Catherine O. Jacquet - The Injustices of Rape: How Activists Responded to Sexual Violence, 1950-1980

When I was a little kid I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. My family was very supportive. I was further encouraged by my elementary school teachers, especially my second grade teacher Peggy Jorgensen and my fifth grade teacher Ruth Lindegren. Little did I know, that I would become a writer of sorts later in my life as a professional historian. In high school I discovered the awesomeness of history, thanks to my sophomore year history teacher Michael Batcheller who assigned us Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States. Looking back, this class was my root to eventually pursue the path to becoming a professional historian. As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, I was privileged to work with Susan Porter Benson, Cornelia Dayton, and Jeffrey Ogbar. Their classes and mentoring all left a profound impression on me. I mention all of this here because in considering all of the threads that have brought me to where I am, it is these experiences and encounters of childhood and young adulthood that shaped who I would become later in lifea historian who shares her research through writing.

This book emerged out of both my evolving political consciousness and personal experience. Prior to graduate school I worked for two years at Simmons College. During this time I read the writings of second wave feminists, including Susan Brownmillers Against Our Will. I remember riding the bus to work and being furious at what I was learning. At this time I also began to develop a racial consciousness. I had been a fairly clueless white person prior to that, cloaked in my own white privilege. Through reading and attending lectures by scholars and activists like Barbara Smith, Leslie Feinberg, and Minnie Bruce Pratt during those years in Boston, I learned a lot about the world around me and my own positionality in it. When I arrived at graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago I was incredibly fortunate to learn from historians including Jennifer Brier, John DEmilio, Leon Fink, Sue Levine, and Katrin Schultheiss. It was also in that first year of graduate school that the reality of rape would come with full force into my life. Someone I loved was violently raped and it altered the course of my academic career. I turned to books to try and understand and process what had happened. I began reading about 1970s feminist antirape activism, and the seeds of this manuscript were planted. This book, then, is a testament to both my development as a professional historian and my political commitments to fighting against the devastation and pervasiveness of white supremacy and gender injustice.

I am incredibly grateful to friends, colleagues, and mentors who have supported me along the way. I would be completely lost without the support, wisdom, and friendship of so many people. During a post-doc at Macalester College, Lynn Hudson and Jane Rhodes took me under their wing. I cant thank them enough for their continued friendship, guidance, and hilarity over the years. At LSU, I elected Jonathan Earle, Leslie Tuttle, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, and Alecia Long as my local mentorsunbeknownst to themand they have always obliged. I am grateful to each of them for their support and their friendship. I may not have ever finished the manuscript if Aaron hadnt threatened to never invite me over for homemade shrimp and grits again if I didnt get it done. His strategy worked and I have since benefited from many shared meals with Aaron, Megan, Annie, and Liam. Aaron also read drafts and insisted that I knew what I was talking about, even when I wasnt so sure. I cannot thank him enough for everything he has done for me. I am incredibly fortunate to work with so many amazing colleagues in the history department at LSU. Chuck Shindo, Christine Kooi, and Maribel Dietz have been good friends and colleagues. The former junior faculty writing group read and gave feedback on several of the chapters included here. All my thanks to Zevi Guttfreund, Devon Benson, Steve Andes, Brendan Karch, Asiya Alam, Kodi Roberts, and Sherri Johnson for their thoughtful responses. Ive been lucky to find amazing community outside of the history department at LSU as well. I am deeply appreciative to Micha Rahder and Reagan Mitchell for all of their queer love and friendship. Likewise, Solimar Otero and Eric Mayer-Garcia have been the best kind of friends a girl could ask forthoughtful, passionate, and always ready to celebrate the goodness of life with a bottle of prosecco. This book would not have been possible without all of these peopleand so many morewho believed in the project and in me. I am particularly grateful to John DEmilio who, despite retiring, remains my forever advisor. John is not only a model of academic excellence but also a good and kind human being, plain and simple. Thank you, John, for modeling for me the kind of academic that I wanted to be. You continue to mentor and encourage me in so many ways, and I am truly grateful.