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♪ Oh, run, run, mourner, run ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ Oh, run, run, mourner, run ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ If I just had two wings ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ If I just had two wings ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ I'd fly away to the kingdom ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ I'd fly away to the kingdom ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ Eagle lend me your wings ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ Eagle lend me your wings ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ A escape for your life ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

♪ A escape for your life ♪

♪ Bright angels above ♪

[crickets chirping]

[Alma Daniels] She had to have on her a dress

because she was just
coming from church.

[crickets chirping]

[Alma Daniels]
What they did to her,

they didn't need to live.

[crickets chirping]

[people singing]

[Robert Corbitt]
Recy loved to go to church.

She'd go to church
every chance she'd get.

And Miss Fannie
was basically the same way.

Miss Fannie's son, West,
he wasn't a church goer,

but he just went along
for protection.

It was about two miles' walk
they had to walk that night.

[crowd singing]

[Robert Corbitt]
They had revival going on,

adding a whole in this church.

There's a lot of singing,
they have prayer,

and after a while that preacher get up and bring the word.

It'd be very hot

because there was
no air conditioner nor fans

in that church at that time.

They had to raise the windows.

And the church
were well attended,

wasn't seats for

all the people.
Some had to stand up.

You know the

Pentecost people,
they like to get up

and dance a little bit
on the floor, so...

I don't know if that was a...

Or if Recy done it that night.

Recy just loved to go to church.

She was more Christian
than we were,

than the rest of our sisters
and brothers, while she,

she was more Christian like.

But, uh...

But that night,
when that happened to her,

she was at a...

A homeless church,
as they call it.

Uh...

A sanctify church.

That's where
she was coming from.

That's where Recy
was coming from.

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

♪ Over the hills
And everywhere ♪

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

♪ To let my people go ♪

They said that
she was a prostitute

at that time and that's

the reason why
they picked her up

and all that stuff but
she wasn't a prostitute.

My sister
was a Christian person.

And she was married
and had a baby.

But the things that they claimed
that she were,

she wasn't that.

[Robert Corbitt]
It was a kind of warm night.

It was September 3rd, you know,

still hot here in Alabama.

They were walking at night

and at that time the streets
were very poorly lighted.

There was mad foxes,
rabies foxes.

So West got his stick with him.

It was very unusual

for anybody to get attacked
by somebody else,

here in Abbeville.

[Robert Corbitt]
Well, these boys that, uh...

That took her that night,

they had circled the church
a couple of times.

And, um...

About two...

About eight o'clock,

they dec...

They decided to go down.

They made a mistake and went to

a ladies house named Rose Jordan
and Sam Jordan.

Uh, they was gonna...

They had two daughters.

And the daughters
were about 17 and 18.

Each one of them has a daughter,
Sam and Rose.

And they were gonna
pick those girls up.

Take all with them, but

oh, they picked on the wrong
family there 'cause Sam's...

Sam Jordan and Rose Jordan was

two rough women that
you didn't wanna mess with.

[chuckles]

And they chased them.

Um...

Chased these guys away.

And so they kept
circling around.

And they'd knew about what time

church was out at night.

And they wouldn't bother them
until they got,

oh, about,

at least a half a mile
out of town.

And, uh...

And that's when
they passed Recy

and Miss Fannie and West
and then they'd come back.

And then they'd pass
and then they'd come back.

And then... And then they
finally stopped behind them.

And that was when her...

caught with the gun.

She decided to run away,
right away,

as soon as she saw the gun.

And, uh...

And they yelled to her
to get in the car.

She started to run away.

And she couldn't run but of

very short distance because
there was a tall fence there.

[slow instrumental music
playing]

If she could have
got past that fence,

she could have
run into the woods

but with all that, she couldn't.

And Miss Fannie told her
not to run.

Said, "Don't run because
they might shoot you."

And, um...

So, she went and...

Went and got in the car
with them and

she said they blindfolded her.

And they took her away.

Well, West was scared
because they had the gun there.

And I don't think he was no,

uh...

He was...

couldn't defend them
against seven guys.

They were seven of them.

So,

West basically went along with
what Miss Fannie said, that is,

try to let 'em

do what they said to do.

Maybe they'll go on.

[Robert Corbitt]
They was interested
in her because

Recy was a very
nice looking young lady

at the age of 24.

[crickets chirping]

[Recy Taylor] He's tried to
get me not to go to
church that night.

That's 'cause I got a baby.

I think she was
nine months old.

And I wanted to go so bad.
[chuckles]

So, he said,
"You could go ahead,

I'll stay here
and keep the baby."

Saw the car

pulled up behind me.

Some white boys,

they had a gun.

And told me
they are gonna shoot me,

if I run,

if you don't stand still.

I was begging them
to leave me alone.

Don't shoot me.

I gotta go home
to see about my baby.

Mm-hmm.

I remember that real good.

I mean, they didn't say
nothin' about what
they're gonna do to me.

They put me in the car.

They even blindfold me.

Tied my head up,

[coughs]

keeping me from knowing
which way I went.

And then talking about
killing me.[chuckles]

They had on white shirts,

I remember that.

They had on white shirts.

One of them
was Lawrence Lee's boy.

Who then tried to do nothin'
to me in the car.

He...

He made me get out the car.

He called that they
were gonna lay me down
to have sex with me.

[rustling]

[crickets chirping]

Oh, I cried that night.

Trying to get away from them.

But they wouldn't let me go.

[crickets chirping]

[rustling]

I can't help
but tell the truth

of what they done to me.

♪ Sheep-pi, sheep-pi ♪

♪ Where you little lamb? ♪

♪ Way down in the valley ♪

♪ Birds and the butterflies ♪

♪ Picking at his eyes ♪

♪ And the po' lil' thing
It cried, Mama ♪

♪ Mama's gone ♪

♪ Papa's gone ♪

♪ They shall bring
Some horses ♪

♪ White and black ♪

♪ Speckle and gray ♪

♪ All them pretty
Little horses ♪

My mother got sick.

Uh...

Back when I was a baby.

And she died
when I was 13 months old.

And strangely, um,

enough, you can ask Recy this,

she called Recy
to the bed and said

that she was going to die
and she wanted her to
take care of her baby

and I was the baby.

And Recy took care of me

from then on.

Family life was pretty rough
for us because

we had lost our mother.

I used to sit and cry a lot

because I didn't have a mother.

But, uh,

other than that, my sister
and there on,
they took care of us.

Looked after us

and made sure we had food
and everything to eat.

And Recy, she used to care of
Robert all of the time. She...

I must...

He almost
broke her down carrying him.

She used to take carrying on the
hip all the time.

Well, I was in the bed,

and, uh...

And Miss Fannie down, after they

uh,

kidnapped Recy,

she came back

from down, where this happened,
up to our house.

She first
stopped out there to the...

uh... Will Cook,
which was a police.

and told him,
then she come over and told us.

And we all woke up.

