Vital New Documentary: 'The Rape of Recy Taylor' (2017)
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- Guardian Review
The titular crime in The Rape of Recy Taylor and the miscarriage of justice that follows occurred in 1944 and the spring of 1945. But amid a wave of sexual assault claims that is sweeping powerful men off their perches, the modern analogues are hard to miss. Specifically, the question of where this moment leaves women with no power, no leverage, no fame.
Director Nancy Buirski’s timing was an accident, but one she is grateful for.
('You'll never work again': women tell how sexual harassment broke their careers
Read more)
“This is such an important time in this country’s path to recognize Recy Taylor,” said Buirski, best known for directing The Loving Story, about Mildred and Richard Loving, the couple who toppled laws against interracial marriage. “With women being singled out on Time magazine’s cover, as part of the #MeToo campaign, I really want to draw attention to the black women who spoke up when their lives were seriously in danger.”
On the night of 3 September 1944, in Abbeville, Alabama, six white men kidnapped Taylor at gunpoint as she walked home from church, blindfolded her and raped her. After Taylor reported her assault to Abbeville law enforcement, her and her extended family’s homes came under a series of attacks. Meanwhile, the Abbeville legal system worked instead to protect her assailants. The town’s sheriff asked Taylor to keep silent about the crime while a grand jury refused to hand down indictments...
Read more, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/14/the-of-recy-taylor-behind-one-of-the-years-most-vital-documentaries
- The Loving Story (2011) HBO, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759682/
- Wash. Post, Rosa Park's Forgotten Role in Investigating the Gang Rape of Recy Taylor, 1/9/18
She was walking home from a church revival in her small Alabama town on the evening of Sept. 3, 1944, when a green Chevrolet filled with white men pulled up. Recy Taylor tried to run, but one of the men grabbed the 24-year-old black mother and forced her into the sedan. She was driven into a grove of pine trees, where, one by one, six men brutally raped her, threatening to cut her throat if she cried out, according to state records.
A few days later, news of the horrendous gang rape reached the office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People office in Montgomery. The NAACP sent its best investigator to Abbeville, Ala., to find out why there had been no arrests.
That investigator’s name was Rosa Parks...
Read more, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rosa-parks-forgotten-role-in-investigating-the-gang-rape-of-recy-taylor/ar-BBFMpnc?li=BBnbcA1
