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The Organization Of The Committee For Equal Justice
In Rosa Park's capacity as a branch secretary for the NAACP, she investigated the gang-rape of Recy Taylor of Abbeville, Alabama. This caused Parks and many other civil rights activists to start the Committee for Equal Justice. Continuing her work as an anti-sexual violence activist, five years later she organized a protest in support of Gertrude Perkins (a black woman who was raped by two white police officers from Montgomery). -
Martinsville Seven
Ruby Floyd who was a 32 year old white woman accused 7 black men of raping her. Within a couple of days, the police rounded up 7 suspects who were immediately sent to prison. It was by the end of that same month of January that the seven men were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. This was an example of many that brought to light the legal double standards of the South. -
"Reckless Eyeballing": The Mack Ingram Case
Ingram was a black farmer who lived in Yanceyville, North Carolina and was charged for 'eye raping' an eight year old white girl from approximately 75 feet away. He was imprisoned for 2 years before the Supreme Court dismissed the case in 1953. -
The Owen's Case
In Tallahassee, Florida, Betty Jean Owens, a black woman, was violently raped by four white men. The trial for her case was significant since in Florida, and more specifically the South, the white men were actually given life sentences for their crimes which has not been historically or previously imposed in the South before. -
Joan Little Case
At a Beaufort County prison in Washington, North Carolina, Joan Little was charged with first degree murder for stabbing a prison guard who sexually assaulted her. Little became a cause for prisoners' rights advocates, racial justice, and individuals advocating against the death penalty. Little's case was the first time in history that a woman was acquitted of murder for the reasons of self-defense against sexual violence.