Recy Taylor was born in 1919 in Abbeville, southeastern Alabama. She was only 17 when her mother died and she began caring for all six of her younger siblings. Recy was born into a family of
sharecroppers, another role she took on at a young age. At 24-years old Recy Taylor was walking home from church in 1944 on September 3rd where she was abducted and gang-raped by six white men. Rosa Parks, known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott was also a sexual assault investigator for the NAACP.
Rosa took on Recy’s case and although the men were never indicted, Recy did not stay silent. In 2010 a book about Recy: At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance was published by Danielle L McGuire. In 2017, a documentary titled “The Rape of Recy Taylor” (2017) aired. The documentary provides live interviews of Recy sharing her story with the world.
Recy Taylor educated millions on the atrocities of black woman and sexual violence. In 2017, Recy passed away and during the 2018 Golden Globes award event, Oprah Winfrey made a powerful statement “I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented, goes marching on.”