On Juneteenth, we recognize that although President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved Black people in 1863, it was not enforced in many places in the South until the Civil War ended in 1865. This holiday is both celebratory and reflective, as our society is called to recognize both the joy of emancipation and the ways that racial injustice continues to harm the Black community and Black individuals.
When we reflect on freedom and emancipation today, we embrace Audrey Lorde’s wisdom: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”
Today, we lift up the great work of four Black activists who have championed the movement against sexual violence. BARCC is proud to amplify the voices of these Black survivors, who courageously broke the silence and inspired others to speak, and those who continue to pursue freedom for all in their work each day.
[Content warning: sexual violence, rape]
Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897): After escaping slavery, Jacobs wrote about her experience of sexual abuse at the hands of her captors. Her work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was among the most comprehensive written narratives that shed light on the sexual violence experienced by enslaved Black women. Her powerful words introducing the book echo through history, “I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself; on the contrary, it would have been more pleasant to me to have been silent about my own history. Neither do I care to excite sympathy for my own sufferings. But I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse.” Jacobs had the courage to share her story and became a beacon in the abolitionist movement. The year before her death in 1897, she was actively involved in organizing meetings of the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D. C.
Rosa Parks (1913–2005): More than a decade before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks acted as an NAACP legal advocate for Mrs. Recy Taylor, a survivor of rape. Parks’ personal experience as a survivor made her passionate about pursuing legal justice for Mrs. Taylor. Parks helped establish the Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor when none of the white offenders were indicted. Parks sent a letter to the governor. “As a citizen of Alabama, I urge you to use your high office to reconvene the Henry County Grand Jury at the earliest possible moment,” Parks wrote. “Alabamians are depending upon you to see that all obstacles, which are preventing justice in this case, be removed. I know that you will not fail to let the people of Alabama know that there is equal justice for all of our citizens.” The men were never prosecuted. But, in 2011, the State of Alabama issued an official apology, “That we acknowledge the lack of prosecution for crimes committed against Recy Taylor by the government of the State of Alabama,” the resolution read. “That we declare such failure to act was, and is, morally abhorrent and repugnant, and that we do hereby express profound regret for the role played by the government of the State of Alabama in failing to prosecute the crimes.”
Anita Hill (1956–): Nearly three decades before #MeToo, Hill testified before an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee about the sexual harassment she faced from then-nominee Clarence Thomas. Her brave testimony paved the way for other survivors to speak out against workplace abuse and led to new legislation protecting the rights of people who have experienced harassment. “It would have been more comfortable to remain silent,” she said in her testimony. “But when I was asked by a representative of this committee to report my experience, I felt that I had to tell the truth. I could not keep silent.” Hill recently published Believing: Our Thirty Year Journey to End Gender Violence and continues to be an activist in the movement against sexual violence. In a 2021 interview, Hill shared, “But I think as a country, we have changed. And I think we’re in a position right now where the public is ready for it. The public is ready for an investment in alleviating this toxic problem that runs through all of our institutions, public and private. And I think they will get behind leadership that will do it, and I think many people hopefully will become leaders themselves that will take on this problem.”
Tarana Burke (1973-): Burke founded the #MeToo movement in 2006 to address the inequity of resources for marginalized women experiencing violence. The hashtag has shed light on the epidemic of sexual violence and created a community of survivors around the world. In 2022 on the fifth anniversary of the #MeToo movement, Burke wrote, “Five years ago, millions of people across the globe used the hashtag #MeToo to find safety and solidarity. Survivors introduced a world of possibility to the fight to end sexual violence. Now we are moving beyond the hashtag to build a culture predicated on consent and harm reduction. This is our moral imperative. The millions of outcries can’t be unheard. To those who came forward—the words can’t be unsaid. Survivors did their part by waking the world up to this crisis. Please don’t let another 68 seconds pass without doing yours.”
We honor the voices of these strong, Black women who led and continue to lead the movement to end sexual violence. Our commitment to freedom for all means continuing to serve survivors in ways that are empowering and supportive, and recognizing and addressing the barriers of racial oppression in all their forms.