On September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper was making her way home from church when she was abducted and raped by seven white boys in Abbeville, Alabama. To speak out against such crimes was incredibly dangerous for black women in the Jim Crow South but against formidable odds and endless threats to her life and her family, Recy Taylor identified her attackers and pressed charges. The resulting quest for justice marked a turning point in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement and emboldened a group of black female activists—including Rosa Parks—to speak out and fight back. This powerful new documentary from filmmaker Nancy Buirski (By Sidney Lumet, The Loving Story) artfully blends archival footage, clips from the “race films” of the 1940s, and interviews with Taylor’s family to place her story within a larger context of systemic racism and sexism. It is essential viewing.
Recy Taylor recently passed away just shy of her 98th birthday. Her obituary appeared in The New York Times, you can read more about her remarkable life and work here.
