A Story of Jim Crow Injustice

                                              Ms. Recy Taylor today.

Ms. Rosa Parks was sent to Abbeville, Al. by the local NAACP to investigate the rape of Ms. Taylor.

 News articles about the 1944 rape by seven whites who were never prosecuted for the rape of Ms. Recy Taylor.

The story of Ms. Recy Taylor is a story of Jim Crow America, a story of no justice and of tyranny. The story of Ms. Taylor must be told so that we are reminded of a period in our history where racial injustice was the rule and practice. The tyranny of racial oppression can never be allowed to exist and those who perpetrate racial discrimination must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

In Ms Taylor's case 2 all white male grand juries refused to indite the rapist. Then, as an additional indignity she was harassed by the police who should have been helping her.

Ms. Taylor's husband was offered $100 from each of the rapists as a proposed settlement. This offer was apparently approved by the local legal system.

There were seven men who openly admitted to the community and the Grand Jury that they had raped Ms. Taylor. The Grand Jury refused to return an indictment. This statement by one of the rapists was reported in local media accounts, "N***er- ain't $600 enough for raping your wife?"

"In her book "At the Dark End of the Street" Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that ultimately changed the world."
"Dark End of the Street" photo gallery: http://atthedarkendofthestreet.com/the-book/photo-gallery/

"Alabama State Rep. Dexter Grimsley personally apologized to Recy and her family for Alabama's failure to prosecute her rapists and deny her justice all of these years. Rep. Grimsley expressed his intent to introduce a House resolution calling for a state apology to Recy Taylor before the current session is out." http://www.examiner.com/feminism-in-dallas/alabama-may-finally-acknowledge-jim-crow-era-rape-of-recy-taylor    http://m.blackvoices.com/blog/bvblackspin/2011/3/22/southern-rape-victim-recy-taylor-deserves-more-than-an-apology/?p=1&icid=bv_bspin_art_prv_p

Tell the Alabama state legislature to support Rep. Grimsley's apology resolution click on this link to sign the petition.

Eightieth Year Commemoration of the Case We Call The Scottsboro Boys.

On March the 25th, 1931, nine young black men were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama, Jackson County, while hoboing on a west bound freight train. The 9 young men were arrested for the crime of rape, a false charge which was compounded by a faulty system of  justice in a racist society. The trials and the case of these 9 young men is referred to as The Scottsboro Boys Trial.

The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center, 428 West Willow Street, Scottsboro, Alabama will commemorate the sacrifice of these nine young men on March the 25th, 2011. The commemoration ceremony will begin at 1PM and continue until 5PM. Dr. Dan T. Carter, author of "Scottsboro, A Tragedy of the American South," will be the featured guest speaker at 4PM.

At 10AM Judge Victoria A. Roberts is scheduled to speak at the Jackson County Courthouse concerning how the Scottsboro Boys Case has changed the course of history in America's courtrooms, according to an article in the weekend edition of Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel. Link:  http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_41adf84c-51a7-11e0-98db-001cc4c03286.html The news article also lists Mr. Lee Sentell of the Alabama Department of Tourism as a speaker at 1 PM, followed by Ms. Catherine Schreiber, one of the producers of the Scottsboro Boys Play. Check out the Daily Sentinel link above for more information.

A reception will follow at the Comfort Inn on John T. Reid Parkway at 6:30PM, according to the Daily Sentinel, the public is invited.

The above program is sponsored by the tax payers of the City of Scottsboro, Jackson County Alabama and the State of Alabama. Thank you, City Council, County Commission and State Legislative Delegation for this years contributions and for making this program possible.

Update Published 16 June 2011, "Southern Spaces" article by Dr. Ellen Spears, University of Alabama, "Rights Still Being Righted": Scottsboro Eighty Years Later  http://www.southernspaces.org/2011/rights-still-being-righted-scottsboro-eighty-years-later

Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center Celebrates Black History Month and 1 Year of Operation

DOD-DEOMI Special Observance Art for Black History Month.

The National Theme for Black History month this year is African Americans and the Civil War.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH
February, Black History Month at the Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center, ‏ 428 W. Willow St., Historic Joyce Chapel, Scottsboro, Alabama.

Saturday, Feb. 5 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentations at 11AM and 2PM on the Scottsboro Boys Case

Saturday, Feb. 12 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentation at 11AM Scottsboro Boys Case; 2PM presentation on African Americans in the Civil War by Garry L. Morgan, U.S. Army Retired, Historian Scottsboro Boys Museum.

