A Woman's Right to Defend Herself from Sexual Assault - 15 August 1975

Sad to think it took until 1975. This Day in History: Joan Little Acquitted in Landmark 1975 Self-Defense Case - National - The Black Chronicle

Joan Little was initially charged with the 1974 murder of a white jailer but was acquitted on August 15, 1975. Her defense argued that Little, who was incarcerated at the time, acted in self-defense when she fatally stabbed the jailer with an ice pick during a sexual assault.

Little’s case made history as she became the first woman in the United States, regardless of race, to be acquitted on the grounds of using deadly force to prevent sexual assault.

Read the whole thing.