Four male black students charged with raping white student

Four male black students charged with raping white student

Four male black WSU students, including the head of the Black Student Union, are arrested and charged with "willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, perpetrating an act of sexual Intercourse with a female, not his wife, by forcefully overcoming her resistance by fear of immediate and great bodily harm which she has reasonable cause to believe would be inflicted upon her" - effectively, charged with jointly raping a white WSU student. Portions of the campus population believe the charges are trumped up, based solely on the race of the accused, while other portions of the campus argue that they are using their race to divert attention from their guilt. Their November trial was eventually moved to Spokane in the interests of avoiding unrest, and while two of the men are acquitted, two are found guilty and sentenced to ten to twelve months' jail time. The image featured in this item may be found in the Barbara J. Sibley Student Activism Collection (cg706b1f04_19700529freethewsu4).

1970-04-22