THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR AND HOW ROSA PARKS INVESTIGATED THE ATTACK AND HELPED HER SEEK JUSTICE.

Rape was a harsh reality for black women in the Jim Crow south.

Years before her involvement in the Bus Boycotts, Rosa Parks was a force to be reckoned with as an activist against discrimination and civil rights. Oddly, people laud her accomplishment as being the woman who was part of the bus boycott. But, in truth, she was not the first in that history.

In Abbeville, Alabama, on September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor, a twenty-four-year-old black mother, was on her way home from church, when she was abducted and gang-raped by six young white men... Her genitals were mutilated in the attack. One of the rapists confessed. But local authorities refused to prosecute the perpetrators. The car identified the vehicle of Hugo Wilson. He admitted abducting 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.

Reecy Taylor identified and called out her rapists. Her father went with her to the sheriff.
In an interview with Mrs. Taylor on NPR in her own words:

"Yes. I was - went to my friends house. Then she decided she wanted to go to church that night. I told her, yes, I would go. We went on to church and came back. A car running around outside of us, six young men jumped out with a gun and said that - you're the one that cut a white boy in Clarkton. And the police got us out looking for you. You get in the car and we will take you uptown to the police station.

And they got me in the car and carried me straight through the woods, but before they go where they was going, they blindfolded me. After they messed over and did what they were going to do me, say, we're going to take you back. We're going to put you out. But if you tell it, we're going to kill you.

So, first person I met was my daddy. And he said, where in the world you been? And I said, some white boys took me out and messed with me. And then the next person I met was Mr. Louis(ph), was the high sheriff. And he asked me, he said, well, Recy, what in the world happened to you tonight? And I told him. So Mr. Louis said, let's just go back to the store and said, when we get down to the store, I'm going to go and see if I can find them.

So we sat down at the store and when Mr. Louis got back, he had two boys. Mr. Louis asked me, say, do these look like two boys were with you tonight? I told him, yeah. Then he asked the boys, was y'all with this lady tonight? And the white boys said, yeah. Mr. Louis told them to get in the car and he left. We didn't have no other conversation said about the boys. He just left. And so daddy told me, well, I want to see somebody about carry my daughter out like that and treating her like that. Said, I'm going to see about that tomorrow.

But I don't know if my daddy talked to anybody about it the next day or not. He might've did, but I don't know...."
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When news of the incident reached the Montgomery NAACP office, activist Rosa Parks went to investigate the case.

When Rosa Parks arrived at the Taylor home, the town’s sheriff was waiting for her.

"He made sure to make his presence known by repeatedly driving past the house, eventually entering the home and demanding Parks leave under the pretense of not wanting “troublemakers” in town. Parks was undeterred and returned to Montgomery where she promptly launched the Committee for Equal Justice for the Rights of Mrs. Recy Taylor. The committee made sure the case received national attention and by October, it was headline news."

Parks launched a letter-writing campaign to press Alabama Governor Chauncey Sparks for action. The letters led to the creation of a special grand jury, but the men were never indicted.

The case went to trial, but it was a futile attempt at feigned justice. The case went to trial twice. Even though accounts from some of the men matched Taylor's account,The aftermath of the trial led to death threats and the firebombing of Recy Taylor's home.

Rosa Parks Activism
"In 1943 Rosa Parks joined the Montgomery NAACP and became its secretary, reuniting with her former classmate Johnnie Carr. With E. D. Nixon, she investigated cases involving police brutality, rape, murder, and discrimination. In 1946 the Montgomery NAACP defended the paroled Scottsboro Boy Andy Wright and found him employment. That same year, Parks attended a leadership training program run by Ella Baker. In 1947 E. D. Nixon was elected Alabama state president of the NAACP, and Parks became the first state secretary in 1948."