BOOK REINTERPRETS 1955 MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
At the Dark End of the Street, by Danielle McGuire, assistant professor of history at Wayne State University, is a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the story of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. The book is based on McGuire’s award-winning dissertation, which she revised in 2007-08 while holding a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center. It brings to light a decade-long movement, led by Rosa Parks, to bring to justice white men who regularly committed sexual violence against black Alabama women. The story begins with the 1944 gang rape of Recy Taylor in Henry County, Ala.
This week, nearly 70 years later, the Henry County officials, joined by Democratic state representative Dexter Grimsley, issued an apology to the 91-year-old Mrs. Taylor. “I would like to extend a deep, heartfelt apology for the error we made here in Alabama,” Grimsley said. “It was so unkind. We can’t stand around and say that it didn’t happen.”