As Oprah told the audience: "Recy Taylor died 10 days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday. And I have to live with it, 'cause I had to live with a lot with going through with this.". Abigail Adams was an early advocate for women's rights. Southerners instead started doing all kinds of violent things to black people to remind them that they didnt have rights.. But Taylor's story was shared, and when people at the NAACP heard about it they sent out an activist, Rosa Parks, to investigate. As one of few women and Asian musicians in the jazz world, Akiyoshi infused Japanese culture, sounds, and instruments into her music. Two grand juriescomprised entirely of white menrefused to indict the identified men, and they were never held accountable by the law or their community. But the attack, like many involving black victims during the Jim Crow era in the South, never went to trial. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Made excuses. Taylor's brother, Robert Corbitt, told NBC News that she died in her sleep at a nursing facility in her hometown of Abbeville. The six suspects reportedly were willing to pay $600 to Taylor a payment for her to forget her gang rape. But we know her name because she would not be kept silent. By that time, three more of the men confessed to raping Taylor, but none of them were prosecuted. based on information from your browser. Two all-white, all-male grand juries refused to indict the men, even though one of them had confessed. With the help of voices such as W. E. B. DuBois, Mary Church Terrell, and Langston Hughes, the governor sent investigators and a second grand jury was held on February 14, 1945. The viewer is practically forced to allow the auditory process to work its way from hearing, to the heart, then just feel it ripping at the gut. Taylor bravely reported the violent attack to the police. Sign up. She eventually moved with her husband and their daughter to Winter Garden, Florida. Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/obituaries/recy-taylor-alabama-rape-victim-dead.html. She begged to be returned home to her husband and daughter, but the men threatened to kill her and leave her in the woods. Around midnight on September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old Black, married mother, was walking with neighbors, headed home from a revival service at Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. By standing up to injustice over six decades ago, Recy Taylor inspired generations of men and women to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable.. I cant help but tell the truth of what they done to me.. Recy Taylor was a 24-year-old mother when she was abducted at gunpoint and gang raped by a group of white men in Alabama in 1944. Recy Taylor, Rosa Parks, and the Struggle for Racial Justice. July 30, 2019. https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/recy-taylor-rosa-parks-and-struggle-racial-justice. Oprah Winfrey honored her by speaking about Taylor in her Golden Globe Although Taylor did not know the name of her assailants at the time, she was able to identify the car that they were in. The civil rights activists eventually moved on, and Mrs. Taylor faded into obscurity. This is a film that needs to be seen not only by African Americans, but school children (especially boys), law enforcement agencies, and white America, so that we all can finally begin to understand how such actions in the past continue to affect our Black women up to now. Back in 1944, it was not an uncommon occurrence for white men to rape black women, but it was incredibly rare for anyone to speak out against this vicious crime. What they did to her. Learn about our markets: One of them, Herbert Lovett, the oldest in the group, ordered the three to halt, and then pointed a shotgun at them when they ignored him. Schools It's how we were raised. Last week, Oprah Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes brought many in the audience to tears and to their feet. Mrs. Taylor soon contacted the police, and the sheriff identified one of the suspects based on her description of the car. Her case was defended by Rosa Parks, a legendary human rights activist. She was then dumped out of the car on the side of the highway. Taylor, pictured above, died last month at age 97. "I turned to Recy, and I said, 'Did you ever think that an African-American woman would become first lady?' Recys sister stated that these boys were raised with the mentality that they had a right to do this to Black women. Sunday, as it. I was reminded recently that its not only what is written that is important, but its key to understand what doesnt always garner pressand the reasons behind those omissions. Recy Taylor Died on December 28, . The following day, she and her husband, Willie Guy Taylor, and their daughter, Joyce Lee, moved in with her father and siblings. Mrs. Taylor told Sheriff Gamble that she could not identify her assailants, but her description of the car matched only one vehicle in the county, that of Hugo Wilson. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. By the time they found her it was almost three in the morning. Please enter your email and password to sign in. In 1944, Taylor, then 24, married and a mother, was raped by six white youths while she walked to her Abbeville, Ala., home after an evening church service. It is Recy Taylor and rare other black women like her who spoke up first when danger was greatest, Buirski told NBC News in an email. Were excited to announce the expansion of our coverage of gender and identity. Taylor's attackers were never indicted, much . "She lived, as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. Word spread through union halls, churches, barbershops, pool halls and, significantly, through the black press. And in treating Taylor as less than human, in refusing to recognize her as human, they left a piece of themselves on the floor of those woods where they attacked her. The Alabama Legislature officially apologized to Ms. Taylor in 2011, calling the failure to prosecute her attackers "morally abhorrent and repugnant." . The Equal Justice Initiative works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. Please reset your password. