At The Dark End Of The Street Chapter Summaries

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The first chapter in the book At The Dark End of the Street is titled “They’d Kill Me If I Told.” Rosa Park’s dad James McCauley was a expert stonemason and barrel-chested builder. Louisa McCauley was Rosa Park’s grandmother, she was homestead and her husband and oldest son built homes throughout Alabama’s Black Belt. In 1912 James McCauley went to go hear his brother-in-law preach. While there, he noticed a beautiful light named Leona Edwards. She was the daughter of Rose Percival and Sylvester Edwards. Sylvester was a mistreated slave who learned to hate white people. Leona and James McCauley got married a couple months after meeting and Rosa was conceived about nine months after the wedding. In 1915, James decided to move North with all …show more content…

Rosa had to move fast with gathering the information on the gang rape. She was kicked out of town. Recy Taylor was ganged raped but the culprit that drove made her seem look like a prostitute. Thanks to Rosa’s grandfather teaching her to stand up for herself and others this case of Taylor would get handled with in time. Rosa met her husband Raymond Parks in the spring of 1931 and they were married by 1932. In October of 1944 there was a hearing for Recy Taylor, this is when she found out that none of the men that raped her were arrested. Rosa Parks and the SNYC women helped spread Recy Taylor’s story from Alabama to the streets of Harlem. By mid December of 1944 hundreds of letters protesting the rape of Recy Taylor piled up on Governor Spark’s desk. This gang rape story angered so many black troops that Charles S. Seely, the editorial director of the “Army News” had to act and warn Governor Spark’s that the situation on the rape not being handled may affect their performance during war. John McCray, a spirited advocator for black voting rights and an editor and publisher argued that it was common for black women to be raped by white men. Even police officers participated in these rapes. African American women decided to speak out on their stories of being raped or molested. This helped them reclaim their bodies and human

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