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A review by rayarriz
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 by Danielle L. McGuire
5.0
1. It took me a month to read this book solely because I kept having mini breakdowns getting through it. Not actual tears, but just pure empathy. After all, I'm a black woman...reading about black women who just one or two or three generations before me, regularly suffered these rapes by white men. I'm talking countless stories. The law not being on their side, because all too often the perpetrators WERE the law. And because the rapists were white men, they could get away with it. They had all the power in a society and with the law.
But I wasn't surprised by anything I read, I've heard these things from many older black people and I'm from the South. And everybody knows what happened during slavery. I did appreciate how the book outlines the legal (and even social) change that occurred over time, through the efforts of black feminists and civil right groups. And ends with the landmark case with Joan Little.
2. Very informative and a lot to think about. I recommend this as an aid for anyone needing to contextualize the way black women have historically been viewed and treated and how their oversexualization and dehumanization sustained the racist narrative that they deserved to be abused and weren't worthy of being defended. It's a very sad history, but one that needs to be told. And one that can absolutely answer and start some modern questions and discussions.
But I wasn't surprised by anything I read, I've heard these things from many older black people and I'm from the South. And everybody knows what happened during slavery. I did appreciate how the book outlines the legal (and even social) change that occurred over time, through the efforts of black feminists and civil right groups. And ends with the landmark case with Joan Little.
2. Very informative and a lot to think about. I recommend this as an aid for anyone needing to contextualize the way black women have historically been viewed and treated and how their oversexualization and dehumanization sustained the racist narrative that they deserved to be abused and weren't worthy of being defended. It's a very sad history, but one that needs to be told. And one that can absolutely answer and start some modern questions and discussions.