Photo credit: Frederic J. Brown—AFP/Getty Images
When Oprah Winfrey became the first Black woman to accept the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille award earlier this month, she used her acceptance speech as an opportunity to pay homage to civil right icon Recy Taylor. As stated in Winfrey’s stirring speech:
“In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and mother walking home from a church service she’d attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six armed white men, raped, and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone, but her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice. But justice wasn’t an option in the era of Jim Crow. The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. “
Taylor passed away in her hometown of Abbeville, Alabama on December 28, 2017, just days short of her 98th birthday.
Photo credit: Susan Walsh/AP/REX/Shutterstock
On Tuesday, just weeks after sharing Taylor’s story, Winfrey ended up in Taylor’s hometown while on assignment for 60 minutes and visited her grave site. She shared photos on social media, writing:
“I don’t believe in coincidences, but if I did this would be a powerful one. On assignment for @60minutes I end up in the town of Abbeville where #RecyTaylor suffered injustice, endured and recently died. (GG speech) To be able to visit her grave so soon after ‘speaking her name’ sharing her story, a woman I never knew. Feels like ☁️❤️.”
Rest in power, Ms. Recy Taylor.