When Oprah Winfrey accepted the honor of becoming the first black woman to ever receive the Cecil B. Demille award at the 2018 Golden Globes and delivered one of the most powerful speeches in the award show's history, she mentioned a unsung #MeToo survivor named Recy Taylor.
In 1944, Taylor was leaving church when she was kidnapped and gang-raped by six armed white men in Alabama and later left blindfolded on the side of the street. "But justice wasn't an option in the era of Jim Crow," Winfrey said in her speech. "The men who tried to destroy her were never persecuted. Recy Taylor died ten days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up."
Winfrey continued: “And I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years and even now tormented, goes marching on.”
That brings us to what the media mogul did on Tuesday (Jan. 23). While in Abbeville, Alabama for a "60 Minute" news assignment, Winfrey visited Taylor's gravesite. While speaking to WDHN, she said that "one of the reasons I wanted to use her as a part of my Golden Globes speech is because I wanted everybody to know that the #MeToo movement didn’t just start now.”
The iconic added: “Her case is one that never found justice. It just so happened coincidentally that I had been scheduled to do a story down here for 60 Minutes. That story had nothing to do with Recy Taylor … Because I was so close I wanted to come and see Recy Taylor’s grave and pay homage and respect...Who knew that that speech would go viral be viral and have the impact that it did.”
Ummmm, we did! Check out Winfrey talking about her visit below.
Winfrey later posted photos of herself at Taylor's gravesite on Instagram. Take a look at them below.
Photo: Getty Images