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Alabama may finally acknowledge Jim Crow era rape of Recy Taylor

Almost 67 years ago during the Jim Crow era,  Recy Taylor was raped and held at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Alabama on September 3 in 1944.  Unfortunately, her rape was one of many cases where a black woman never got justice.  Because the multiple men who raped her were white men from priveleged families, they never went to jail or went to trial, although they openly admitted to the viscous gang rape.  Taylor was a mother of a 2 year-old and married at the time of her attack.  She is now 91 years of age and resides in Alabama.  Yesterday, March 21, over 6,000 members of Change.org, emailed Abbeville Mayor Ryan Blalock.  As a direct result of this, Alabama State Rep. Dexter Grimsley personally apologized to Recy and her family for Alabama’s failure to prosecute her rapists and deny her justice all of these years.

In her book At the Dark End of the Street Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, ...

Alabama may finally acknowledge Jim Crow era rape of Recy Taylor

Almost 67 years ago during the Jim Crow era,  Recy Taylor was raped and held at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Alabama on September 3 in 1944.  Unfortunately, her rape was one of many cases where a black woman never got justice.  Because the multiple men who raped her were white men from priveleged families, they never went to jail or went to trial, although they openly admitted to the viscous gang rape.  Taylor was a mother of a 2 year-old and married at the time of her attack.  She is now 91 years of age and resides in Alabama.  Yesterday, March 21, over 6,000 members of Change.org, emailed Abbeville Mayor Ryan Blalock.  As a direct result of ...

Almost 67 years ago during the Jim Crow era,  Recy Taylor was raped and held at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Alabama on September 3 in 1944.  Unfortunately, her rape was one of ...

Dear Chris Smith, Your bill still sucks.

Chris Smith’s “No Taxpayer for Abortion” Act seeks to limit women’s choices by ridding federal funding for women to have an abortion in cases of rape and incest.  Initially, the bill’s language sought to redefine rape to fit his opinion of what constitutes rape.  You see, rape is only rape if it involves physical force.  Let me first make one thing very clear, since apparently we are still fighting over maintaining what rights we have over our own bodies. It is utterly disgusting to blame or punish a rape victim, whether one considers it “forcible” rape or not. Limiting rape to “forcible rape” completely excludes cases where a woman is drugged.  Smith, last time I checked, I believe that rape is ...

Chris Smith’s “No Taxpayer for Abortion” Act seeks to limit women’s choices by ridding federal funding for women to have an abortion in cases of rape and incest.  Initially, the bill’s language sought to redefine rape to ...