Description: This listing is for a nice FREE JO ANNE LITTLE Button. It is in nice condition showing minimal signs of age. It measures approximately 1 3/4" across. On August 27, 1974, Joan (JoAnne / JoAnn) Little sat in the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. The petite, twenty-two year old black woman had been incarcerated for two months while she awaited her court date on a breaking and entering charge. That night, sixty-two year old white jailer Clarence Alligood entered her jail cell, ice pick in hand, intending to coerce Little into sexual acts. In an act of self-defense, Little stabbed Alligood with the ice pick in order to wound him and escape. Little fled as her would-be assailant bled to death.No stranger to the stereotypes about black women, Joan Little knew how the scene would look. Some would label her as a Jezebel and claim she was "asking for it." Others would suggest that no respectable woman would have been in jail, or in this position, in the first place. Little hid out in the surrounding area for a little more than a week. Meanwhile, the state labeled her a fugitive and a murderer. Officials also issued a warrant for her arrest. In a scene that mirrored the manhunt of Angela Davis just two years earlier, state and federal authorities created a dragnet to capture Little. Local police arrested her on September 7th for first-degreemurder. Forty-eight hours later a grand jury indicted her for murder. The following year Little would stand trial. If convicted she faced the gas chamber.The case ignited the "Free Joan Little," movement, with supporters building a political front that united disparate activists under a broad coalition. Angela Davis spoke out in support of Little, emphasizing her right to self-defense and indicting the racist and sexist prison industrial complex. Davis claimed that although Little had escaped Alligood's grasp, she had "truly been raped and wronged many times over by the exploitative and discriminatory institutions of this society." Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), created the freedom song, "Joan Little," which became the anthem for the movement. Other black women closer to home, such as Duke University Law Student Katherine Galloway, worked on Little's defense. Renowned civil rights leader Rosa Parks formed a local chapter of the "Joanne Little Legal Defense Committee" in Detroit.
Price: 29.95 USD
Location: Elmhurst, Illinois
End Time: 2025-01-05T19:06:12.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
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Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Type: Pin
Theme: Political
Material: Metal
Country/Region: United States
Modified Item: No
