Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death
Title : Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death
Link : Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death
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.'
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
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.
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.
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.
A documentary on her case, 'The Rape of Recy Taylor,' was released last year to critical acclaim
‘I didn’t know anything about this,’ says filmmaker Nancy Buirski, who first came across Recy’s case in the book At the Dark End of the Street, by author Danielle L. McGuire. ‘It had been I guess what I would call another hidden story in our long history of hidden stories dealing with race – not only her story but the incredible number of rapes that were taking place at that time.
‘I was more familiar with the staggering number of lynchings that took place, but I wasn’t aware of the rapes,’ says Ms Buirski. ‘I also wasn’t aware of what an important role women and women’s organizations played in that time to help other women who needed justice.’
Ms Buirski has previously shone a spotlight on racial issues with her documentary The Loving Story, about a married white man and black woman fighting for the right to be together in 1950s Virginia; a subsequent feature film, Loving, came out last year and earned an Oscar nomination for star Ruth Negga.
A native New Yorker, the filmmaker headed down South to interview Recy, her relatives and other members of the Abbeville community.
‘Once you undertake a story this powerful and feel such a responsibility to tell it fairly … and honestly … with sensitivity and dignity, [it’s] a very moving process,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘Being In touch with Recy’s family, getting to know Recy, getting to know her brother and her sister was incredibly powerful – probably life-changing.
Filmmaker Nancy Buirski traveled to Alabama to interview Recy and her family for the documentary; she says that, particularly in the wake of the current sexual assault discussion in the national media, it's important to highlight and honor the brave historical contributions of black women such as Recy Taylor
‘To say I was emotional is almost an understatement,’ she says, adding that she was ‘incredibly moved and honored to have been working with them.’
Recy’s brother, Robert Corbitt, and her sister, Alma, feature heavily in the documentary. Their mother died 13 months after the birth of Robert, and Recy was devoted to looking after him. But she was married with a baby and living away from the home she previously shared with her father and siblings when the attack occurred.
The friends she’d been walking with had raised the alert about what had happened, and Recy’s family and supposedly the sheriff – Lewey Corbitt, who shared the family’s surname because his ancestors had owned their previous generations as slaves – were out looking for her.
‘I’m not sure whether he was doing very much looking,’ Robert wryly says of the sheriff in the film.
He says: ‘My father was walking everywhere and looking for her; he had been to two others lovers’ lanes here, and he was walking til his shirt was wet with sweat – because he didn’t know where they took her to. He saw a shadow of somebody about, oh, four blocks away; turned out it was Recy they had brought back. And she came running down to where he was and she put her arms around him, held onto him a while.’
Shortly afterwards, he says, the authorities showed up and drove Recy and her father to the family home, where Robert and Alma were crying on the porch. The family was so scarred by the attack, they say, that their father, Benny, took to sleeping outside in a tree with his double-barreled shotgun to protect them.
A documentary on her case, 'The Rape of Recy Taylor,' was released last year to critical acclaim
‘I didn’t know anything about this,’ says filmmaker Nancy Buirski, who first came across Recy’s case in the book At the Dark End of the Street, by author Danielle L. McGuire. ‘It had been I guess what I would call another hidden story in our long history of hidden stories dealing with race – not only her story but the incredible number of rapes that were taking place at that time.
‘I was more familiar with the staggering number of lynchings that took place, but I wasn’t aware of the rapes,’ says Ms Buirski. ‘I also wasn’t aware of what an important role women and women’s organizations played in that time to help other women who needed justice.’
Ms Buirski has previously shone a spotlight on racial issues with her documentary The Loving Story, about a married white man and black woman fighting for the right to be together in 1950s Virginia; a subsequent feature film, Loving, came out last year and earned an Oscar nomination for star Ruth Negga.
A native New Yorker, the filmmaker headed down South to interview Recy, her relatives and other members of the Abbeville community.
‘Once you undertake a story this powerful and feel such a responsibility to tell it fairly … and honestly … with sensitivity and dignity, [it’s] a very moving process,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘Being In touch with Recy’s family, getting to know Recy, getting to know her brother and her sister was incredibly powerful – probably life-changing.
Filmmaker Nancy Buirski traveled to Alabama to interview Recy and her family for the documentary; she says that, particularly in the wake of the current sexual assault discussion in the national media, it's important to highlight and honor the brave historical contributions of black women such as Recy Taylor
‘To say I was emotional is almost an understatement,’ she says, adding that she was ‘incredibly moved and honored to have been working with them.’
Recy’s brother, Robert Corbitt, and her sister, Alma, feature heavily in the documentary. Their mother died 13 months after the birth of Robert, and Recy was devoted to looking after him. But she was married with a baby and living away from the home she previously shared with her father and siblings when the attack occurred.