My father got dressed and...

and, uh...

me and my sister Alma
stood on the porch

the whole time
this was going on.

We both was crying,
you know, 'cause

we hear the guy has a gun
and we doesn't know
they was gonna kill her.

My daddy reached up,

another gun was on the wall.

My daddy reached up
and got the gun, and I...

come out the door.

He was bare feet, he didn't...[chuckles]

He didn't have no shoes
or anything on, so he,

he was just walking
up and down the road.

He did that cleaning
till she returned.

And...

me and my baby brother,
we are standing on the porch

and we were just crying.

And, uh...

[crickets chirping]

We thought that
they were going to, uh...

kill...

kill her.

[footsteps]

[Robert Corbitt] And after they finished with her,

they brought her back
almost into town, put out.

And my father was walking
everywhere looking for her.

She... He had, uh...

been to two other
Lover's Lanes here

and he was walking so
till his shirt was

wet with sweat

because he didn't know
where they took her to.

And he saw a shadow
of somebody about,

oh, four blocks away.

And turned out that was
Recy there, brought back.

And she came running down
to where he was.

And she put her arms
around him.

Held on to him for a while.

And shortly after that,
Lewey Corbitt,

and the police showed up.

Lewey Corbitt,
who Recy worked for

that lay right next door,
he was the sheriff,

he was supposed to be out
looking for her,

but I'm not sure
what he was doing,
very much looking.

He just happened to come by.

Recy and my father
were on the street.
Picked 'em up

and got 'em in the car
and brought 'em back
down to the Three Point

across the street
from our house.

Recy had promised these guys,
that if they didn't kill her

and let her go home
to her child,

she wouldn't tell anybody.

As soon as she got back,
she told everything
that she could tell.

Everything.

Described the car

and Lewey Corbitt knew

whose car it was. It was,

uh, Hugo Wilson.

He had a

green Chevrolet.

He was only about

I'd say two football fields
away from our house,
where he lived.

Just down the street,
he could have yelled on
and got it.

Meanwhile,
me and my sister Alma

were standing on the porch

and we could hear everything that was being said over there.

So, they went and got
Hugo and brought him there

and asked Recy to look at

this guy and see if

he was one of the guys.

And Recy said, "Yes,

he's one."

And he called her
a liar right there.

Said, he haven't
seen her before
in his life.

But he had to be wrong about that because Recy passed his house all the time.

Recy didn't live
very far from him.

He knew her.
He knew her husband, too.

And so, Willie Guy came up
where Recy was
and he embraced her.

She didn't...

She didn't have too many words to say that particular night.

She mostly was
just crying and upset.

Those young boys
felt like they can do it
and get away with it.

They really felt
like they could.

I... Um...

They knew nothing was
gonna happen to them.

What they did to her,

and you know, my sister
didn't have any more kids
after that.

And never got pregnant
after that.

And they didn't only
just have sex with her,

but after they got through
mutilating her,

they played in her body.

["This Bitter Earth" playing]

♪ And if my life ♪

♪ Is like the dust ♪

♪ Ooh, that hides ♪

♪ The glow of a rose ♪

[Robert Corbitt] The reason
so many people had
gotten away with it,

I think they felt that
the black woman's body
didn't belong to her.

♪ Oh, what good am I? ♪

♪ What good am I? ♪

♪ Heaven only knows ♪

[James Johnson II] White men have had access to black women.

Forcibly.

If they wanted one
they would get 'em.

It was something that
their fathers, grandfathers
taught them.

The attitudes of the treatment of black women

was the same
as it was on the plantation.

I don't think, uh,
with the rape case of Aunt Recy,
was that unusual because...

First of all, they did not
regard black people as humans,
first of all.

This goes back
to the plantation,
we were animals.

Uh, monkeys.

And so, they felt that
we were really not
human beings, so this

attitude transcended from
the plantation. Even to,

uh...

Even to today, if you will
because there are some
white males, uh,

you know, who still do not
believe that we are
human beings.

That we are animals
and, so, therefore, um...

You know, so you kill a animal,
you kill a, you know,
you kill a dog,

it's no different.

By having the power

to have sex with
black women
when they wanted to,

they were in control.

[woman singing]

[James Johnson II]
Even on the plantation,

from what I understand,
is that young white boys

would go to the slave quarters, when you become of age

and got ready to engage in sex.

You go there
and pick 'em by

a woman to have sex with.

And even to have children with if necessary.

It was just common
here in the South.

Whether it was on the
plantation or on the, um,
sharecroppers farms.

It was just something
common that happened here.

Intimidation was one thing

that was used to keep

black men under control
and then have access
to black women.

For a black man,
even if he dreamed
of a white woman,

he better not even tell it.

But the while males could go

and come into your house

or come by and blow the horn
and your woman go out to
the car and get it with him

and come back
and hour or two later.

You know, the black men
knew what was happening,

but for survival purposes,

this is the attitude
that was prevalent
throughout the South.

Probably, some slave owners felt

that they could have their will

with the female slaves,
since they owned the slaves.

And, um...

I'm sure in some instances,

um...

That was

consensual type of an affair.

But in those days,

an old saying used to be,
in these parts,

that every white man

had another woman
at every crossroads,

white and black.

My father started to walk
back and forward,
back and forward

because he was so mad
and upset with them,

for what they had did to her.

He was just walking
back and forward.

And me and Robert,

we started walking
back and forward

behind him, you know.

I don't know whether
she was feeling pain or what.

That was, uh...

That was after
they kept her about

four-five hours

down in the woods,

seven guys, one night.

They said they
wanted her to act

just like she was in bed
with her husband.

She knew Hugo Wilson,

she knew Billy Howerton,

and Luthor Lee.

But I'm not sure the rest
of them she knew.

And Recy went out
to try to round up
the rest of the boys,

but they never brought in
the rest of them, only Hugo.

These same boys used to
hang out in Town Square.

There is an old bank,

that's where they hung out,
on the steps there.

You go through town at night,
they'd be sitting there.

From what I understand,

two or three of those guys
came back to that
hang-out spot

that night
when the rape took place.

I don't think they
bothered with those boys
until the next morning.

Recy and her husband
spent the rest of the night
at my house

and then they went back home
that Monday.

And that's when
there was fire-bombed.

They set the porch on fire.

But Recy's husband
was able to put it out.

They moved in with us
the next day.

We got a lot of threats
in those days.

Just behind of our house
we had a tall tree.

It was a chinaberry tree.

And high up in the tree
that was a limb like a Y.

My father, who was staying
in the house

until he know we was all in bed

and he would sneak out back
and go up that tree.

He didn't want us to know
that he was sleeping
in that tree.

He had a shotgun,

double barrel shotgun,

and he'll sit up
in that tree at night

and guard the house.

During the day,
he was setting the porch
at light

for we had some
hedges there then,

concealed the porch
from one side of the house.

And he kept his gun
laying right there
in front of him.

He was always...
Had that gun right there.

