Justice for Recy Taylor?

Last month, in Recy Taylor: A Symbol of Jim Crow's Forgotten Horror, The Root’s Cynthia Gordy asked why so few people had heard of the Alabama woman who became a global symbol of American injustice after her 1944 gang rape by a group of white men when she was just 24 years old.

Why hadn't her attackers been brought to justice, despite their admissions to the crime? At the very least, why hadn't the state of Alabama ever apologized for failing to right the wrong?

"Wasn't nothing done about it," Taylor, now 91, told The Root. "The sheriff never even said he was sorry it happened. I think more people should know about it ... but ain't nobody [in Abbeville] saying nothing."

That might not be the case for long.

A petition organized by Change.org (which quotes from The Root's coverage) demands that the state of Alabama apologize to Taylor. It has collected more than 2,600 signatures and attracted the attention of Alabama legislator Dexter Grimsley, who is now preparing a resolution asking the state to issue an apology.

If the resolution passes so many years after the crime, it will bring a sense of justice that has long eluded Taylor and her family. In an interview with ColorLines, her brother said, "I would like to see her have some peace before she leaves this earth ... What hurt her the most was their saying this never happened."

Read Recy Taylor: A Symbol of Jim Crow's Forgotten Horror.

Read more at the Huffington Post and ColorLines.

In other news: Meet the Nation's Top Black Economists.

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