Douglas West: Southern Rape Victim Recy Taylor Deserves More Than an Apology

Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights

More than 70 years ago, Recy Taylor (pictured above) was attacked and savagely gang raped by a group of white men in rural Abbeville, Ala., while walking home from church... and then the racist law enforcement system of the deep Jim Crow South raped her again.

Taylor's attackers were never brought to justice.

Two all-white and all-male grand juries declined to indict the rapists, and to make matters worse, police, who should have been seeking justice for Taylor, began to harass her.

"What happened to my sister way back then... couldn't happen today," said Taylor's 74-year-old brother, Robert Corbitt, who still lives in the same town where his sister was attacked. "Boy, what a mess they made out of it. They tried to make her look like a whore, and she was a Christian lady."

Now 91, living in Florida and in failing health, Taylor believes her attackers are dead. She did ask for an apology, though, from the system that managed to make the horrible crime that was committed against her even worse, the Associated Press reported.

On Monday, Taylor finally got one.

"It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944," Henry County probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith said, according to the AP.

"I would like to extend a deep, heartfelt apology for the error we made here in Alabama," Rep. Dexter Grimsley, who represents the 85th district of Alabama, said while looking at Corbitt who attended the news conference as his sister's representative. "It was so unkind. We can't stand around and say that it didn't happen."

It did happen. And not just to Taylor.

All through the pre-civil rights South, black women were victimized by white men and then victimized by the law. Rosa Parks took up Taylor's case, but it was eventually overshadowed by the larger Civil Rights Movement, showing how abuse against women was left out of the struggle for justice even by some of our great leaders.

Danielle McGuire, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, tells the story of Taylor's ordeal and the similar situations endured by other black women in the book "At the Dark End of the Street.

"The fact that they are acknowledging that this happened is important," said McGuire.

It's important but not nearly enough.

Author Danielle McGuire Joins FOX 2 to Discuss New Book in Honor of Black History Month: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Along with the apology should come an effort to right the wrongs committed against these black women.

I understand Taylor's brother's sentiments when he says that what happened 70 years ago couldn't happen today, but I'm not so sure. Women who are raped still face a harsh, insensitive criminal justice system that can make them feel more like the criminal than the victim.

Statistics show that 60 percent of rapes go unreported; only 1 in 15 rapists will go to jail for their crime.

And often, those rapes are not reported straight away when evidence can be collected and the victim can receive urgently needed medical and mental health care.

That's because women feel as if they will be stigmatized and treated poorly by a system that should seek to wrap them in a cocoon of safety. The New York Times recently ran a story of four women who say they were mistreated by the city's police department after reporting a rape.

While 80 percent of rape victims are white, minority women are more likely to be attacked.

I am willing to bet that there is an even deeper level of unreported rapes among black and minority women. Black women also have a 19 percent lifetime rape rate, which is higher than the 18 percent for all women.

And these are young and vibrant women who are having their lives forever altered by rape. Taylor was a married woman of 24 when she was raped. Today, 60 percent of rape victims are under the age of 30. Forty-four percent are under the age of 18. Rape victims are more likely to suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, commit suicide and abuse alcohol and drugs.

Instead of a simple but long-overdue apology, perhaps more money could be put into counseling rape victims of all colors today. Police need to be properly trained to be sensitive to rape victims. Officers making inappropriate comments to rape victims need to find themselves in danger of losing their jobs. That's the only way rape is going to be taken seriously in a male-dominated profession such as law enforcement.

So many strong women survive rape and go on to live productive, healthy lives but they need support in doing that. If the people in the Alabama county where Taylor was raped truly want to demonstrate that they are sorry, then positive steps need to be taken to help other women.

Maybe they could be an inspiration for all of Alabama, the South and the nation.