He would have done
something with that gun,

but he felt that
he had to stay alive
to protect his family.

Otherwise, he would have...

He would've done
something terrible,
I know he would've.

As a matter of fact,
he told me he would have.

Mr. Lewey Corbitt,
he was the sheriff then.

He was trying to make my father take his gun back to the house.

He said, because you'd get
in trouble if you try
to kill somebody.

But my father didn't.

He, uh...

My daddy would tell us,
tell us, "Don't be afraid.

'Cause nobody's gonna hurt you
as long as I'm living.

Nobody's going to hurt you."

[Robert Corbitt] He's love his family to death.

Oh, he love his family.

I believe that's the reason
he didn't do anything

to try to get revenge
against 'em boys because

he felt that he had to
stay alive to protect us.

One day we were fishing

and he told me, he said,
"You know, I could've

got five of those guys
in one night."

I said, "What guys?",
he said, "The guys that
raped my daughter."

Lewey Corbitt, he had
the same name as we have.

We got the Corbitt name
from Lewey Corbitt family

after slave was freed.

So, they owned my ancestors.

He'd come to our house and say,
"Don't say anything.
Don't say a word out."

That was...
He was always saying that.

"Don't talk
to anybody about it."

And we just,

every time he'd say that,
we'd talk as much as we can.

I don't know, if my father
or somebody

was contacting the NAACP
representative,

here in Abbeville.

That's how Rosa Parks came in.

[Crystal Feimster] Recy Taylor isn't the first black woman

that Rosa Parks goes to
after a sexual assault.

This is the work
that she is doing

prior to the Montgomery
bus boy case.

She's an investigator.

So, when these cases and calls
come into the NAACP,

they send her out.

She went in our house,
not more than,

um...

15 minutes before Lewey Corbitt
showed up.

[Crystal Feimster] People know who Rosa Parks is.

Because when Rosa goes
to interview Recy
that first time,

the sheriff, the county sheriff,

is rolling by the house.

Um...

You know, drives by, drives by

and then finally
bust into the cabin.

Um, and say us,
"Get out of here."

He'd come in the house
during this

and told her she had to leave

and to get out of town.

So, she left
and two weeks later,

she came back.

And this time
he come in and...

He bust in the house,

grab Rosa Parks by the arm

and pull her out
on the porch.

He wouldn't let her to
come down the steps.

We have... We had three steps
on our porch.

And she... He just pulled her

from the high part
all the way down on the ground.

Rosa Parks went down
on her knees,
fell right in the yard.

Then he told her to
get out of town

and if she'd come back
he was gonna put her in jail
and keep her there.

She left.

Rosa leaves,
but she is not intimidated.

She comes back, right.

Um, and she comes back
and on the second visit,

the sheriff comes again.

Um, and they physically
throw her out of the house.

Um...

And this is not unusual.

And Rosa, of course,

would know to expect

that if a white sheriff
comes in,

he's gonna ultimately
put his hands on her.

But also, to reveal
something about her, too.

That for the sheriff to come in
and to throw her
out of the steps

implies that Rosa was resistant.

[woman singing]

[Crystal Feimster] We can link this up to her refusal to give up her seat on the bus.

That there is a claim
that she is making

and it's a bodily claim

to be able to own a space.

whether that's
Recy's kitchen table

or the seat on the bus

that she wants

and believes that she has
it right to be in that space.

In her actions, she is saying,

"You're not gonna
put your foot on my neck."

[chuckles] You know,

And I will be back.

You can throw me
down the steps,

you can yank me
off of this bus,

but I am not going to
concede my rights.

I'm not gonna concede
Recy's rights.

That's one of the things
that makes Rosa exceptional,

that she was willing
to risk her life.

Black women know
when they are arrested

and they are taken
into a jail,

anything could happen
and they may not come out.

Even if they do come out,
they're gonna come out

in many ways as victims
of police brutality.

There's a place where she does.
That's where
here family is from.

Her father side of
the family is there.

She still has relatives
in Abbeville.

And so she goes there.
So, it's personal in some ways.

Um...

And I think,
she also understands, um...

at a sort of gut level

what it means to be a victim
of sexual assault.

[Rosa Parks]
In the late spring of 1931,

I was past my 18th birthday.

It was during The Depression
and I was quite lucky to have

a maid of a work job
in the home of a couple

who paid me four dollars weekly for seven days a week.

The Mr. and Mrs. were off
for their night of pleasure,

the baby was put to bed by me
and he was sleeping.

It was a typical hot
Alabama night.

All the doors
and windows were open.

I saw Mr. Charlie.

He poured himself a drink
from the whiskey bottle
along the table.

He stood near me
sipping the drink.

I said the folks maybe coming back soon, if he wanted to wait for them.

He said he was there to see me.

He moved nearer to me
and put his hand on my waist.

At his touch, I jumped away
as quickly as
an unbridled filly.

He asked me not to be afraid.

He would not hurt me.

He liked me.

He didn't want me to be lonely and would I be sweet to him.

He had money to give me
for accepting his attentions.

I felt filthy and stripped naked of any shred of decency.

In a flash of movement,
I was no longer a decent,
self-respecting teenage girl,

but a flesh-pot.

A strumpet to be
bargained for and parceled
out as a commodity.

He was fast becoming
intoxicated on alcohol

and lustful desire for my body.

I knew that
no matter what happened,

I would never yield to this white man's bestiality.

I was ready and willing to die

but give any consent,

never.

All my fear had been replaced

by a determination to stand
completely alone against

this formidable foe
as long as I drew
the breath of life.

I talked about the white
man's inhumane treatment
of the negro,

how I hated all white people,
especially, him.

He asked me
to give him a price.

I was not for sale.

I asked him if the white woman was not good enough for him.

I taunted him about
the supposed white supremacy.

The white man's law of
drawing them color lines
of segregation.

I said there was nothing he could do to get my consent.

He need not think that
because he was a low-down,
dirty dog of a white man

and I was a poor defenseless,
helpless colored girl,

that he could run over me.

If he wanted to kill me,

and rape a dead body,

he was welcome.

But he would have to
kill me first.

He said the color of a person
didn't matter to him,
if he liked the person.

I said it would
not matter to me
if there was no color line

and all people could be
respected equally.

I would not be intimate
with a man

that the law did not permit
me to be married to

and respected by.

At long last, Mr. Charlie got
the idea that I meant 'no,'

very definitely, 'no.'

He said he would not
bother me any further.

I picked up the newspaper,

opened it wide,

holding it
where I couldn't see him

and started reading.

[Crystal Feimster]
Most women know,

that their cases
aren't gonna be believed.

So they don't tell
their stories.

Rosa doesn't tell her story,

she writes her story
at some point much later.

It's an unspeakable crime

and people use that language
to talk about sexual assault

because they don't want
people to speak about it.

I can't imagine having
to experience that

I can't imagine what it would
take for someone

to tell that story publicly.

So, there's no way
that you can't

hear Recy's story
and not feel like she's a hero.

