Speaking Up

This final project consists of doing a presentation of some sort that depicts sexual harassment in women. The type of presentation I chose was visual art. I decided to use acrylic paints to create a painting based on an article by Danielle L McGuire. The article chosen covers sexual violence, community mobilization, and the African American freedom struggle. However, I did my painting on just one part of the article because I thought it was the most impacting to me.

The part of the article describes how on May 2, 1959, four white males raped Betty Jean Owens. Typically, black women that would get raped had to shush or else the consequences would be bad. This wasn’t a new thing for black people. The sexual exploitation can be historically brought back in slavery. Slave owners took advantage of their power and would even rape women in front of their husbands and families. And despite black people getting freedom, the former owners would use violence and terror against them so they can get back to their power. Many, many, black women were raped and violence was always around them.

Betty was scared to speak up, but did it to finally get justice. She spoke up, in front of the court. This article was written by the author Danielle, L McGuire, a speaker that spoke with us in class. This is why I decided to do a painting based on the event of Betty Jean Owens. The acrylic painting shows Betty Jean Owens sitting in court, testifying what the four white men did to her. The four white men are shown in the bottom where they are laughing because they think the whole situation is a joke. The white judge is sitting, concerned to see who he should give his side to. I painted the audience of people which are the local black community being there for Betty. I used several words from the article I chose to depict what happened in this event. Words from “‘go out and get a nigger girl’”, “they raped her seven times,” and “‘We’ll let you go if you do what we want.’” These words are impacting because this is what the four white men and Betty testified in court.

More than 200 people made a movement for her to get justice. Even though this is from the 1950’s, many black women are still getting abused and raped. This is why speaking up about what occured is the best thing you can do to get your justice. Never be scared, be brave and speak up.