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GONE TOO SOON: THE STORY OF
RUBY DORIS SMITH ROBINSON
Neah Morton
Opinions Editor
neahmorton @ aol .com
It is no secret that the Spelman College of the mid-20th century was hardly the world
changing wealth of enlightenment and empowerment we know today. Under the adminis
tration of Albert Manley, the college’s first male president, Spelman resembled a finishing
school.
More than a liberal arts institution, its students often were described as sweet, grace
ful and uncommonly gifted as far as the confines of the home were concerned. However, as
the Manley regime from 1953-1976 reached its midpoint, Spelman women dotted picket lines
across Atlanta, more concerned with equality than home economics.
One such student was Ruby Doris Smith Robinson, described as “a person with a rare
power, a rock-like integrity, which moved and inspired countless people in the Movement”
by former Spelman professor and civil rights activist Howard Zinn.
As the Executive Secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
Robinson was at the forefront of the fight for Black equality. At age 18, Robinson was part
of a delegation of SNCC workers sent to support a group of Friendship College Students in a
South Carolina jail. Robinson sympathized with the students, as she, too, had seen the inside
of a cell in pursuit of racial equality.
Undaunted, she joined the Freedom Riders after her month-long imprisonment. The
rides, developed by the Congress on Racial Equality, were temporarily suspended following
the brutalization of a group of CORE volunteers. However, the coalition of activists remained
undeterred. Robinson’s fellow SNCC female leader, Diane Nash, recruited even more riders
in the wake of the violence, unwilling to see the movement lose its fervor.
Robinson joined the riders with the understanding that they were just as susceptible
to violence as the initial group. She met Jim Crow with a calm demeanor that she developed
into a trademark. Colleague and Morehouse Man Julian Bond remembered her as a fearless
pillar in the movement, afraid of no one, regardless of their skin color.
When faced with the challenges of being a woman in the movement, Robinson
remained committed to Black solidarity above all else. But just when the movement was in
greatest need of levelheaded leadership, of either gender but especially female, she lost her
life to cancer at the age of 25.
Some attribute her death to the stresses attached to being a female civil rights activist.
In a sense, she gave her life to the struggle. She and her fellow women leaders developed an
impeccable paradigm for changing not only the status of Black women but the greater Afri
can-American community as well.
In true Spelman Woman form, Robinson took no issue with making her presence felt.
She was known as a woman who took no nonsense, an uncompromising change agent who
proved a formidable, albeit composed, opponent for all those who chose to challenge her.
Although her time in the streets of protests may not have been long, it is imperative that we,
as Dr. Zinn said, “bring this extraordinary young woman to her proper place in the history
of our time .’’Women like Rosa Parks and Recy Taylor walked a precarious line between
African-American rights and the pursuit of gender equality. Prior to the advent of the civil
rights movement in the mid-20th century, brave Black women confronted violent sexism as it
compounded racism in America.
Although the Black struggle as we know it eclipsed the physical, sexual, and social
abuse of its women, the fact remains that there is no such thing as selective equality.
UNSPOKEN LEGACY: BLACK WOMEN
BEFORE THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Neah Morton
Opinions Editor
neahmorton @ aol .com
Although we may not care to admit it, many of us
know Rosa Parks in a shallow sense. Her sweet, mild image
has rendered her the porcelain doll of the civil rights move
ment. She’s often been portrayed as a meek, elderly woman
whose tired feet stood, or sat rather, on the front lines of mid
century anti-segregation politics.
However, beneath her quietly constructed facade,
there existed a warrior fighting for her rights as an African
American and as a woman.
The African-American experience has been charac
terized by an undercurrent of sexual violence against Black
women since the earliest days of slavery. Although theft of
the Black female body has evolved from its carnal roots in
the antebellum era, history has revealed women of color to
be universal property. Prior to her days as the poster child for
the Montgomery bus boycotts, Parks was an ardent advocate
for gender equality.
On an early fall evening in 1944, a 24-year-old Ala
bama woman named Recy Taylor was kidnapped at gunpoint
and raped by seven armed white men driving a green Chev
rolet. As the assault occurred, the primary assailant ordered
LEZ-B-HONEST:
Sierra Stokes
Associate Copy Editor
Sstokes6@scmail.spelman.edu
What was once seen as a taboo is now becoming more
prevalent in the community. Not only is this once shunned way of
life more prevalent, it is also becoming more accepted. What is
that ever-evolving way of life you ask? It is simple, homosexuality.
Before the 1970s, it was unspoken of for a person to open
ly confess to their homosexual nature. If one were to be aware that
they preferred a spouse of the same sex, this immediately caused
those experiencing these feelings to believe they were cursed, or
somehow damned, in the ancient years. As time went on, people of
homosexual orientation became more comfortable accepting their
choice in a mate of the same sex, but knew it would not be as ac
cepted by society.
For many, allowing it to be known that one was homo
sexual led to the loss of jobs, bullying in school, shunning from
family and the forfeiture of friends. In other words, it was best
before the social movements of the 70s for homosexuals to align
their decision with the infamous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
This quietness that surrounded the “underground” homo
sexual community soon began to shift into a more progressive,
outspoken direction as movements began to spring up all over the
nation in support of homosexual and feminism rights. The 70s was
a period of peace, love and happiness for all, not just those who
were bom male and heterosexual. Those who once hid their true
selves rapidly became more comfortable showing the world who
they truly were and honestly, the world had no choice but to accept
the change - whether they liked it or not.