[Robert Corbitt]
We all got ready that day

and was gonna come uptown
and listen to the hearing.

We got almost up
to the courthouse

and the police stopped us

and told us we couldn't go
any further.

We had to stay right there.

They wouldn't let any blacks
into town that day.

They brought Recy into
the courthouse

and they didn't take her
into a courtroom

but she was in a, uh...

a little back small room.

That's where they
talked with her.

But she wasn't
face with them.

They had her in one room

and those guys in another room.

She said she never saw the guys in the courthouse.

They didn't have Recy up there for very long before they let her go.

She'd come back down
and join us.

We all walked back
to Three Point.

It was one of
the biggest cover-ups.

I thought, sure they would have

found them guilty of it,
you know.

But I should have known better.

Because back in them days,
they covered it up.

Cover up stuff so bad
and put it off on...

on, uh...

Black people just how,

you know, they the one
that cause it,
they the one done it.

And, and they knew...

And they knew

that those guys was wrong

and they knew
that they did that.

But they weren't gonna do
nothin about it.

How do you learn
to stay in your place?

You just do
what all that matters.

You know the consequence of it.

If you got out of you place,
you'd probably be hurt, beat up,

put in jail
or something like that.

And we all know
where our places was.

I remember,
one time, that, uh...

I was uptown

and a policeman

was coming through a door.

He had his mother with him.

And he slapped me because

I didn't move back.

I didn't move so that
they could come through.

I was going in the door
and he was coming out of the

five-and-ten-cent store door

and he slapped me.

And that's when
I slapped him back.

And they...

Oh, well, we fought.

And then that's when...

first time I've been to jail
and the last time
I've been to jail.

[chuckles]

Somebody went
and told my father
about what happened

and he came down there.

And I was up in the jailhouse

and I was looking out
the window.

He says,
"What are you doing up there?

Didn't you know better?"

I said, "Well, Daddy,

he slapped me
and I hit him back."

Daddy said, "You don't go
to town no more

if you don't know how to act."

[chuckles] Well...

♪ I'm gonna buy a paper doll ♪

♪ That I can call my own ♪

♪ A doll that other fellows ♪

♪ Cannot steal ♪

♪ I'd rather have
A paper doll ♪

♪ To call my own ♪

♪ Than have a fickle-minded
Real, live girl ♪

♪ I guess I had
A million dollars or more ♪

[James Johnson II]
As a young boy,

the only theater
was the Archie Theater.

We would
fill our pockets with rocks.

And when the lights
would go out,

we would take the rocks out
and throw them down

and hit people in the head.

Pardon the expression where
they would say,
'niggers throwing rocks.'

The whites would sit
downstairs in the nice chairs

and we would spit
down on people's heads.

We had our way
of fighting Jim Crow as kids.

♪ And it's tough
To love a doll ♪

♪ That's not your own ♪

♪ I'm through with
All of them ♪

♪ I'll never fall again ♪

[Esther Cooper Jackson]
Any strangers

who came in to Abbeville,

if they were black,
they were suspicious

that they were there
to look into Recy Taylor

and see what we were plotting.

So that, when I did go,
I had someone

drive me from Birmingham
to Abbeville,

go in a back entrance.

She was traumatized,
like she was, uh,

in shock.

When I first met her,
we embraced

and I told her
we were gonna fight

to make sure that
justice was won.

I took her case
back to Birmingham

to the Southern Negro Youth Congress.

And we made that
one of our major projects

using her as an example

of what happened to
so many black women

who didn't speak up
or were afraid to speak up.

It was dangerous for all blacks but particularly for women.

Women were often attacked
like Recy Taylor,

raped or sometimes disappeared.

One would have to be
careful about

what time of day
that they walked.

Young girls were very much
aware of this.

Even going to and from school,

particularly in rural areas

they had to make sure
to not get in a car alone.

Recy Taylor, obviously,
was a very strong woman

who spoke up

and, um, therefore influenced

many other women.

The first thing I did was started writing press releases about her case

to be distributed
in all of theBlack Press.

Also sent it
to the regular press

but it just wasn't published.

She was surrounded by people
who wanted to get her
out of there

including Rosa Parks.

["Come on, come on" playing]

Rosa took Recy to Montgomery.

♪ Well, come on
Come on, come on ♪

♪ Don't you wanna go? ♪

♪ Well, come on
Come on, come on ♪

♪ Don't you wanna go? ♪

♪ Well, come on
Come on, come on ♪

♪ Don't you wanna go? ♪

♪ Yes, I want to go ♪

♪ Well, the ship is
At the landing ♪

[Robert Corbitt] Rosa Parks
put into a boarding house.

That's what it was called
in those days.

I remember
she was on Johnson Street.

It was in the 500 block.

She was there with her baby and her husband.

The three of them was there.

["The Ship Is At
The Landing" playing]

They had there to keep out of
sight of these guys.

They were afraid they might
try to do something to them.

At the time she was up there

we'd had hardly
no communication
with her at all.

As a matter of fact,
they didn't want anybody
to know where she was.

Rosa Parks,
she was protecting them.

[woman] Orange Juice or water?

[Rosa Parks]
Water, but tea is fine.

-[woman] All right, here we go.
-[Rosa Parks] Okay.

[man] What year
did you join the NAACP?

[Rosa Parks] It's 19...
It's in December, 1933.

[man] From the time
you joined to the time
you became the Secretary?

[Rosa Parks] It was my first day on the job.

[both laughing]

[man] How did that happen?

[Rosa Parks] Well, you see,
that's what happened but
when I went to the

meeting, it was going to be

the Annual Election Day.

So, I paid my membership

and then they had
election of officers.
[chuckles]

[man] And how many people
were there?

[Rosa Parks] I guess
about ten--
between a dozen and 15.

Just as you know, And I was the only woman there.

[man] So, you got to be
the Secretary there
'cause you were a woman.

[Rosa Parks] Well, no.
They just said
they needed a Secretary.

And I think the only reason
that I was

too timid to say no.

And I just started
taking minutes.

That was the way
I was elected Secretary.
[chuckles]

[Crystal Feimste] She didn't
just come out of nowhere.

People were introduced
to Rosa Parks
for the first time.

She's Rosa, who didn't give up
her seat on the bus.

They already imagined her
as this elderly
states woman, right.

With her beautiful
silver gray hair.

Um, but she was
actually quite young.

She had a long history
of protest

and grass-roots organizing.

She learned how to be an activist through her family

and her family politics,

her grandfather in particular, was a role model for her.

He was someone who
would not tolerate oppression

and believed that his children and his children's children

shouldn't have to submit
to white supremacy.

She'd already been
to Highlander School

and had training on
'how do you engage
in public protest.'

So, it wasn't
a long leap for her

to join the NAACP

and begin to fight for
civil rights for black people
in the South.

The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor,

Rosa Parks doesn't serve
on the Committee,

but she creates an environment where people in the community come together.

They are the leaders
of their destiny.

That's something black women

bring to the movement
at every level.

The press is gonna be
a key tool.

Um, and getting
their story out there,

the more people who know,

the better it is
for their case.

And they also know the South.

The South does not respond well

to outside press, right?

So, if they can
get that story out there

and that's why
the sheriff is there
from the get-go.

He doesn't want Rosa
to leave with that story

because he knows what it means

for that story
to leave Abbeville, right.

Um, it means, that people
are gonna come in,

there's gonna be investigations,
there's gonna be pressure.

And that they're gonna
have to defend their actions.

Rosa Parks is operating

from a place where
rape is a crime.

And the rape of a black woman
is illegally a crime,

even if custom and tradition
doesn't allow for that.

With Recy's case, we see

she get's a hearing.

But it's not a fair hearing
and they understand that.

That it's going through
the motions.

And then when that
hearing comes to a close,

we don't get justice for Recy.

So, what does the...
What does the Committee
want next?

They want a fair hearing, right?
[chuckles]

So, they... they...

It's like they beat
that horse they're in.

We want a fair hearing.

And the only way to get that
is to pressure.

Through letter writing,

through the press.

[Esther Cooper Jackson]
Most events happening in
black life were not published

in the daily papers.

The major newspapers
in the country
and major magazines

didn't mention it.

The only place we really
were able to publish

articles about Recy
and the others

was through
The Chicago Defender,
The Pittsburgh Courier,

The Amsterdam News,

The Baltimore, et cetera,

through theBlack Press.

[Crystal Feimster]
TheBlack Press
is a protest paper.

It's trying to counter

what the white press
is publishing.

It is a lifeline
for the movement.

It's how you get people
to join the movement,

it's how you get people
to understand

that their issues
are connected.

So, what happens in Montgomery matters in Mississippi.

It's gonna make
a huge difference

once it's on the national radar

because in the South
there is a culture of silent.

What happened to Recy?

How common is this?
What can we do
as a community

to publicize this, to ensure
that Recy is gonna
have justice?

So that,
her case just
doesn't disappear.

[Danielle L. McGuire] The Committee for Equal Justice was largely

waging a publicity campaign

and trying to shame
the state of Alabama,

uh, for their failure

to really properly investigate
and prosecute her case.

What they ask people to do is send letters to the Governor

demanding an investigation,

demanding a trial.

And they send
postcards and petitions

to hold the assailants
accountable by the thousands.

And these postcards come from all over the country.

So the newspapers
are really instrumental

in spreading the story.

And the Committee itself

is really instrumental
in getting people to

send in petitions
and postcards.

There is a massive
Harlem rally

for Recy Taylor
at the Hotel Theresa

which is one of the, sort of,
iconic hotels in Harlem

that Muhammad Ali
would stay at and others.

And they hold the rally
for Recy Taylor in the ballroom.

And, you know,
hundreds of people come.

People from all walks
of the Black Freedom Movement
in the 1940s.

Leftists, communist,
liberals, progressives,

they're all there
and they all chip in money

to help spread the word
of the terror that
is in Alabama.

It's part of, kind of,

infrastructure of injustice

where the white press ignores
these kinds of crimes

and then,

and then there is no record
of them happening, which gives

judges and juries

plausible deniability
of any knowledge

and maybe this is a rumor,
you know, it's not even
in the newspaper.

And that's why
it's so important
that theBlack Press

publishes these stories.

[Crystal Feimster]
This is a long tradition

from Frederik Douglass'
newspaper to Ida B. Wells,

the black people understand
that the press is a weapon.

They might not be able
to assault somebody
with a gun

and get justice,
but that the pen
is a weapon.

That if we can
narrate our stories,

then we actually have a chance.

They have no feeling
for a colored girl, Peter.

No, not a speck.

When one of us even
walks past on the street,
they whistle

and say all kinds of things
out loud

just as if
we weren't there at all.

They... They don't care.

We're just...

just colored women.

[Crystal Feimster]
Race films taking on
white supremacy.

This is very similar
to theBlack Press.

You have Oscar Micheaux's
Within Our Gates

targeting lynching
and sexual assault

that plays with both
lynching of a family,

a black woman and a black man

and also the sexual assault

of a biracial woman

who actually turns out to be
the daughter of the man
who's trying to rape her.

Race films made for
black audiences were popular

because they got
to see a diversity

of black characters

who's not the Sambo
or the Jezebel.

Black people felt like
it was more authentic

even if it was fictional.

They wanted to see that
without the white gaze.

If we go back to slavery
and what black women

could claim, right,

they couldn't claim

legal recourse.

There were no laws in place
that would protect them.

Recy's case,
is one of the first

that pushes equal access
to the court.

They go back to the Governor
and they say, "We want
another hearing."

And they pressure,
and they pressure.

It's that pressure
from outside the state,

from New York, and California,
and Michigan,

from labor unions,
and longshoreman,

auto workers
from all around the country.

It's their petitions
for justice

that finally moved
Governor Chauncey Sparks,

to hire private investigators

to go to Abbeville
to see what really happened.

[Crystal Feimster]
She has witnesses.

She has a woman and her son
who were walking with her
from the church.

They report
her abduction right away.

The police are there

when her father
and her husband

find her staggering
down the street.

It's hard to not believe Recy.

It's very easy for the sheriff not to do anything about it,

without question, but you know that he knows

and everybody knows
what happened.

And everybody knows
she's not a prostitute.

This is about us
being able to hear

and the stories that people
are willing to tell

and they have
the courage to tell.

Recy is part of a longer
tradition of black women

saying, "This is not right."

That not only do we
deserve protection,
but we deserve justice.

Rape,

is this universal thing

that women suffer,

regardless of age,
race, religion,

sexual orientation.

What I think it's gonna be
interesting to think about

is the way the legal system
fails women, regularly.

[man] December 27th, 1944,

supplementary report,

regarding the alleged ravishing of Recy Taylor,

Abbeville, Alabama,
by seven white boys,

on the night of September 3rd.

Report submitted by
John O' Harris,
Assistant Attorney General.

Upon arriving at Abbeville,
we contacted the sheriff

and in his first statement
he told the investigators

that this negro
was nothing but a whore

and that he had
on one or two occasions
incarcerated her.

But he now says that
he has never arrested her

and committed her to jail
for any offense.

He further stated that

he has never had any trouble
with her or her husband

and that their reputation
is as good as any negro's
in that community.

The sheriff stated that
he arrested all of the boys

but it is our
off-handed opinion

that the sheriff never actually placed any of these defendants under arrest.

We decided to
interview each boy

alleged to have had intercourse with Recy Taylor.

We first talked
to Dillard York.

York said that he would tell
all he knew.

[Dillard York]
I'll tell all I know.

[man] And he said that
he got in Wilson's car,

[Dillard York]
I got in Wilson's car

in front of the Abbey theater
about ten o'clock, the night
she was picked up.

