Happy 100th Birthday, Recy Taylor! Recy Taylor was born on New Year’s Eve in 1919, a crucible of violence & resistance. It was the year of the “Red Summer” when white terrorists rampaged through black towns and across the country in an orgy...
Last night I spoke with Betty Jean Owens’s grandson, Amonte Martin. He and I talked over the past decade–first when my Journal of American History article came out and since my book was released in 2010. We chatted about history...
In May 1959, four white men kidnapped and raped an African American college student in Tallahassee Florida. When her classmates at Florida A & M University found out about what happened, they mobilized and demanded justice. Their public...
Stephen Henderson and I spoke at WDET on Martin Luther King Jr. Day about the Civil Rights Movement and its roots in black women’s demand for bodily integrity. We talked about Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks, and how the entire civil rights...
Recy Taylor’s bold testimony in defense of her bodily integrity in 1944 will reach a new audience because of Nancy Buirski’s new documentary film, The Rape of Recy Taylor. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It will have...
Take a listen: Courtney B. Vance and I talk about the roots of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion. We covered a lot of ground in just 23 minutes! We talked history and the causes and consequences of the largest uprising in American History. It left 43...
This lecture was presented as the Belle McWilliams Lecture for the Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities at the University of Memphis. Recorded by Marty Deull in March 2015.
The Tallahassee Democrat tells the story of the 1959 gang rape, by four white men, of Florida A&M student Betty Jean Owens. At the Jim Crow trial, Betty Jean Owens testified against her rapists; one defense attorney referred to her as a...
After her brutal gang rape, Recy Taylor became a global symbol of American injustice and helped inspire the civil rights movement. So why has nobody heard of her today? Read this moving and important essay by Cynthia Gordy of TheRoot.com
I hated history when I was in high school. And I didn’t really like it that much in college, either. So how did I become a historian? I entered history by way of a highway exit sign. I was a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And I...
Errin Haines wrote an incredible article for the AP about Recy Taylor’s long struggle for justice and dignity. I think most academics hope that their work has some impact in the “real” world–that somehow all the years of...
Since the book came out, I have received numerous emails from women around the country telling me their stories. Most echo the testimonies of the black women I write about. But every now and then I hear a story that shocks me all over again. I...
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