Remembering Recy Taylor

This piece is dedicated and inspired by Recy Taylor, an important African American figure during the civil rights movement who was brutally raped by a gang of white men in a van after leaving church in Alabama on September 3, 1944. There were witnesses to her kidnapping, and she reported to the police the horrific crime that had taken place, and the men who did this to her even confessed but her attackers were never charged. Even though Recy didn’t have the court system behind her, she never gave up and weaponized her words against white supremacy. This story is just another example of the deep-rooted racial prejudice that was prevalent in the South during this time. It wasn't until 2011, 60 years after the case, that the state of Alabama issued an apology of the way the legal system handled her case.

I decided to draw a photo of a woman who symoolizes Recy. I tried to portray her in the painting by featuring Recy’s hat that she's wearing in a lot of famous photos of her, and I wanted to depict her looking up to portray confidence and to show that she wasn't afraid of speaking up and standing up for herself despite facing adversities.

The quote featured is a snippet of a quote from Recy from an NPR podcast that said, “And then again, I get to thinking – I said, Lord, they could’ve killed me anyway. They was talking about killing me, but they could’ve killed me with their gun. They could’ve taken their gun and bust my brains out, but the Lord is just with me that night.”

Sources:

“Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks, and the Struggle for Racial Justice.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, 30 July 2019, nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/recy-taylor-rosa-parks-and-struggle-racial-justice.

“Hidden Pattern Of Rape Helped Stir Civil Rights Movement.” NPR, NPR, 28 Feb. 2011, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=134131369.