I had been to the picture show and when I went to the car,

Hugo Wilson and Herbert Lovett were in the car.

And we rode around town
for a little while.

And then picked up
Billy Howerton,

Robert Gamble,

Luther Lee,

and Joe Culpepper

on the corner of the
North Cut drug store.

We started out on the highway
leading toward Three Points

and picked her up.

We did not have her in mind

as I had never seen her before.

But I thought
Billy Howerton knew her.

I heard Lovett ask her

if she was going or not
and she said she would go.

There was no gun in the car

and no one put a gun on her.

When we got to the place
where we had intercourse
with her,

Lovett asked her to undress

and she undressed willingly
and without protest.

Lovett had intercourse
with her first,

me next,

Wilson next,

Lee next,

Culpepper next
and Gamble last.

We all took off our pants
and underwear

and left the top
to our underwear on.

All of us used rubbers.

She did not say anything
during the time all of us
had intercourse with her

and she was undressed
except for her shoes
and stockings.

We let her rest
between the acts
of intercourse.

And each time she was asked
if she was ready

before another boy
had intercourse with her.

After we were all dressed,

Lovett went to each boy, collecting money from all of us and paid her.

He asked her
if she was satisfied

and she said
she was satisfied.

And Lovett asked her
if she was going to
say anything about it,

and she told him
she would not say
anything about it.

We then got in the car

and put her out
at the street light.

We walked uptown
and sat on the corner

at the bank
for about five minutes.

This was the first time
I had ever had anything to do
with a negro woman.

I saw Recy Taylor
at the courthouse

during the
grand jury investigation

and recognized her as being

the woman that me
and the other boys
took off that night.

[man] The next boy we talked to was Robert Gamble

and his statement
is substantially the same

as that given by Dillard York.

Next boy interviewed by us
was Luther Lee.

Lee stated that
they proceeded on...

[Luther Lee] We proceeded
on to the place
where we had intercourse.

While there, I heard Recy say

something about her baby
and that she had to go home.

But Lovett is the one
that told her to undress.

All of us had intercourse
with her,
except Billy Howerton.

And Howerton said he did not wanna have intercourse with her because the negro knew him.

[man] We talked
with Billy Howerton.

He was reluctant
to give us any information.

But finally said
he would tell all he knew

and his statement collaborates the statements of York, Gamble and Lee

in all material aspects.

[Billy Howerton]
I will tell all I know.

[man] He said that he did not
see a blindfold
on the face of Recy Taylor.

[Billy Howerton] I did not
see a blindfold
on the face of Recy Taylor.

But there
could have been one there.

[man] He further stated
that he did not have
intercourse with Recy Taylor.

[Billy Howerton] I did not have intercourse with Recy Taylor.

I did not wanna have
intercourse with her

and I told the other boys
that I knew Recy Taylor.

But in truth and in fact,
I did not know her.

But just made
that statement to them

because I did not want to have anything to do with her.

[man] The next one
we talked to was
Willie Joe Culpepper

He stated that
he got into the automobile
in the town of Abbeville...

[Willie Joe Culpepper]
I got into the automobile
in the town of Abbeville

with the other boys
and we were talking
about getting a woman.

And we rode out
on the highway

toward Dothan

and saw two women
and a man

walking along the highway.

We went down the road

and turned around

and came back
and stopped the automobile.

Herbert Lovett had a shotgun.

In a few seconds,

Recy Taylor
came to the automobile

with Herbert Lovett behind her with the shotgun in his hand.

Just before we got in
the automobile,

I heard Recy Taylor
asking the negro woman

and negro man,

one or the other,

to come and go with her.

And they said
they could not go.

Herbert Lovett made her
get out of the car

and we had the gun on her

and told her to undress.

And she was crying

and asking us to
let her go home
to her husband and baby.

When it was all over

and each of us dressed,

as did Recy Taylor,

someone, I do not know who,

put a blindfold on Recy's face.

[man] And he took
hold of himself hardly
and said...

[Willie Joe Culpepper] While
she was having intercourse
with Herbert Lovett,

we walked over there to where she lay on the ground

and we placed
some money in her hand.

Hugo Wilson was the driver
of the automobile.

[man] Hugo Wilson denied
he had anything to do
with Recy Taylor...

[Hugo Wilson] I had nothin'
to do with Recy Taylor
on that night.

Stated by the other boys.

I was not present.

I know nothin'
in the world about it.

I was arrested the night
of September 3rd,

and while in the automobile
with the sheriff,

Recy Taylor was called
to the automobile

and asked by the sheriff
if I was one of the boys

and she said,
"Yes, he is one of them."

I told her she was a damn liar.

The sheriff is a liar
when he says

that I gave him the names
of the other six boys.

All the other boys are liars
when they say

that I was there at the time
rest of them had intercourse
with Recy Taylor

and that they were lying
when they said that.

[man] The next and last boy
that we talked to
was Herbert Lovett.

He was in the army.

Lovett stated that

he knew nothing of the affair
for which he was being
interrogated.

[Herbert Lovett] I know nothing
of the affair for which
I am being interrogated.

Well, I do know
I was placed under bond

but I was never
arrested for this matter.

[man] Each of the boys
that did make a statement
about this affair stated

that they did not know
Recy Taylor before this night

and that none of them
ever remembered
having seen her.

Recy Taylor stated to us that

she could not identify
any of these boys.

And if they were all put into
a line up with

eight, 12 or 15 boys,

she could not go in
and pick out a single one

that picked her up
that night and ravished her.

Respectfully submitted,

John O' Harris,
Assistant Attorney General.

[Chris Money] It doesn't take much to get an indictment.

It's a one sided story,

so, what I mean by that is

when you go to the grand jury,

um...

it's secret,

the state only calls
their witnesses.

It's not like
the defense attorneys

get to cross-examine
during a grand jury process.

It doesn't work like that.

The District Attorney
at that time was,

a solicitor, I think it's what they ca... actually took the case to the grand jury, twice.

And never could get
an indictment.

And as I understand it

Mrs. Taylor testified
and they still couldn't get
an indictment.

During those times,
African-Americans
could not serve.

There was an all
white male jury.

I don't think the facts
were the problem

in the Recy Taylor case.

I think that color
had everything to do with it.

[Alma Daniels]
They'd left that night.

Joined the army,

navy,

'cause you know
they had done wrong.

[Crystal Feimster]
It takes profound courage

to speak out.

This is a story that
you want to share
with the world.

There is no sense of,

um, what did I do?

That's sort of, um, you know,

power of shame
and guilt that often

comes with a sexual assault.

You know, that Recy
did not have that shame.

She didn't have that guilt.

She knew that
what had happened to her
was a brutal assault.

We know that victims
of rape and trauma

suffer all kinds of emotions

and that may come later,

but it doesn't come
in those moments

where she is prepared
to speak out about
what happened to her.

It's about saying
that I am a woman,

and that I have
a right to consent

and that when
I do not consent,
it is a crime

and that, you know,
there's hell to pay.