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/recy-taylor. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Abbeville Memorial Church of God in Christ. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. When one looks at the area in which they were looking, it would also be safe to assume that that woman would be Black. Recy being a strong Black woman, immediately got on the horn starting with her father, and told any and everybody who would listen, what had just happened to her. I just get upset because I do my best to be nice to people because I don't want people to mistreat me and do me any kind of way. They didn't try to do nothing about it. Decades passed before the case gained renewed attention, with the publication in 2010 of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance a New History of the Civil Rights Movement From Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, by the historian Danielle L. McGuire. Parks had helped organize, became a national organization. When the grand jury met on Oct. 3 and 4, 1944, Mrs. Taylors loved ones were the only witnesses. As word of the crime spread through Alabamas black community the N.A.A.C.P.s Montgomery chapter sent Mrs. One of the suspects admitted to raping Taylor. "Recy Taylor died 10 days ago - just shy of her 98th birthday," Oprah said. DeSantis and Republicans inspired by racist Confederate history After months of denial, U.S. admits to running Ukraine biolabs. Taylor did not accept the hush money and Parks pushed on with the case in what some today call a Me Too moment of the Civil Rights Movement. She begged to be allowed to go, citing her husband and their 3-year-old daughter. 'The Rape of Recy Taylor' documents fight for justice by a black sexual assault survivor, whose cause was aided by civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old African-American sharecropper, was walking home from church in Abbeville, Ala., on the night of Sept. 3, 1944, when she was abducted and raped by six white men. Hugo Wilson, the owner of the car, identified the six white men who raped Mrs. Taylor as: Herbert Lovett, Luther Lee, Joe Culpepper, Dillard York, Billy Howerton, and Robert Gamble. "She was funny, witty. The death was confirmed by her brother, Robert Lee Corbitt. During her walk home from church one evening in 1944 in Abbeville, Ala., Recy Taylor was forcefully taken into the woods by six white men and then raped multiple times. Oprah Winfrey visited the gravesite of Recy Taylor whom she honored earlier this month during an impassioned speech at the Golden Globe Awards. This account has been disabled. Since she was 17, Taylor had been taking care of her six younger siblings after her mother had died. Dumped out of the car, Mrs. Taylor removed her blindfold and stumbled toward safety. Did they marry and have daughters and dance at their weddings and worry about them when they came home late? [She was] a brave woman and a fighter who tried her best to get it known all over the world, he said during a phone interview from Alabama. The correct year is 2009. Yet none of the men were arrested. Recy Taylor died in her sleep on December 28, 2017, three weeks after the release of the documentary film The Rape of Recy Taylor. Cook and Corbitt went out searching for Taylor and eventually found her on a road near the center of Abbeville. Works Cited How to Cite this page Additional Resources So how can you seek justice if the system is rigged and you cant get the word out? She and Mr. Taylor separated, and he died in the early 1960s. Erica Ayisi is a multimedia and international journalist with experience reporting in West Africa, New Yorkand Massachusetts. 7 cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Wilson was taken to the jailhouse and he confessed to participating in the attack. "They got me in the car and carried me straight through the woods," she said. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The crime, which N.A.A.C.P. In 2011, historian Danielle L. McGuire included Taylors story in her book entitled. None of the men had been arrested, and there had not been a police lineup, so Mrs. Taylor could not identify her attackers. But it meant something," McGuire told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro. When the NAACP branch office in Montgomery, Alabama, heard of Mrs. Taylors rape and local officials failure to respond, the chapter president sent NAACP Secretary Rosa Parks to investigate. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was walking home from church in Abbeville, Alabama, on Sept. 3, 1944, when she was abducted and gang-raped by six white men. IE 11 is not supported. As a young woman, she married Willie Guy Taylor and in 1941, the couple welcomed their daughter Joyce Lee. Lost Cause 2.0? You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Before she made it home, a gang of white men kidnapped her, drove to a remote area in the woods, and raped her at gunpoint. Taylor, pictured above, died last month at age 97. At the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey spokes about the recently deceased Recy Taylor, a Black woman whose attackers went free after raping her in 1944. Faced with few options for legal recourse, African American women chose to share their stories, drawing on a longstanding history of testimony and truth-telling to shed light on their pain. The Taylor family moved in with her father and siblings. Taylor was a 24-year-old married mother with a three-year-old daughter in 1944. 