Anti-Rape Activism Catalyst Recy Taylor Passes Away At The Age Of 97

Recy Taylor, who’s life story inspired the movement to end the racially motivated rape of Black women during the Jim Crow Era Black, has passed away at the age of 97.

 Taylor became a catalyst in the movement to put an end to the racially-motivated rape and mistreatment of Black women following her own sexual assault at the hands of six white men in 1944. While walking home from church, she was abducted, blindfolded and raped repeatedly at gunpoint by the group of men. Her case was later taken up by civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who worked tirelessly to see justice prevail. Sadly, Taylor’s rapists were never indicted.

Her story was chronicled earlier this year in a documentary titled, The Rape of Recy Taylor, which aimed to shed light on the sexual terrorizing of many Black women by White men during the Jim Crow era.

Taylor’s horrific encounter was also featured in the 2010 publication, 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. 

Though hardly as addressed, rape and overall sexual violence against Black women was a common occurence during the Jim Crow era as the lynching of Black men. 

Taylor’s death was confirmed by her brother.