Luther got a pretty bad whipping

for something that I never
did know what it was.

My dad worked him over.

Not with his fist, you know,
he had a strap.

Luther actually, ran around

with good people
that had too much time
on the hands.

You know,
time is a devil's workshop.

I liked every one of 'em.
I liked all of 'em.

With the whole... if...

I never did know
exactly what it was,
like I told you.

But I knew
there was something, but...

We didn't have any...

Abbeville,

would not tell on anybody else.

Dillard was

in with the group
that was always up to something.

It wasn't jail time, but they,

they got their share of

carrying on, you know,
doing things that

kids would do.

Lewey Corbitt
was the sheriff there.

One of the nicest.

If he put you in jail,

you had to go.

He'd give you every break.

He was married to Aunt Suzie.

And she was Mother's sister.

But Uncle Lewey, uh,

never lost an election.

He didn't even have to
get out on politics

because everybody knew
who he was.

So, here we have a grand jury

made up of local white men,

farmers, business owners,
sharecroppers,

being asked
to indict their sons,

their neighbors,
their brothers.

You know, local boys

who for all intents
and purposes in
their minds, at least

were just trying to have
a little fun and got
carried away.

They were never gonna indict

Recy Taylor's rapists.

[Robert Corbitt] My father
lived right just across
the street from

the Howertons.

And Billy Howerton

was in and out
of the house, but he was,

seemed to be pretty,
kind of, shy guy.

He'd never look
in our directions.

Recy did see Billy Howerton
after the rape.

But they wouldn't make

eye contact with each other.

Even as a kid, at that time,

I was expecting
something bad to happen,

but they stayed distant
away from me.

And they know my father always

had his shotgun handy.

So, I think they were
a little afraid of him.

He believed in that
double barrel shotgun.
[chuckles]

We have, you know,

black men in her family,
her husband
and her father

who were unable
to protect her, right?

They're no longer...
They don't have

access to kind of
the traditional, um...

the traditional mechanisms
of manhood

being able to protect your wife
and your daughter.

White men are always
in a position to protect

their wives
and daughters, right.

It becomes the justification
for lynching.

We had a good relationship

with the blacks and I knew

a great number of them in town.

The blacks and the whites...

They knew they were blacks
and they knew they were whites,

but they were friends.

Yes, we knew the Wilsons
before the rape

and also know Hugo
before the rape

because they owned
a taxi cab fleet.

It was, uh...

Wilson call Wilson cab.

I can't remember
the old man's name

but we used to call him
Bulldog Wilson 'cause he

was out of shape,
like a bulldog.

And, uh...

I would deliver
groceries to their house.

My father told me
not to talk to the Wilsons.

Give them
a yes or a no and leave.

Recy was like a mother-sister
to me, she raised me.

I didn't feel good
about it at all.

[Danielle L. McGuire]
So, it's never the same
as enduring a rape.

The effect on the husband
is never the same,

uh, as it is on the woman
who had to endure the rape.

But it's used
as a political weapon
all around the world

to undermine, um, men

and their positions in society.

When I think about
Robert Corbitt, for example,

and the ways
in which he internalized

the rape of his sister,
Recy Taylor,

it really gets to the way
sexual violence

terrorizes people,
not just the victims.

It's what
motivates him today to help

get his sister's story
out into the world.

I get by only without them
knowing it. [chuckles]

I would never let them know that
I was inquiring about them.

I would just be talking to him,
I'd say, "How is Luther Lee?
Is he still around?"

My brother Luther Lee left
to join the Navy
when he was 17.

And he stayed in there a while and then got out and then went back

and stayed till he was retired.

And that made him be
in World War II

and the Korean War

and the Vietnam War.

My brother Dillard York
was the oldest and, uh,

he finished high school
in Abbeville and joined
the Navy in World War II.

He had the Purple Heart
from being wounded

and he served
as the chief recorder

for the Korean peace talks.

I knew Joe Culpepper.

He later on went on to service

and when he did
he was in the Korean War

and they captured him
and he stayed in prison
for a long time.

He was a Korean War prisoner.

And he came back as a hero.

From talking to him afterwards,
it was just the

experience of seeing all the

people that was killed
at Pearl Harbor

and all the devastation there

just changed his mind
about the life.

He married a girl from Japan.

That went over great.

Lewey Corbitt told, um,

told my father that

two of these guys
had got killed.

He was told that, uh,

one guy killed
in a car accident,

and one guy killed
at a man's house going

with another man's wife.

This, uh...

So, we presumed
that had happened.

So, years later,

we just find out that
those guys didn't die until...

Well, one of them died
in 2010.

Well, that was part
of the cover up.

What happens to Recy's case
after the second grand jury?

Nothing, nothing happens
to Recy Taylor's case.

The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor,

regroups as
the Committee
for Equal Justice.

And because crimes like this
happen again, and again,
and again,

across the South.

They organized to defend
another black woman
in another state

whose been assaulted by
a group of white men.

It's common in
a lot of social movements

for victims of crimes
to be used as symbols,

as figures that
people can rally around,

and then when they become
less useful, the organization
moves on.

It's really a tragedy because

I don't think Recy Taylor really knew the extent to which

so many people
around the country
rallied to her defense

and took comfort and courage
from her brave testimony.

But she also didn't really know

when they decided to move on

because no one
consulted with her.

She goes on with her life.

She goes on living.
She's back in Abbeville

and the attention
has moved elsewhere.

And I think she's largely forgotten about.

And she leads a very hard life

as a sharecropper,

she moves to Florida
to pick oranges,

her marriage ends,

her daughter dies
in a tragic car accident.

She suffers enormously

because of what happened
to her and then
what comes later.

But there's no justice
in the case.

There's never justice
in the case.

You're asking me to talk
about something now

that, uh, I'm uncomfortable
talking about.

People are still living.

I have to still live here.

A book came out that, uh,

told about the...

the Recy Taylor situation.

A young black lady

was allegedly raped

by six or seven
young white boys.

It incited some people
in the northern area
of the country.

They began giving
some local people here

some heavy harassment.

There was conflict
and testimony
in that situation.

I don't know rightly
or wrongly.

I'm not here to judge.

But, I'm just a historian.

But, uh...

not professionally trained,
I might add.

Finally, our local
representative
in the Legislature

decided to, uh,

to maybe, you know, helped

both sides of the situation

calm down.

He had an Act introduced
in the Alabama Legislature,

officially giving Recy Taylor
an apology.

[Crystal Feimster] Often times, the cases like Recy Taylor

seems like
a break from tradition

because we've ignored
those stories.

We've refused
to hear those voices.

In the end,
what makes her story

is these connections
to Rosa Parks

and these longer histories
of black women speaking out.

On the 5th of December 1955,

a fine, dignified,

disciplined, courageous seamstress from this community

sitting down on a bus.

Sister Rosa Parks
with dignity and discipline,

said in substance
that the cup of endurance
has run over.