12/29/17 AT 5:13 AM EST. The men were never prosecuted. I would venture to say that all those who dehumanize others for the sake of their own pleasure or to protect their own power leave a piece of themselves behind as well. In the car were US Army Private Herbert Lovett and six other men, all armed. I bet they did. Buirski, Nancy. The governor, who was a mentor of the segregationist future governor George C. Wallace, came under considerable pressure as African-American activists like W. E. B. DuBois and Mary Church Terrell and writers like Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes took up Mrs. Taylors cause. The New York Timeswhich didnt run the story about Taylor in 1944published her obituary. Their only child died in a car crash in 1967. The next day, Taylors house was set on fire by white vigilantes. For too . As a result, the Alabama Legislature issued a formal apology to Taylor almost 70 years after her assault. Or the fact that eventually four of the accomplices admitted what they had done but claimed the rape was wait for it consensual. In addition to her brother, she is survived by two sisters, Lillie Kinsey and Mary Murry; a granddaughter; and several great-grandchildren. The Rape of Recy Taylor. 2017. https://www.therapeofrecytaylor.com/the-film/. It is these strong womens voices of the 40s and early 50s and their efforts to take back their bodies that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and other movements that followed, notably the one we are witnessing today.. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. It spearheaded a campaign of letters, petitions and postcards urging Gov. Susan Walsh/AP In the film The Rape of Recy Taylor, director Nancy Buirski explores Taylors story, Rosa Parks work on her behalf, and the history of racial violence, particularly against women, in the postwar South. It was Danielle McGuire, a Detroit writer, who . The Alabama Legislatures apology was formally presented to Mrs. Taylor on Mothers Day that year at the Pentecostal church, now known as Abbeville Memorial Church of God in Christ, where she had worshiped the night of the crime. By then, four of the seven men had admitted to having had sex with Mrs. Taylor, but they insisted that she had participated willingly. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. The setting for these interviews was Abbeville, Alabama, where the rape took place. Though McGuire talked with Taylor about the darkest parts of Taylor's life, she still got to see her as a person. Did they call them "ma'am" and "sister?" Parks. Unsubstantiated rumors of black men attacking innocent white women sparked almost 50% of all race riots in the United States between Reconstruction and World War II, says McGuire. sent a young activist from its Montgomery, Ala., chapter named Rosa Parks to investigate. activist Rosa Parks investigated and which garnered extensive coverage in the black press, never saw an indictment for the accused. Government & Special, Copyright 2023 Gale, part of Cengage Learning, The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy, Alabama to issue Taylor an official apology for the miscarriage of justice, ARBA Calls the Encyclopedia of Management, 8th Edition a Must-Have. She was 97. A system error has occurred. The book prompted an official apology in 2011 to Mrs. Taylor by the Alabama Legislature, which called the failure to prosecute her attackers morally abhorrent and repugnant.. I dont want any troublemakers here in Abbeville, he warned her. She bravely testified against the group of white men that kidnapped and raped her. Recy Taylor, Who Fought for Justice After a 1944 Rape, Dies at 97. The New York Times. "They didn't try to do nothing about it. Born on Dec. 31, 1919, to a family of sharecroppers in Abbeville, in southeastern Alabama, Recy (pronounced REE-see) Corbitt found herself caring for six younger siblings after their mother died when she was 17. She was 97. This lack of shame is a psychology finding its place in todays #MeToo movement, a movement that is only just beginning to recognize its true origins in the history of black women in Jim Crow south., Follow NBCBLK on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. One of the men, Willie Joe Culpepper, however, backed up Mrs. Taylors account, saying she had been coerced. The young, married mother did tell authorities, however, in the height of the Jim Crow Era. "The peoples there, it seemed like they wasn't concerned about what happened to me. While survivors of sexualized violence rarely received justice in Southern courts, McGuire writes, black women like Recy Taylor who were raped by white men in the 1940s used their voices as weapons against white supremacy.. Mexicos president under attack from neoliberals at home and in U.S. Shen Yun: The Falun Gong cults anti-communist propaganda roadshow, Israeli government welcomes Azov Battalion leader as honored guest, Free college was once the norm all over America, Recy Taylor in 1944, as photographed by a reporter from the Daily Worker. | People's World / Daily Worker Archives. She was accepting an award for contributions to the world of entertainment, but the billionaire broadcaster and philanthropist decided to use her moment to tell the story of a far less celebrated woman: Recy Taylor. It was against that backdrop this Parks witnessed and sought justice for the victims of widespread bigotry rippling throughout the state. