Recy Taylor
| Recy Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 31, 1919 Henry County, Alabama, United States |
| Occupation | Sharecropper |
Recy Taylor (born December 31, 1919) is an African American woman from Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama, USA. On September 3, 1944, she was kidnapped while leaving church and brutally gang raped by six white men. Even though the men admitted the rape to authorities, two grand juries subsequently declined to indict the men, meaning no charges were ever brought against her six assailants.
In 2011, the Alabama House of Representatives apologized on behalf of the state "for its failure to prosecute her attackers." Taylor's rape and the subsequent court cases were among the first instances of nationwide protest and activism among the African American community, and ended up providing an early organizational spark for the Civil Rights Movement.
Recy Taylor was walking home from the church on September 3, 1944, with her friend Fannie Daniel, and Daniel's teenage son West, when a car pulled up on the side of the road. In the car were US Army Private Herbert Lovett and six other men, all armed. Herbert Lovett accused Taylor of cutting "that white boy in Clopton this evening". This accusation was false, as Taylor had been with Daniel all day. The seven men forced Taylor into the car at gunpoint and proceeded to drive her to a patch of trees on the side of the road. They forced her to remove her clothes saying "Get them rags off, or I'll kill you and leave you down here in the woods". After she was forcibly undressed, Taylor begged to return home to her family, including her husband and an infant child. The assailants ignored her requests, all removed their clothes, and watched as Lovett ordered Taylor to lie down and for her to "act just like you do with your husband or I'll cut your damn throat". She was raped by six of the men, including Lovett.
Taylor's kidnapping was reported immediately to the police by Daniel. Daniel identified the car as belonging to Hugo Wilson, who admitted to picking up Taylor and, as he put it, "carrying her to the spot" and pinned the rape on six men, Dillard York, Billy Howerton, Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper and Robert Gamble. Even though three eyewitnesses identified Wilson as the driver of the car, the police did not call in any of the men Wilson named as assailants, and Wilson was fined $250. The black community of Abbeville was outraged at the actions taken by the police, and the event was reported to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Montgomery, Alabama. The NAACP sent down their best investigator and activist against sexual assaults on black women, Rosa Parks.
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