I can take it no longer.

Martin Luther,
back in the 16th century,
who said,

"Here I stand
and I can do none other,
so help be God."

It was Rosa Parks,
on the 1st of December,
who said,

"Here I sit and I can do
none other, so help me God."

[Crystal Feimster] If we
go back to those images
from that time period,

images that are of Martin,

you know, the speaking
and with his beautiful voice,

who do we see
in those images?

We see women,
black women

walking, walking,
pounding the pavement.

We see black women
in the churches

with the fans, singing.

So, that the women are there.

And the women
have always been there.

And they're gonna
remain there, right?

The shock troops
are on the ground.

They're educating
their daughters on
how to stay safe

when they work
in these homes.

They're pressing charges.

Like, they don't stop doing

what they've been doing.

But, we can't see them

because the light is on Martin,
it's on the man.

It's not surprising that

public transportation
became a battleground

for black women particularly.

Before Jim Crow South,

a lot of train stations
didn't actually have
bathrooms

for people of color.

We often think,
okay, well,
there is the black one

and the white one.

But you didn't build
four bathrooms
in a train station.

There was usually two,
a male and a female.

And so black women,
middle class black women

in their fancy dress
have to use a bathroom.

Where are they gonna go?

They go around the building,

they go in the woods.

And it's a way
to kind of say,

"Look at these people,
look at this woman,

she's peeing on the side
of the road,

or she's peeing
in the bushes.

This is not
a respectable woman."

When black women
paid for a first class ticket

trying to get into
the ladies cars,

they were often
physically manhandled,

thrown off the trains,
beaten once they've
gotten off the trains.

It was a way of saying
that you're not a woman

and we will not treat you
as a woman.

[Danielle L. McGuire]
The entire boycott is rooted

in the defense
of women like
Recy Taylor.

And is propelled
by black women

who had to endure
the most horrific
treatment on the buses.

Without those women
there's no Bus Boycott.

I mean, they are the ones...

They make up 80%
of the Montgomery
City Lines ridership.

So, without them,
who's gonna walk?

Who's gonna stay off
the buses?

And without the Bus Boycott,
I mean, we could

go into this long

'what if,' of history

but without the Bus Boycott,

there's no demonstration

of how non-violent
social revolution happens.

And how powerful it can be.

How a boycott

can bring the cradle
of the confederacy
to its knees.

It's not about where you sit.

It's about being able to

go on public transportation
and being sure that
you're not gonna be molested.

What does freedom mean?

If you can't
walk down the street

without being touched
inappropriately or slapped,

or brutalized.

What does it mean?

If you could vote, or you could sit in a theater,

it means very little.

So, the buses are about
a struggle for bodily integrity

led by women,
organized by women

and really made possible

by the women
who rode the buses every day

and then when they
decided not to ride them,

the women
who walked every day.

♪ Who's that yonder
Dressed in white ♪

♪ Let my people go ♪

♪ Looked like the children
Of the Israelite ♪

♪ Let my people go ♪

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

♪ Over the hills
And everywhere ♪

♪ Go tell it on the mountain ♪

♪ To let my people go ♪

[Danielle L. McGuire]
These movements that
we know about

didn't start because
someone wanted to sit

at a lunch counter,

or go to a movie,

or sit at the front
of the bus.

They are almost always rooted

in the protection
of black womanhood.

[all singing]

If we trace the roots
of all these campaigns,

what we see
are black women
fighting for the right

to move through
the world unmolested.

["This Bitter Earth"
playing]

♪ This bitter earth ♪

♪ Well, what a fruit it bears ♪

♪ Ooh... ♪

It is this sort
of rite of passage

where young southern
white boys

hunted for
a young black girl.

[Crystal Feimster]
Their behavior

was that black women

would be happy
to sleep with a white man.

Under slavery
there was no way

that a black woman
could not consent.

These young men believed

that Recy Taylor would be

a consenting partner

and if she wasn't

that they would
force that consent

with a gun to her head.

I mean, I guess what I
often think is

that they didn't see her.

In the sense that they
really did not see her.

That she was an idea

of what black women are.

That they are all prostitutes.

And, uh,

and that they had a right
to her body, right?

And, of course,
I keep seeing this young

frightened woman
who has a daughter
and a mother

and a husband at home.

Um...

If they couldn't see her,

in the way that
she needed to be seen,

because how could
they have,

you know, how could
they have brutalized her
in this way?

It just doesn't...

I mean, so,
as a scholar

I can see all the pieces,

how white supremacy works,

how sexism works
and patriarchy, but,

at the end of the day
you think, okay,

these are six boys

and a woman.

Like, where is the humanity?

♪ Too soon you're old ♪

♪ But while a voice ♪

♪ Within me cries ♪

♪ I'm sure someone
May answer my call ♪

♪ And this bitter earth ♪

[Alma Daniels]
All six of 'em,

what they did to her,

they didn't need to live.

And then what they,
what happened to them

afterwards

was,

well, a good thing
'cause someone
had tragical death.

They died tragical deaths.

And so, it's just good
for them for what
they did to her.

And just thank God
she is still around.

She is still here.

♪ This bitter earth ♪

♪ Oh, this bitter earth ♪

♪ What good is love ♪

♪ Mm-hmm, that no one shares? ♪

♪ And if my life ♪

[Recy Taylor]
Many ladies got raped.

♪ Is like the dust ♪

The people there
didn't seem like them

weren't concerned about
what happened to me

and then tried to do
nothin' about it.

I can't help
but tell the truth

of what they done to me.

♪ What good am I? ♪

[Recy Taylor] They could have
killed me anyway.

There was time I knew
they could have killed me
with their gun.

The Lord was
just with me that night.

["Hush-A-Bye" playing]

♪ Hush-a-bye ♪

♪ Don't you cry ♪

♪ Go to sleep my little baby ♪

♪ When you wake ♪

♪ You shall have ♪

♪ All the pretty
Little horses ♪

♪ Black and bays ♪

♪ Dapples and grays ♪

♪ All the pretty
Little horses ♪

♪ Way down yonder
On the meadow ♪

♪ Lies a poor little lambie ♪

♪ Bees and butterflies ♪

♪ Picking out its eyes ♪

♪ Poor little thing's
Crying mami ♪

♪ Blacks and bays ♪

♪ Dapples and grays ♪

♪ All the pretty
Little horses ♪

♪ Sister of my tears ♪

♪ Sister of my cries ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ Sister of my tears ♪

♪ Sister of my cries ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ A mother's strength ♪

♪ A daughter's love ♪

♪ A sister's will
That will be done ♪

♪ Our voices raised
Together will ♪

♪ Do the work
Of a million guns ♪

♪ Sister of my tears ♪

♪ Sister of my cries ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ Sister of my tears ♪

♪ Sister of my cries ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ We rise ♪

♪ Hand in hand
We stand as one ♪

♪ We push we reach we rise ♪