Not only was this movement impacting Caucasian Americans, but
people of all races were forced to see the homosexual community
for who they were. One race that showed the most outward reluc-
WWW.THEMAROONTIGER.COM
the young wife and mother to “act like she did with her
husband” or have her throat slit.
After being identified by a friend of Taylor’s, the
driver of the vehicle confessed to transporting her to the
scene of the crime and revealed the six other perpetrators.
However, in accordance with the racial climate of the era, the
policemen of Abbeville, Ala., refused to take the men into
custody.
Enter Rosa Parks. In the wake of the Taylor tragedy,
the NAACP sent Parks, their most prominent advocate and
investigator against sexual violence toward black women, to
address the situation.
At 31 years old, Parks was a seasoned soldier in
the war to reclaim Black women’s bodies. At a time when
women of color were violently bound by the intersection of
sexism and racism, Parks was a feminist crusader for rape
victims. Under her leadership. Parks’ fellow activists sparked
a national dialogue on the widespread sexual assault of Black
women.
The Taylor case revealed a flagrant double standard
in interracial relations. African American men risked brutal
lynchings if they so much as looked in a White woman’s di
rection. Black women, however, were denied their humanity
and available to any White man with a shotgun.
The culmination of the Taylor trial engendered more
outrage when, after five minutes of deliberation, a jury of
tance to accept the gays was the Black community.
Morehouse Freshman Devario Reid shares his own experience of
taking a class as an African-American male that primarily focuses
on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (FGBT) community
in the Black Community.
“The class enlightens you tremendously on the Black
homosexual community starting with the 70s,” Reid expressed. “I
was aware of white homosexuality, but not as much as that of the
Black community.”
As Reid discussed the center focus of the class, this then
lead to more specific examples of experiences in the Black LGBT
community.
One of those experiences described derived from a group of
foreign women who quickly learned that what they believed to be
innocent customs in their village were glowered upon in the States.
“I learned about how some women in Sierra Leone were
having intimate relations in their village and it was not frowned
upon in their community,” added the St. Jude Up ‘Til Dawn
Liason. “This approval changed when they came to the States and
realized open homosexuality was not a widespread acceptance.”
Out of experiences similar to those of the Sierra Leone
women, blacks and whites who identified themselves as LGBT
learned that fighting for the rights would not be simple, but re
sistance was a must in order to see a change. Those in the LGBT
community used acts of violence and other horrendous incidents as
evidence of the dangers of homophobia and to show that they too
were human. Therefore, even if their sexuality was not considered
the norm, they must still be respected.
After this force, over the years the LGBT community
began to take seats in office, become those normal neighbors next
door and appear in the media. It was as though the LGBT commu
nity began to assimilate within society to a whole new depth, one
that held no prejudices against freedom of choice for all.
Recycle The Maroon Tiger
12 white men dismissed the case. In the following months,
Taylor’s home was bombed by white supremacists, forcing
the victim’s family to relocate. Multiple NAACP chapters
mobilized in their defense and demanded justice until the
Governor of Alabama painfully agreed to reopen the Taylor
case. But the new investigation only revealed age-old myths
regarding the innate hypersexuality of African-American
women.
The Abbeville sheriff concluded that Taylor was an
immoral woman and four of the seven rapists agreed, stating
that the young woman was a prostitute who’d given them full
consent to do with her as they pleased. Although one assail
ant confessed to the rape, telling a story directly in line with
Taylor’s account of that fateful night, the Alabama attorney
general was “unable” to indict the seven men when he pre
sented the case in 1945. After she was viciously slandered as
a whore, Taylor received even stronger backlash following
her second attempt to achieve justice.
Women like Rosa Parks and Recy Taylor walked a
precarious line between African-American rights and the pur
suit of gender equality. Prior to the advent of the civil rights
movement in the mid-20th century, brave Black women con
fronted violent sexism as it compounded racism in America.
Although the Black struggle as we know it eclipsed
the physical, sexual, and social abuse of its women, the fact
remains that there is no such thing as selective equality.
An example of this can be seen in the creation of a married
homosexual couple on the popular show “Modern Family.” The
American Comedy having at least 12.6 million initial viewers is
indication of society’s growing acceptance of homosexuality. More
importantly, Eric Stonestreet, one of the partners in the gay union
of the show, won the 2010 and 2012 Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role.
As it relates to the Black LGBT community, Frank Ocean serves
as one. of the greatest examples of the Black public also embrac
ing the LGBT community. When Frank Ocean decided to reveal
his sexuality to the world, it was undoubtedly a shock, but one that
was necessary. Frank Ocean is possibly one of the most famous
Black entertainers to be honest about his sexuality, allowing others
to see it was not something to be ashamed of. In his “coming out,”
Frank Ocean received support from fellow entertainers, such as
Beyonce, and went on to still sell a platinum album and become a
Grammy award winner.
As society begins to accept those things that cannot be changed,
the nation and the world learn to be more loving and tolerant of all,
no matter what their sexuality, background, culture and so forth
may be. This allowance creates a necessary civility among every
one, especially in the Black community.
These ending words from Reid speak volumes on the importance
of getting to know those in the LGBT community based on their
inner person and not their sexual orientation. His personal interac
tion with his peers is suggestion of the emergence of acceptance in
society, particularly the Black community.
“1 feel like people judge me by the personal relationship I have
developed with them first before they even consider my sexuality,”
concluded Reid. “This new LGBT class is proof of that."
FEBRUARY 20-27, 2013
BLACK COMMUNITY BEGINS TO ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALITY