Rape of Betty Jean Owens

Betty Jean Owens (born 1940) is an African American woman who was gang raped by three white men and a 16-year-old white boy in Tallahassee, Florida in 1959. Her trial was significant in Florida, and the South as a whole, since the white men responsible were all found guilty and each received life sentences for their crimes. The Owens' case drew attention to sexual violence in the South by white men against black women and girls, crimes that often went with minimal or no punishment. For example, in the case of Recy Taylor, who was gang-raped by six white men in Alabama in 1944, the men were never found guilty of any charges and released from jail with minimal fines.

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