DETROIT - Even if they don't say it, Danielle McGuire sees the question in the eyes of some black students when they first enter her classroom at Wayne State University, where she teaches African-American history. "What does this white lady know about this?"
By the end of the semester, the doubters will likely acknowledge McGuire really knows African-American history, particularly the civil rights movement. But there are critical details about the movement that she believes historians have overlooked or downplayed - particularly the commonplace rapes and sexual abuse of black women by white men coupled with black women's organized resistance to it.
She captures these stories in her new book, "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," (Knopf, $27.95).
Q: What led you to write about sexual abuse of black women and their resistance? I was listening to a story on NPR about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Joe Azbell, the editor of the daily newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, was being interviewed. He said Gertrude Perkins had as much to do with the boycott as anyone else. I said, "Who is this lady?" I thought I knew all about the boycott. The next day I went and ordered copies of the Advertiser from the 1940s and 1950s to find out what Gertrude Perkins had to do with anything.
Q: Who was she and what did she have to do with the boycott? She was this 25-year-old African-American woman who in 1949 was walking home from a party and two uniformed white police officers in Montgomery picked her up, drove her outside of town and raped her. She reported it to her minister, who got other ministers together to hold the police department accountable.
There was a movement to defend Gertrude Perkins. As I kept looking, I found that these attacks happened all the time in the 1940s and 1950s. Black women would testify about it in the courts, to their ministers, to other black women and in front of Congress. And it was black women who launched campaigns to defend their human rights and dignities. This was sort of a pre-movement. So the Montgomery Bus Boycott was rooted in the campaigns to protect black women.
Q: Which particular story most touched you? They all touched me for different reasons. The story of Recy Taylor (a 24-year-old wife and mother kidnapped and gang-raped after leaving church in Abbeville, Ala., in 1944) moved me because I got to meet her. She's 91 now and lives in Florida. The story of Betty Jean Owens spoke to me, too, because she was a student at Florida A&M when a group of white men attacked her. I was a grad student at the time. She was my age when she was assaulted and she had the courage to speak out when she could have been lynched for doing so. That spoke to me about the power of women to fight back and use their voices as a weapon. If she could do that, whatever I was afraid of, I could put aside because she taught me how to be really brave.
Q: What role did Rosa Parks play in the organized resistance to these crimes? Rosa Parks helped launch the campaign to secure justice for Recy Taylor - she signed petitions and sent postcards - and interviewed Taylor and even moved Taylor and her family to Montgomery. Parks helped investigate myriad other cases that the Montgomery NAACP launched campaigns for.
Q: What led these crimes to stop?
Their testimonies launched campaigns for justice that eventually helped end the wanton abuse of black women. Their pressure led to court hearings - a step forward since initially white men were not tried for these crimes - and ultimately to convictions. The first big, but bittersweet, victory I found was in 1959 when four white men were found "guilty with a recommendation for mercy."
Q: Why do these stories matter now? I believe if we're not honest about our history, there's no way to enter what we now want to say is a post-racial society. We've never really had that conversation across the racial divide. And this is not ancient history. This is our parents' and grandparents' generation. This is yesterday on the timeline of American history. The victims and assailants, some of them are still alive. If we keep trying to deny the past, it'll keep coming back to bite us.
Q: You begin the book with Recy Taylor (a 24-year-old wife and mother kidnapped and gang-raped after leaving church in Abbeville, Ala., in 1944) and end watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama with Taylor and her family.
A: That was such a joy. The movement made it possible for Barack Obama to become president and Michele Obama to become the first lady. Black women have a history of not even being called by their names. They were called girls or auntie. Recy Taylor was denied her ladyhood and everyone has to call Michele Obama the first lady whether they want to treat her that way or not.
0 comments:
Post a Comment