In 2011 a book that changed the way the history of the Civil Rights Movement is viewed, was published. It's author was Danielle L. McGuire and the book was: 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." The book resulted in the film: The Rape of Recy Taylor and a viral speech by Oprah Winfrey at the January 7 Golden Globes Awards--a speech that centered the story of Recy Taylor.

This Sunday, we will be offering listeners that groundbreaking book--now in its second printing--in return for a $75. pledge to support WBAI.

(Call (516) 620 3602 and tell the call taker that you want the "Dark End of the Street book". You can also order the book online at https://tinyurl.com/y8m9t7ln)

During the show we will also host a live interview with the book's author, Danielle L. McGuire. 

AND--we will offer listeners advance tickets--at a discount--to the March 7 screening of "The Rape of Recy Taylor" for a reduced price of $20.

(Call (516) 620 3602 and tell the call taker that you want "tickets for the March 7 screening of The Rape of Recy Taylor"--or--order online at https://tinyurl.com/y76tr567) and your name will be on a list at the door.

The screening of The Rape of Recy Taylor will take place on March 7, @7 pm, at The Brooklyn Commons, followed by a panel and discussion with the audience.

The panelists will be: Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw, Danielle L. McGuire, Soraya Nadia McDonald and Carolanne Dolan (see background on panelists, below).

The movie is brilliant, poetic and features period music, "race film" film clips and much of the history of the 40's and 50's in the South, including audio and video from the life of Rosa Parks--and an interview with Recy Taylor, at 95, is featured in the film (she passed in December at 97).

A 1/2 price ticket ($10.) to the sceening will be available for those who order the book plus the ticket, at $85. for both.

(Call (516) 620 3602 and tell the call taker that you want the "End of the Street Package"--or--order online at https://tinyurl.com/yb8mxhp4)

Other premiums we will offer on this show:

The "Kate Millett Package", a 4 CD set, with authentic recordings from the life and times of the legendary feminist author and organizer Kate Millett, who died this past August.

The Kate Millett collection includes a complete recording of the memorial for Kate held in New York City on November 9, including speeches by Gloria Steinem, Yoko Ono and music by Holly Near (organized by Veteran Feminists of America and Sophie Keir); early panels and speeches by Millett and cohorts of the Women's Liberation Movement (from the Pacifica Radio Archives), and includes a complete recording of the rally of The march for the Women's Strike for Equality on Aug. 26, 1970--where 50,000 women (and allies) marched down Fifth Avenue and launched the Second Wave of feminism.

The Kate Millett Package is available for a pledge of $100.

(Call (516) 620-3602 and ask for "The Kate Millett Package"--or--order online at https://tinyurl.com/yb5qzv5n)

We will also offer two feminist classics for a pledge of only $25. !: 

A 2-CD package of vintage Joy of Resistance productions: 1) The Feminist Music Extravanza: A musical tour through feminist history, featuring 9 iconic songs expressing the fight for freedom for women (55 minutes), and 2) "The Civil Rights Movement and the Roots of Women's Liberation" (70 minutes): Eight interviews with women who worked in the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that illustrate how many of the ideas, issues and strategies of the Women's Liberation Movement (late 1960's) were forged in the intellectually rich and experimental atmosphere of SNCC. An original radio investigation that cannot be found anywhere else!

(Call (516) 620 3602 and tell the call taker that you want "JOR 2 CDs"--or--order online at https://tinyurl.com/y8s63d6n)

More about the panelists at the screening of The Rape of Recy Taylor at The Commons on March 7:

• Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw is the Director of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), the developer of the concept of "intersectionality" and was a keynote speaker at the January 21 Women's March. 

• Danielle L. McGuire, whose book "At the Dark End of the Street..." brought to the attention of the modern public the story of Recy Taylor and the erased history of how the fight for justice for Black women raped by white men in the Jim Crow South, laid the basis for the later Civil Rights Movement--and the part that Rosa Parks played in this early anti-rape movement.

• Carolanne Dolan (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0230757/) was an Executive Producer on "The Rape of Recy Taylor" and is a two-time Emmy winner.

• Soraya Nadia McDonald (https://twitter.com/sorayamcdonald) is a culture critic for The Undefeated. 

Background to the story of Recy Taylor andits place in Civil Rights history:

Recy Taylor was a Black sharecropper in Alabama who, in 1944, was on her way home from church when she was forced into a car at gunpoint by seven white men, taken into the woods and gang raped. Such rapes of Black women were not uncommon in the Jim Crow South. Recy was threatened with death if she told anyone, but she did tell and risked violent retaliation by making a complaint to the local sheriff's office. Her home was firebombed shortly thereafter (the family escaped uninjured). The NAACP came to her aid and sent their best organizer. Her name was Rosa Parks. "The Campaign for Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor" was the result--and it gained national attention. Although all white, all male juries, twice refused to indict the rapists, the campaign--which later extended to fighting for justice for other Southern Black women who had been raped by white men during Jim Crow and received no justice--laid down much of the organizational foundation of the later flowering of the Civil Rights Movement.

Recy Taylor's story and the political campaign that arose out of it caught the public's attention in 2011, with the publication of Danielle L. McGuire's "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." This story was not part of the usual historical telling of the Civil Rights movement--largely because the conventional history centered on male leaders and not on women's concerns, such as fighting rape.

Because of McGuire's research, this "new history" finally brought new concern with the lack of justice for Recy Taylor (and so many other women who had undergone rape by white men in the south)--and forced the Alabama State Legislature to issue a belated apology to Recy Taylor for its denial of justice to her so many years before. McGuire's book is credited by the filmmakers as their inspiration for the film.

In January, at the Golden Globes Awards, Recy Taylor's story was told in a stirring speech (that went viral) delivered by Oprah Winfrey--in the context of the #metoo movement. Recy had died only a few weeks before at the age of 97 (note: an interview with the aged Recy Taylor is part of the film!).

The story, while devastating in many ways, is told exquisitely and poetically and is full of period photos, documents, excerpts of earlier films (including "race films" made by the Black community) and period music that creates its own atmosphere.

Please turn out to support WBAI on March 7, and celebrate International Women's Day with this great film and an important discussion about the issues it raises and the lessons it holds for today.