A Voice

My poem is based on the article I found in Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97. In 1944, an African American woman was walking home from church, and she was abducted and was sexual assaulted by six white men. Even though she told the truth about what happened to her, her cries were ignored. The people did not believe her when she was explaining what happened to her, and some of the people wanted to tried to threaten her life because she was planning to charge her assaulters. Even when some of the people confessed to their crimes the jury and judged still let them go. Although, as the years went by Recy Taylor wrote a book about her surviving the ordeal and has gotten a written apology from the mayor of her hometown. The article highlights the disparity of sentencing among black and white men that were arrested and charged for rape. I wanted to highlight just how quick such an act can take place and even in areas where you may feel most comfortable, rape and molestation can occur in the blink of an eye. I wanted to give the African American woman a voice and expose what happened to her in the best way I could, I felt it was needed to show how the justice system's flaws and disparities.

This article was one of the many women that were assaulted and when they told the truth of what happened they were either called liars, ignored, or were silenced by the people that were supposed to help them. I wanted to show in my poem how the women still had a voice and that it never left them. Even when the people did not believe them or tried to persuade them to forget what happened, they still have a voice and they are entitled to tell their story of what happened to them. As a result, showing that they were survivors for telling their truth and making sure other people do not go through what they went through.