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

“On October 5, 1892, hundreds of black women converged on Lyric Hall in New York City to hear Ida B. Wells’s thunderous voice. While black men were being accused of ravishing white women, she argued, ‘The rape of helpless Negro girls, which began in slavery days, still continues without reproof from church, state or press.’”

Wells’s comment from 1892 echoes the concerns of many of the black female activists discussed throughout McGuire’s book. By quoting from Wells’ speech in 1892, McGuire emphasizes the long history of sexual violence against black women.

“By deploying their voices as weapons in the wars against white supremacy, whether in the church, the courtroom, or in congressional hearings, African-American women loudly resisted what Martin Luther King, Jr., called the ‘thingification’ of their humanity.”

In At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle L. McGuire traces the long history of black women speaking out against sexual violence. According to McGuire, these acts of sexual violence committed by white men are not merely individual acts of violence. They are part of the larger institution of white supremacy that seeks to eliminate the humanity of black people, treating them like things.

“Despite the promises of a progressive New South, the legacy of slavery in the Black Belt was palpable. Tenant farming and debt peonage dominated the economy, and the ghosts of the ‘peculiar institution’ haunted the rolling landscape, where the children and grandchildren of slaves and slave owners eyed each other with fear and familiarity.”

Though the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, slavery’s effects are felt for decades afterwards. Black people remain trapped in cycles of poverty and occupy a lower social position than whites in the South, and they are denied many of the rights that whites have. The various laws and practices that keep blacks from gaining full social equality are known as Jim Crow, and any understanding of sexual violence in the South against black women must be considered in relation to this larger societal context.