Justice for Recy Taylor

By Steven Khoury

On September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor attended a special evening service at Rock Hill Holiness Church with her friend Fannie Daniels and her son West Daniels. As they walked home from church together, they noticed a car that kept passing by them several times. The car eventually stopped beside them with seven young white men inside, all armed with guns and knives. Taylor was forced into the car and taken to the woods where she begged to be returned home to her husband and daughter, but was threatened by the men to kill her and leave her in the woods. She was then blindfolded by the men and six of them had brutally raped her. After she was kidnapped, her friend Fannie Daniels reported this incident to the authorities. Daniels found Will Cook, who was the former chief of police and Taylor's father, Benny Corbitt. They had eventually found Taylor and took her to the police to report the incident. The sheriff was able to identify the owner of the car Taylor had been kidnapped in and that person was Hugo Wilson. Wilson was taken to the jailhouse and confessed to participating in the attack and gave the names of his accomplices as well. But, Wilson insisted that because they paid Taylor, their kidnapping and brutalization couldn't be considered rape and therefore was released and sent home by the sheriff. Outraged by this injustice, the NAACP got involved with the case. The NAACP and African Americans around the country continued to advocate for justice for Recy Taylor. Rosa Parks along with other activists formed the "Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor" to raise awareness. A second grand jury was held on February 14, 1945 with the help of W. E. B. DuBois, Mary Church Terrell, and Langston Hughes. Three more of the men confessed to raping Taylor, but just like Will Cook, none of them were prosecuted. It had taken almost 70 years after the assault for the Alabama Legislature to issue a formal apology to Taylor.