Oprah Winfrey used her inspirational Golden Globes speech to invoke the name of an African-American woman who died last week, decades after her horrific kidnap and gang rape by white men in 1944 was ignored by police.
Recy Taylor’s fight for justice in Alabama encapsulated the racial divide in the Jim Crow South and became a lightning rod for civil rights struggles around America.
She died aged 97 on December 29, 73 years after an all-white, all-male jury refused to indict her six white attackers – despite their admission of guilt to authorities. They have never been charged.
Recy Taylor, who died aged 97 on December 29, garnered national attention when an all-white, all-male jury refused to indict her six white male attackers, despite their admission of guilt to authorities
Then, aged just 24, the married African-American woman was walking home from church with two friends when a car approached carrying seven men who forced her in at gunpoint, before driving her to a grove of pine trees at the side of the road
Then, aged just 24, the married woman was walking home from church with two friends when a car carrying seven men approached.
The men kidnapped her at gunpoint, before driving to a grove of pine trees at the side of a deserted road.
There, at least six of the teenage boys made the mother-of-one undress and took turns in raping her. Once they were finished they left her blindfolded at the side of the road miles from her home in Abbeville, Alabama.
Told she would be killed if she went to the police, brave Taylor put her faith in the justice system and identified the men but none were ever prosecuted.
There, at least six of the teenage boys made the mother-of-one undress and took turns in raping her. Once they were done with her they left her at the side of the road in a deserted area, blindfolded and miles from her Abbeville home in Alabama
Six years before her death, and 67 years after she became the center of a civil rights struggle, the Alabama state government apologized to her for ‘its failure to prosecute her attackers.’
Two grand juries failed to indict any of her attackers, causing uproar in the black community who fought for justice in a system infected with institutionalized racism.
Six years before her death, and 67 years after she became the center of a civil rights struggle, the Alabama state government apologized to her for ‘its failure to prosecute her attackers.’
She was ‘raped and left blindfolded by the side of the road, coming home from church,’ Winfrey told the Golden Globes audience, on the day that, ironically, would have been Recy’s 98th birthday.
‘They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone,’ Winfrey went on.
‘She lived, as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by the brutally powerful men,’ she added.
Speaking to a room intent on challenging systemic sexism and abuse within their own industry, Recy’s assault galvanized black people across the country, sowing the seeds for the Civil Rights movement that would come.
Told she would be killed if she went to the police, brave Taylor put her faith in the justice system and identified the men – none were ever prosecuted. Two grand juries failed to indict any of her attackers, causing uproar in the black community who fought for justice in a system infected with institutionalized racism
In order to survive she had to beg for her life. Taylor had promised them that if they didn’t kill her and let her go home to her child, she wouldn’t tell anybody, her brother Robert Corbitt recalled in a documentary released last year
Despite this, in a 2010 interview Taylor said she believed the men who attacked her were all dead but that she still wanted an apology from officials.
‘It would mean a whole lot to me,’ Taylor said. ‘The people who done this to me… they can’t do no apologizing. Most of them is gone.’
But in order to outlive the men, first she had to beg for her life.
Taylor promised them that if they didn’t kill her and let her go home to her child, she would tell no one, her brother Robert Corbitt recalled in a documentary released last year.
‘As soon as she got back, she told everything that she could tell,’ he said.
She described the green Chevrolet, which allowed the sheriff to quickly identify the owner as local boy Hugo Wilson.
Six of the boys eventually admitted the rape, though one – 14-year-old Billy Howerton, who knew Recy – said that he declined to rape her. Faced with death threats and even a firebombing attack on her porch, Recy moved back to her family home
In a bid to discredit her, viscous rumours were spread claiming she was a prostitute, that the rape was consensual and that she was not the devoted Christian she claimed to be
‘He was only about, I’d say, two football fields away from our house where he lived just down the street,’ Robert added.
Six of the boys eventually admitted the rape, though one – 14-year-old Billy Howerton, who knew Recy – said that he declined to rape her.
As national attention focused on the incident, and faced with death threats and even a firebombing attack on her porch, Recy moved back to her family’s home for safety.
Meanwhile, viscous rumours were spread claiming she was a prostitute, that the rape was consensual and that she was not the devoted Christian she claimed to be.
Soon after, Rosa Parks turned up at their sharecropper residence, years before the bus protest that would write her name into history. At the time, Parks was a member and investigator for the NCAAP
Parks was to form The Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs Recy Taylor, which began to urge black communities across the country to write letters calling for a proper investigation and trial into the case
Soon after, Rosa Parks turned up at their sharecropper residence – years before the bus protest that would write her name into history. At the time, Parks was a member and investigator for the NCAAP.
No sooner than had Parks arrived that local sheriff Lewey Corbitt followed, threatening Parks and forcing her out of the area.
Undeterred, Parks was to form The Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs Recy Taylor, which began to urge black communities across the country to write letters calling for a proper investigation and trial into the case.
Finally making headlines nationally, the pressure cultivated by Parks’ campaigns led Alabama Governor Chauncey Sparks to order another investigation into the case.
Despite a second grand jury hearing on February 14, 1945 – another all-male, all-white jury refused to indict the men involved. Wilson, Dillard York, Billy Howerton, Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper and Robert Gamble were able to escape justice, under the gaze of a nation that had become accustomed to injustice and white supremacy in its institutions
A documentary on her case, ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor,’ was released last year to critical acclaim
Despite a second grand jury hearing on February 14, 1945 – another all-male, all-white jury refused to indict the men involved.
Wilson, Dillard York, Billy Howerton, Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper and Robert Gamble were able to escape justice – under the gaze of a nation that had become accustomed to injustice and white supremacy in its institutions.
As the Civil Rights movement moved forward – rallying behind Rosa Parks who refused to move, and Emmett Till who had been brutally murdered for talking to a white woman – Taylor’s ordeal was not yet over.
Still fearing for her life she moved to Florida where she picked oranges. Separating from her husband, who died in the early Sixties, she suffered unbearable grief when her daughter was killed in a car crash.
Her two subsequent partners also died and she was brought back to Abbeville by her family when, in older age, her health began to fail.
Now Winfrey, who was awarded the Cecil B DeMille award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment, has returned the nations’ gaze to Taylor and the injustices she suffered.
A documentary on her case, ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor,’ was released last year to critical acclaim.