“As recent as May 2020, a video of a white woman named Amy Cooper went viral when she feigned hysteria and claimed to police that she was being threatened by a black man named Christian Cooper. Fortunately, with a video recording, the man was able to document the disturbing lie.”

This article, originally published by All That’s Interesting in January 2017 and updated in June of this year, addresses the history of white women weaponizing lies against Black men knowing it will cost them their lives and the climate of violent displays of racism that still shapes the legal system today through Emmet Till’s story. Our group thought to include this article as a note to McQuirter v. State (1953). The court in McQuirter held that, “In determining the question of intention the jury may consider social conditions and customs founded upon racial differences, such as that the prosecutrix was a white woman and defendant was a Negro man.” We agreed that in order to address the intersection race and rape law, this opinion must be read in conjunction with a supplement that addresses the events that lead up to Emmett Till’s death in 1955.

Alabama Court of Appeals

36 Ala. App. 707, 63 So. 2d 388

3 Div. 947

1953-02-17

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