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Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old African-American sharecropper, was walking home from church in Abbeville, Ala., on the night of Sept. 3, 1944, when she was abducted and raped by six white men.

The crime was extensively covered in the black press and an early catalyst for the civil rights movement. The N.A.A.C.P. sent a young activist from its Montgomery, Ala., chapter named Rosa Parks to investigate. African-Americans around the country demanded that the men be prosecuted.

But the attack, like many involving black victims during the Jim Crow era in the South, never went to trial. Two all-white, all-male grand juries refused to indict the men, even though one of them had confessed.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”60px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][ult_createlink title=”CONTINUE READING” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F12%2F29%2Fobituaries%2Frecy-taylor-alabama-rape-victim-dead.html||target:%20_blank|” link_hover_style=”Style_11″ text_color=”#ffffff” text_hovercolor=”#ffffff” background_color=”#f57c50″ bghovercolor=”#784c8e″ el_class=”nav-button” heading_style=”font-weight:bold;” css=”.vc_custom_1592590338834{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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