama governor into investigating but was then blocked by city law enforcement, is a sad reflection on our attention to the darkest spots of American history.
"It was a long time ago," Taylor told The Root. "But I still think something should have been done about it." Not so long ago that Taylor isn't still pained by the memory of the assault and failure of justice. Her brother, Robert Corbitt, has spent the last decade of his retirement searching for information on her case and seeking a long-delayed justice, after Taylor broke down into tears while telling him about the gang rape 55 years after the fact. "I'd like a public apology from the city of Abbeville and the state of Alabama," Corbitt asks, and Taylor agrees that this simple measure represents the least that could be done, after police took the lead in covering up the horrific assault against her.
Photo credit: jbcurio
Alex DiBranco
is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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