Imagine living in the Jim Crow South as a young African American woman, being sexually assaulted and having to wait for almost 70 years to obtain some reasonable fascicle of justice for it. This is what happened to Recy Taylor who, in 1944, was traumatized by the above experience. At the time, Taylor was 24, married and living in Henry County when she was gang-raped by a group of white men in Abbeville, Ala., after walking home from church. She was next abducted, assaulted and left on the side of the road.
On March 21, 2011, she was offered an apology from leaders of the rural southeast Alabama community.
Last year, in an interview with the Associated Press, Taylor indicated that she believed that all who were involved in raping her were most likely dead and that she would like to get an apology from the state – who now admits that her attackers escaped prosecution because of racism and a less-than-efficient investigation by police. At the time, two all-white, all-male grand juries declined to bring charges.
At a news conference held at the Henry County Courthouse, county probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith told Taylor’s relatives that, “It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944.”
The 91-year-old Taylor, who is in poor health and was unable to travel to Abbeville, now lives in Florida. Taylor’s story is included in a book, along with several other African American women who were raped and attacked by white men during the civil rights era, called At the Dark End of the Street. The book was written by Danielle McGuire and was published last year. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
Torrance Stephens authors the blog rawdawgb.blogspot.com. Find him on twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo.
