Culpability and Bias: Understanding pre-1970s Campus Sexual Aggression Through a Racialized Lens

• In Event: The Evolution of Higher Education in the Post-WWII United States

Abstract

This paper unpacks the history of sexual aggression cases involving Black individuals that occurred prior to the 1970s. Two incidents emphasize how race influenced the culpability and victimhood of black individuals involved in cases of sexual aggression. First, a Black student at the University of Detroit was accused of rape in 1946. Second, four Black students at Allen University in South Carolina were accused of raping young Black women while patrolling the campus in the wake of racist attacks that occurred in the Spring of 1960. An analysis of these two cases, as well as other incidents are discussed to enhance our knowledge about the history of sexual violence and better understand the convergence of race-based and gender violence.

Author

• Mark E. Houlemarde, Loyola Marymount University