Stars & Showbiz
On the 2018 Golden Globes red carpet, what do stars think about sexual harassment?
On a night filled with politics, emotions and solidarity, the standout moment of the 2018 Golden Globes belonged to Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey with an eloquent speech at the ceremony.
As a famous talk show host, businesswoman, actress, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey became the first woman of color to win the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime contributions.
There is one special woman that Oprah Winfrey mentioned, but few people know about, and that is Recy Taylor.
Recy Taylor – the person Oprah Winfrey was moved to honor in her speech at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards. (Photo: NBC News)
In 1944, a time when parts of the United States including Taylor’s home state of Alabama were racially segregated by law, 24-year-old mother Taylor was walking home from church when she was suddenly arrested
News about the incident spread across all newspapers.
Despite the threats, Taylor bravely reported this heinous crime to the authorities.
There is no fairness
To help Taylor in her fight for justice, one of America’s largest civil rights organizations, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), sent a member to secretly help her.
Rosa Parks – who supported Taylor in reclaiming equal rights.
But even with the support of the NAACP and Rosa Parks, Taylor’s perpetrators went unpunished, never even brought to trial because the two juries were (also)
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Reappearance in the public eye
After the jury’s decisions, Taylor left the town of Abbeville and she was never seen in the newspapers again.
Danielle McGuire with the book `At the dark end of the street`.
Danielle’s book sparked more media interest in Taylor’s case, and change.org collected more than 20,000 signatures to demand that the town of Abbeville apologize for “covering up the crime of rape by the apartheid regime.”
In 2010, Taylor told the Press Association that she wanted an apology from officials because she believed the men who attacked and raped her were dead.
Mrs. Taylor did not want to think about the past.
In December 2011, a formal apology from the Alabama Legislature arrived for the “disgusting and shameful” criminal prosecution.
“I’m proud to know that they apologized but I can’t explain how I feel right now,” Taylor told The Root shortly after.
In 2017, the documentary The Rape of Recy Taylor was unexpectedly released amid a wave of women daring to speak out about rape and sexual harassment as part of the #MeToo movement.
Recy Taylor’s brother – Robert Corbitt (Photo: Getty)
Last years of life
Just three weeks after the US released the documentary, Taylor passed away in his bedroom at a nursing home in Abbeville, according to The Guardian.
She will be remembered, even more so by Winfrey, for her courage in bringing these heinous crimes to light, despite the truly difficult circumstances at the time.
Photo: The New York Times