The friends she’d been walking with had raised the alert about what had happened, and Recy’s family and supposedly the sheriff – Lewey Corbitt, who shared the family’s surname because his ancestors had owned their previous generations as slaves – were out looking for her.
‘I’m not sure whether he was doing very much looking,’ Robert wryly says of the sheriff in the film.
He says: ‘My father was walking everywhere and looking for her; he had been to two others lovers’ lanes here, and he was walking til his shirt was wet with sweat – because he didn’t know where they took her to. He saw a shadow of somebody about, oh, four blocks away; turned out it was Recy they had brought back. And she came running down to where he was and she put her arms around him, held onto him a while.’
Shortly afterwards, he says, the authorities showed up and drove Recy and her father to the family home, where Robert and Alma were crying on the porch. The family was so scarred by the attack, they say, that their father, Benny, took to sleeping outside in a tree with his double-barreled shotgun to protect them.
Recy’s brother, Robert Corbitt (pictured), and her sister, Alma, feature heavily in the documentary. Their mother died 13 months after the birth of Robert, and Recy was devoted to looking after him.
‘My sister didn’t have any more kids after that – never got pregnant after that,’ Alma says of the rape. ‘They didn’t only just have sex with her … they played in her body.’
‘What happens to Recy’s case after the second grand jury? Nothing,’ says author McGuire. ‘Nothing happens to Recy’s case.
‘The committee regroups as the Committee for Equal Justice, because crimes like this happen again and again and again across the South. They organize to defend another black woman in another state who’s been assaulted by a group of white men.
‘It’s common in a lot of social movements for victims of crime to be used as symbols, as figures that people can rally around – then, when they become less useful, the organization moves on. It’s really a tragedy, because I don’t think Recy Taylor really knew the extent to which so many people around the country rallied to her defense and took comfort or encouragement from her brave testimony. But she also didn’t really know when they decided to move on, because no one consulted with her.
‘She goes on with her life; she goes on living, she’s back in Abbeville and the attention has moved elsewhere – and I think she’s largely forgotten about. And she leads a very hard life as a sharecropper; she moves to Florida to pick oranges, her marriage ends, her daughter dies in a tragic car accident.’
Life continued in Abbeville and the men – a number of whom joined the military and fought overseas – went unpunished by the law. Several relatives are interviewed in Buirski’s documentary.
Recy's sister, Alma, is featured heavily in the documentary and points out that, after the attack, Recy was unable to have other children; she is visibly upset recounting her sister's assault
Leamon Lee, the brother of Luther Lee – both of whom were nephews of Sheriff Corbitt – says : ‘Luther got a pretty bad whipping for something, and I never did know what it was. My dad worked him over, not with his fists, he had a strap … I never did know exactly what it was …. But I knew there was something.’
He said that, in Abbeville at the time, anyone in the town ‘would not tell on anybody else.’
Recy’s family – and the team behind the documentary – hope the film sparks dialogue and opens people’s eyes to not only the injustices of the past but issues that continue to be relevant today.
Ms Buirski says her goal is ‘helping them understand that something so epic has happened in our country, and that we didn’t know about it.
‘The fact that so few people know about the staggering number of rapes that took place in the Twenties, Thirties, Forties, Fifties … it’s almost like a country got hit. It’s that epic, when you think about how much this was taking place and how little justice was ever achieved by the women who were raped – so that staggering kind of reveal. And the question is, how do we deal with that entitlement that men, white men, had in those days and many men have today to take advantage of women, to assault women, whether they’re black or white?
‘We’re in the middle of a very dynamic conversation about this right now, and the film plays right into it – a conversation, by the way, that has not advocated black women, so that’s another conversation.’
The documentary, she says, aims ‘to remind people that Recy Taylor spoke up in 1944. An African American woman who was in terrible danger for her life and her family’s safety, too – how courageous is that? We need to recognize that there have been African American women who have been dealing with this kind of trauma for decades – decades. It’s not just something that’s happening today to white women – and, as courageous as the white women are today who are speaking up, we should honor the African Americans who have been silenced for such a long time.’
Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death
Enough news articles Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death this time, hopefully can benefit for you all. Well, see you in other article postings.
Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death
You are now reading the article Kidnapped, gang raped by six white men, dumped by the side of the road - then ignored: The real story of Recy Taylor who Oprah paid tribute to in Golden Globes speech a week after her death with the link address https://randomfindtruth.blogspot.com/2018/01/kidnapped-gang-raped-by-six-white-men.html
Related Posts :
Essence Fest Could Be A Safe Space For Black Trans Women, Too
These pictures capture the vibrant residents of a single East Berlin street, 1986-1987- Immigrant PhD candidate rocked by sudden US Army discharge
- 3 YouTube Vloggers Die in Tragic Accident After Falling Over Waterfall in British Columbia
- The Jamestown Colony’s Desperate Descent Into Cannibalism During The Starving Time
