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@so_treu@blackqueer.life · last month

"With the news of the Daniel Holtzclaw trial verdict, black women’s sexual assault should be front-page news. This should especially be the case given that the Oklahoma police officer was sentenced to 263 years in prison in large part because the black women he assaulted fought back by testifying against him. The brave women who helped put Holtzclaw behind bars are part of a long history of black women’s anti-rape activism that stretches back to the days of slavery. It is often assumed that black women have had to fight back against their assaulters with little backing from the black community. However, in the mid-1970s, during the height of the Black Power Movement, black men and women came together to free Joan Little."

— Ashley Farmer, "Free Joan Little: Anti-rape Activism, Black Power, and the Black Freedom Movement." https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/

@so_treu@blackqueer.life replied · last month

"With the news of the Daniel Holtzclaw trial verdict, black women’s sexual assault should be front-page news. This should especially be the case given that the Oklahoma police officer was sentenced to 263 years in prison in large part because the black women he assaulted fought back by testifying against him. The brave women who helped put Holtzclaw behind bars are part of a long history of black women’s anti-rape activism that stretches back to the days of slavery. It is often assumed that black women have had to fight back against their assaulters with little backing from the black community. However, in the mid-1970s, during the height of the Black Power Movement, black men and women came together to free Joan Little."

— Ashley Farmer, "Free Joan Little: Anti-rape Activism, Black Power, and the Black Freedom Movement." https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/

@so_treu@blackqueer.life replied · last month

"On August 27, 1974, Joan (Jo-Ann) Little sat in the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. The petite, twenty-two year old black woman had been incarcerated for two months while she awaited her court date on a breaking and entering charge. That night, sixty-two year old white jailer Clarence Alligood entered her jail cell, ice pick in hand, intending to coerce Little into sexual acts. In an act of self-defense, Little stabbed Alligood with the ice pick in order to wound him and escape. Little fled as her would-be assailant bled to death.

The case ignited the “Free Joan Little,” movement, with supporters building a political front that united disparate activists under a broad coalition. Angela Davis spoke out in support of Little, emphasizing her right to self-defense and indicting the racist and sexist prison industrial complex. Davis claimed that although Little had escaped Alligood’s grasp, she had “truly been raped and wronged many times over by the exploitative and discriminatory institutions of this society.”[1] Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), created the freedom song, “Joan Little,” which became the anthem for the movement. Other black women closer to home, such as Duke University Law Student Katherine Galloway, worked on Little’s defense. Renown civil rights leader Rosa Parks formed a local chapter of the “Joanne Little Legal Defense Committee” in Detroit."

— Ashley Farmer, "Free Joan Little: Anti-rape Activism, Black Power, and the Black Freedom Movement." https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/

@so_treu@blackqueer.life replied · last month

"Black men also stood up for Little. Maulana Karenga, best known for creating the US Organization and the African American holiday of Kwanzaa, called on the public to “accept and support [Little’s] account of what happened to her” and to “reject the version of her oppressor.”[3] The Reverend Ralph Abernathy, leader of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), offered a poignant statement of support of black women’s right to self-defense at a protest in front of the Beaufort County courthouse. Newark Black Power leader and Black Arts poet Amiri Baraka also spoke out in support of Little and her actions."

— Ashley Farmer, "Free Joan Little: Anti-rape Activism, Black Power, and the Black Freedom Movement." https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/

@so_treu@blackqueer.life replied · last month

"How did Little garner such widespread support during a movement known for its male bravado and sexism? Activists found that Little’s case epitomized black power ideals. Not only did her experience explain the systemic effect of intersecting systems of oppression like racism, sexism, and the prison-industrial complex; it was also another poignant example of ongoing extreme police brutality. Little’s case amplified black power activists’ claim that respectability politics undermined black liberation. It was also a way for them to champion their calls for African Americans’ right to self-defense and self-determination."

— Ashley Farmer, "Free Joan Little: Anti-rape Activism, Black Power, and the Black Freedom Movement." https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/

@so_treu@blackqueer.life replied · last month

"During the trial, prosecutors relied on the tried and true practice of stereotyping and sexualizing Black women, with Prosecutor William Griffin alleging that Little had seduced Alligood with the promise of sex and once inside, she killed him so she could escape. Griffin’s claim reflects the belief of many townspeople in Beaufort and Pitt counties, that Black women were more vulgar than White women, and Black people more violent than White. Furthermore, utilizing this argument highlights how the continued sexualization of Black women is rooted in racism that began when Europeans first traveled to Africa. In their interactions with Africans, they were both engrossed and horrified by how they dressed, the minimal amount of clothing they wore, their practice of polygamy, and their “suggestive” tribal dances. This led Europeans to proclaim that they were sexually lewd, solely based on their incomprehension of traditional African culture. From these initial exchanges and the writings of William Smith, who wrote that “African women were “hot constitution' d Ladies” who “are continually contriving stratagems how to gain a lover”, grew the stereotype of Black women being inherently deviant and sexually promiscuous."

— Karla Méndez, "In Defense of Black Women: The Case of Joan Little." https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/in-defense-of-black-women-the-case-of-joan-little

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