August 2025 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the acquittal of Joan Little, the first woman in the U.S. to be acquitted of a murder charge based on her self-defense against sexual assault by a prison guard. Little became a state-wide and national symbol in the struggle for prison abolition, antirape activism, and civil rights, particularly for Black women.
Joan Little’s story inspired musician and civil rights activist Bernice Johnson Reagon (of Sweet Honey in the Rock) to write the song “Joan Little” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kubAMvm_z6w
Save the Date: Freeing Joan Little
Thursday, January 29th, 2026, 5 - 6:00pm
Smith Warehouse, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Bay 4; 114 S Buchanan Blvd, Durham, NC
Speakers will include Christina Greene, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Free Joan Little: The Politics of Race, Sexual Violence, and Imprisonment; Shelagh Kenney, Interim Director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation; and Adriane Lentz-Smith, Associate Professor of History and African & African American Studies at Duke University.
In addition to the panel, an exhibition of items related to Joan Little, including one of her handwritten, illustrated poems, will be on display in Perkins Library during the month of January 2026.
