European University Institute Library

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, Danielle L. McGuire

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-309) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

At the dark end of the street

bibliography

503042152

Danielle L. McGuire

black women, rape, and resistance- a new history of the civil rights movement from Rosa Parks to the rise of black power

A history of America's civil rights movement traces the pivotal influence of sexual violence that victimized African American women for centuries, revealing Rosa Parks's contributions as an anti-rape activist years before her heroic bus protest.--, Provided by PublisherRosa Parks was often described as a sweet and reticent elderly woman whose tired feet caused her to defy segregation on Montgomery's city buses, and whose supposedly spontaneous act sparked the 1955 boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. The truth of who Rosa Parks was and what really lay beneath the boycott is far different from anything previously written. In this groundbreaking book, Danielle McGuire writes about the 1944 rape of Recy Taylor, a mother and sharecropper who was abducted after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Alabama. The president of the local NAACP branch sent his best investigator. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that exposed a ritualized history of sexual assault against black women and added fire to the growing call for change.--, Provided by Publisher

Prologue: at the dark end of the street -- They'd kill me if I told -- Negroes every day are being molested -- Walking in pride and dignity -- There's open season on Negroes now -- It was like all of us had been raped -- A black woman's body was never hers alone -- Sex and civil rights -- Power to the ice pick -- Epilogue: we all lived in fear for years