Recy Taylor (née Corbitt; December 31, 1919 – December 28, 2017)[2]: 297 was an African-American woman from Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama. She was born and raised in a sharecropping family in the Jim Crow era Southern United States. In the 1940s, Taylor's refusal to remain silent about her rape by white men led to organizing in the African-American community for justice and civil rights.
On September 3, 1944, Taylor was kidnapped while leaving church and gang-raped by six white men.[2]: xv–xvii [3][4] Despite the men's confessions to authorities, two grand juries subsequently declined to indict the men; no charges were ever brought against her assailants.[5]
In 2011, the Alabama Legislature officially apologized on behalf of the state "for its failure to prosecute her attackers." Taylor's rape, refusal to remain silent, and the subsequent court cases were among the early instances of nationwide protest and activism among the African-American community, and ended up providing an organizational spark in the civil rights movement.[2]: 39
At the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Oprah Winfrey discussed and brought awareness to Taylor's story.[6] The Congressional Black Caucus led Democratic Caucus members in wearing red "Recy" pins while attending the 2018 State of the Union, where Taylor's granddaughter, Mary Joyce Owens, was a guest.[7]
^McGuire, Danielle L. (December 6, 2010). "Rosa Parks' political journey didn't begin on the bus". The Grio.
^ abcMcGuire, Danielle L. (2010). At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-26906-5.
^Chan, Sewell (December 29, 2017). "Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97". New York Times. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
^"Recy Taylor". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
^Chan, Sewell (December 29, 2017). "Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
^Vincent, Alice (2018). "Recy Taylor: the woman whose rape inspired Rosa Parks in 1944, and is inspiring Oprah Winfrey today". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
^"'She spoke up': Lawmakers wear 'Recy' pins in honor of Recy Taylor". Nbcnews.com. January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. RecyTaylor.: 15 Although they did not succeed in obtaining justice in court for Taylor, the mobilization of the black...
(also known as the Committee for Equal Justice for the Rights of Mrs. RecyTaylor) was an organization founded with the goal of assisting black women reclaim...
white men accused of raping black women. For example, in the case of RecyTaylor, who was gang-raped by six white men in Alabama, the men were never found...
RecyTaylor, a black woman from Abbeville, Alabama. Parks and other civil rights activists organized "The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor"...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
of Daylight", first heard in Shutter Island, in her film The Rape of RecyTaylor. In December 2017, an excerpt of Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi –...
as an 'all-white' state". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2017. Taylor, Quintard (Summer 1982). "Slaves and Free Men: Blacks in the Oregon Country...
entitled The Rape of RecyTaylor about RecyTaylor, an African-American woman from Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama. In 1944, Taylor was kidnapped while...
Pillsbury's death in 1926, was skeptical that Taylor was raped, based on his personal knowledge of James Taylor: "They came from a good Cedar Key family....
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Abbeville, Alabama, to investigate the gang rape of RecyTaylor. The protest that arose around the Taylor case was the first instance of a nationwide civil...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Tong (2014) Murder of Romona Moore (2015) Racine County Jane Doe (1999) RecyTaylor (2017) Death of Sania Khan (2022) "700 mujeres muertas por violencia...
To Black People? Ava DuVernay Reveals All In New NMAAHC Film". Essence. Taylor, Ella (February 12, 2018). "Reviewed: This Year's 5 Oscar-Nominated Live-Action...
daughter of the famed Horace Greeley Beecher Taylor, better known as "Peg Leg" Taylor. According to Taylor's great-granddaughter, who has passed on Eloise's...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Texas Rebecca Taylor (politician) (born 1975), English politician RecyTaylor (1919–2017), African-American civil rights activist Roy A. Taylor (1910–1995)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...
Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) RecyTaylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955)...