At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance—a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power

One of the most important trials in the history of the civil rights movement, Brown v. Board of Education was a Supreme Court case that ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This overruled the doctrine of “separate but equal” that was established in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, laying the ground for desegregation and the end of Jim Crow.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was the most impactful civil rights legislation since the end of the Civil War. Supported by John F. Kennedy before his 1963 assassination, the act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson the following year. The law outlawed segregation in businesses as well as public facilities, and it created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce anti-discrimination laws in workplaces.

Also called the Committee for Equal Justice, this organization was founded in the aftermath of Recy Taylor’s rape by Taylor and Rosa Parks. From Abbeville, Alabama, the organization spread to form 18 chapters across the United States. The Committee investigated the crime, led a publicity campaign to highlight the reality of sexual violence against Black women, and organized petitions and letter-writing campaigns to get justice for Taylor. While Taylor’s rapists were not indicted, leaders from this Committee went on to participate in other crucial civil rights activism.

Beginning in the Reconstruction Era, Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the American South. Justified by Plessy v. Ferguson’s “separate but equal” doctrine, Jim Crow laws mandated segregation and usually provided substandard facilities for Black Americans. These laws remained on the books until 1954 when segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, and Jim Crow laws were overturned entirely by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation, it did not strike down miscegenation laws. This was achieved in 1967 with the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia. In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, traveled from Virginia to Washington, DC, to marry Mildred Jeter, a Black woman. While interracial marriage was legal in DC, it remained prohibited in Virginia and more than a dozen other states. After the couple returned to Virginia, they were arrested. The Lovings turned to the American Civil Liberties Union, which decided to represent them in a Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Lovings and issued a unanimous verdict in which Chief Justice Earl Warren described miscegenation laws as “repugnant” (201).

After Rosa Parks’s arrest in 1955, Black Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, participated in the organized boycott of Montgomery buses. The boycott lasted 13 months and resulted in the desegregation of public transportation in Browder v. Gale. The boycott helped launch other nonviolent civil rights movement actions and propelled Martin Luther King Jr. to national fame.

The Montgomery Improvement Association was created to guide the Montgomery bus boycott. Led by Martin Luther King Jr., the MIA not only supported the boycott by drafting demands and organizing carpools for boycotters but aimed to fight segregation and racism more broadly. After Browder v. Gale, the MIA became part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and continued its anti-racist activism campaigns through the 1960s.

Miscegenation is a term used to condemn sex between two people belonging to different races. These laws are often specifically concerned with the “protection” of white women, harshly punishing Black men who had interracial sex. In contrast, white men who had sex with Black women are rarely arrested or punished, and the frequent rape of Black women was an open secret in Southern society. White segregationists frequently preyed on fears about miscegenation to uphold Jim Crow laws, and attitudes about miscegenation were often used to justify lynchings. As the civil rights movement gained support, white segregationists spread exaggerated rumors of sexual deviance to stir up opposition and outrage and justify violence against demonstrators. Miscegenation laws remained on the books until Loving v. Virginia struck them down in 1967.

Formed in 1909, the NAACP is an organization dedicated to promoting racial equality and eliminating racist discrimination. It was created as an explicitly interracial activist organization by prominent activists like W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Mary White Ovington. The NAACP was also an early example of Black and Jewish solidarity in organizing. Throughout the 20th century, the NAACP fought not only Jim Crow laws in the South but also instances of segregation and discrimination in the North. One of the most important parts of NAACP’s activism is its Legal Defense Fund, which is used to fund anti-racist lawsuits.

Founded in 1960, the SNCC organized young anti-racist activists in nonviolent, direct-action protests. The SNCC participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides, which tested the 1960 Supreme Court ruling desegregating interstate travel. The student organizers also participated in sit-ins, the 1963 March on Washington, and the 1964 Freedom Summer, which is discussed in this book. As the organization became more militant with the emergence of the Black Power movement, the SNCC was targeted by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) as part of a broader federal effort to quash black militancy.

Wednesdays in Mississippi was an activist group that united Black and white women activists in the 1960s. Recognizing the shared vulnerability of all women, its organizers worked toward integration and promoting self-sufficiency among poor, working-class women.