Saturday, Feb. 19 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentation at 11AM on the Scottsboro Boys Case. Special presentation by Ms. Sheryl Snodgrass-Caffey at 3PM "THE IMPACT OF THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS' CASES ON CIVIL RIGHTS - - YESTERDAY & TODAY" & "A Bit of Local Civil Rights History"

Saturday, Feb. 26 - Open 10AM-4PM. Special video presentations at 11AM and 2PM on the Scottsboro Boys Case

Black History month program, click for an expanded view of the program.

.

Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel Link to the story. Video's attached to the D.S. story. http://thedailysentinel.com/news/article_f9b8b444-2e53-11e0-95f6-001cc4c03286.html

WAAY TV story: http://www.waaytv.com/news/local/story/Black-History-Month-Celebration-In-Scottsboro/OgctwSYtiEmob5QH-G5w4w.cspx

.

Ms. Sheila Washington, Founder and Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center

The Scottsboro Boys under guard at Scottsboro, Alabama March 26, 1931.

Tuesday, February the 1st the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center in Scottsboro, Alabama began our celebration of Black History Month and 1 year of operation.

.

Ms. Marilyn Jones Stamps was our featured speaker. Ms Stamps says, "I have a love for history." Ms. Stamps works with the Department of Tourism in Montgomery. She delivered a moving presentation.

.

"We do not have to live in the past...Our heritage is defined by our forfathers." Ms. Stamps related how her father influenced her life. She told of the sacrifices her father made, Prince Albert Jones. One of her fathers quotes was "I'd rather go to jail for something I did not do rather than something I had done."

.

Ms. Stamps told the story of how local law enforcement in her home town attempted to keep her father and other black citizens from registering to vote. Another one of her fathers quotes, "Do your best, be diligent, work hard, carry yourself with pride and hold your head up."

.

Ms. Stamps closed with Langston Hughes' poem "Freedoms Plow." A remarkable, revealing poem, about sacrifices, struggles and the rights of African Americans. Langston Hughes lived in Jim Crow America, born in 1907, died in 1967. His ashes are interned at the Shomberg Library Center in New York, New York.

.

A small part of "Freedoms Plow:"

"...Some were slave hands

Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,

But the word was there always:

Freedom."

.

"Down into the earth went the plow

In the free hands and the slave hands,

In indentured hands and adventurous hands,

Turning the rich soil went the plow in many hands

That planted and harvested the food that fed

And the cotton that clothed America..."

.

A long time ago,

An enslaved people heading toward freedom

Made up a song: Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!

The plow plowed a new furrowAcross the field of history.

Into that furrow the freedom seed was dropped.

From that seed a tree grew, is growing, will ever grow.

That tree is for everybody,

For all America, for all the world.

May its branches spread and shelter grow

Until all races and all peoples know its shade.

KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!

.

Langston Hughes' complete poem may be found at "Old Poetry." http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/12628-Langston-Hughes-Freedom-s-Plow

.

A special presentation from our celebration event on Tuesday February 1, 2011 at the Scottsboro Boys Museum & Cultural Center which was attended by 85 persons.

 

WAAY TV video

Birmingham Museum of Art - "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy"

Ms Sheila Washington, Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center introduces the PBS film, "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy"

Dr. Ellen Spears, University of Alabama was present representing the Scottsboro University-Community Partnership in Scholarship, supported by New College, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the UA Council on Community-Based Partnerships, and the Summersell Center for the Study of the South.

Left to Right in the photo: Mrs. Lynda Hodges, Ms. Gretel Johnston, Ms. Sheila Washington and Mr. Garry Morgan.

Lynda, Gretel and Sheila, we arrived early for a tour of the museum, I was very impressed with the Asian pottery/ceramics/jade section and European Renaissance period oil paintings.
.

On January the 27th Sheila Washington, Lynda Hodges, Gretel Johnston and Garry Morgan traveled to the Birmingham Museum of Art for an evening of discussion prior and after the PBS film, "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy."

.

Ms. Washington introduced the film and we answered questions afterwords.

.

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/ In this 2001 Academy Award nominated film, filmmakers Barak Goodman and Daniel Ankar retell the extraordinary lost story of the 1931 Scottsboro case, where nine black teenagers were accused of raping two white women. Through never-before-seen-footage, photos, letters, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, Goodman and Ankar give viewers the opportunity to re-examine the case through unbiased eyes.

.
Sheila Washington, Founder and Director and Garry Morgan, Historian of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center will introduce the film and lead a post-film discussion.

.

Many thanks to the museum staff for their hospitality. Link to the museum: http://www.artsbma.org/visit-the-museum/visitor-information