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Wilson insisted that because they paid her, their kidnapping and brutalization could not be considered rape. "Two all-white . Despite the confession, a second grand jury, on Feb. 14, 1945, refused to hand up an indictment. How many others will be able to say the same? Taylor survived the horrific attack and immediately tried to find her way home. Recy Taylor died on December 28, 2017, a few days before her 98th birthday. Decades later, her story has been told in both a book and a documentary film. In the course of the subsequent proceedings, Mrs. Taylors character became the main matter of dispute; four of the six accused attackers admitted to having intercourse with her but claimed she was a prostitute and a willing participant. The sheriff accused Mrs. Taylor of being nothing but a whore and alleged that she had been treated for venereal disease. "In 1944 Recy Taylor was a young wife and mother, she was just walking home from a church service she'd attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six white men, raped and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church," Winfrey recounted on stage. He said Taylor had been in good spirits the previous day and her death was sudden. She was 97. Alhough the Recy Taylor case did not succeed in the short term, the bravery of these women helped to mobilize communities and build coalitions that would become the pillars of the civil rights movement. It was the final year of World War II, and some blacks likened their struggle for equal rights to the fight against fascism. During her walk home from church one evening in 1944 in Abbeville, Ala., Recy . The case is featured in the new documentary, "The Rape of Recy Taylor." Taylor died last Thursday at an Abbeville nursing home, her brother Robert Corbitt said, just before her 98th birthday. Recy Taylor, the black woman from Alabama who bravely came forward in the 1940s against her white attackers, died Thursday morning. Continued Recognition For Taylor, the decision not to. She grew up in Abbeville, Alabama to a sharecropping family. She passed away in her sleep at a nursing home in Abbeville. Photograph:Courtesy of The People's World/Daily Worker and Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University. Recy Taylor in 1944, when her attack took place On Sunday, Oprah Winfrey dedicated her acceptance speech for her historic win of the Cecil B DeMille award to Recy Taylor. You can now get daily emails with our calendar entries. Questioned at the county jail, Mr. Wilson acknowledged that he and five others Mr. Lovett, Dillard York, Luther Lee, Willie Joe Culpepper and Robert Gamble all had intercourse with her, but insisted that they had paid her and that it was not rape. When they did not stop, the man pointed a shotgun at them and forced Taylor to get into the car at gunpoint. Before she made it home, a gang of white men kidnapped her, drove to a remote area in the woods, and raped her at gunpoint. 7 cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. That specific car belonged to one person in town, and the sheriff was able to identify right away that the owner was Hugo Wilson. Recy Taylor, 91, is seen in her home on Oct. 7, 2010 in Winter Haven, Fla. Ending the Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline For Black and Brown Girls. Until we confront our history of racial injustice and its legacy, we cannot overcome the racial bias that exists today. She loved going to church, she loved to sing. Taylor told me the story of that rape in her own words. She lived for many years in Winter Haven, Fla., before failing health prompted her relatives to bring her back to Abbeville. After his confession, the sheriff released Wilson and sent him home. Recy Taylor, an Alabama African-American woman whose abduction and rape by six white men in 1944 made national headlines, died Thursday morning. Recy Taylor, an African-American woman from Abbeville, Alabama, whose abduction and rape by six white men in 1944 made national headlines, died Thursday morning, her brother Robert Corbitt. Teachers are burning out. When the sheriff brought him back to Cooks store, Taylor identified Wilson as one of the rapists. After five minutes of deliberation, the jury dismissed the case. The Rape of Recy Taylor: behind one of the year's most vital. She was 97. In a speech at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey told the story of Recy Taylor's violent rape by six white men in 1944. African-Americans around the country demanded that the men be prosecuted. In this lesson, students will experience the tragedy of the commons through a team activity in which they compete for resources. A progressive social reformer and activist, Jane Addams was on the frontline of the settlement house movement and was the first American woman to wina Nobel Peace Prize. The men who tried to destroy her were never prosecuted," Winfrey said. She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. There is a problem with your email/password. Eventually the car stopped, and seven young white men, armed with guns and knives, stepped out. Public Taylor died in her sleep at a nursing home in Abbeville, Ala., her brother Robert Corbitt said. There is also the way that some of the major Southern newspapers at the time all but ignored the crime against Taylor until national pressure forced their hands, or, just as evil, were complicit in passing along the false story that she was a prostitute or a willing participant. The deputy sheriff, Lewey Corbitt (not a close relation), was not happy about Mrs. Parkss presence. Eugene Gordon, a black writer for The Daily Worker, a Communist newspaper in New York, interviewed Mrs. Taylor and told his readers, The raping of Mrs. Recy Taylor was a fascist-like brutal violation of her personal rights as a woman and as a citizen of democracy.. Herbert Lovett accused Taylor of cutting Tommy Clarson "that white boy in Clopton this evening." In a speech at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey told the story of Recy Taylor's violent rape by six white men in 1944. Taylor was threatened with death if she spoke out; her home was firebombed; and her family was forced into hiding. Taylor's story haunts us in part because of how she carried her pain with a strength we could still hear in her voice, but also because it is the story of many women whose names we will never know. While on assignment for CBS' 60 Minutes in Alabama . Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Her attackers . Recy Taylor died in late 2017, and Oprah Winfrey honored her by speaking about Taylor in her Golden Globe acceptance speech a month later. Her story and its connection to female civil rights activists are illuminated in filmmaker Nancy Buirski's documentary 'The Rape of Recy Taylor,' airing tonight at 9on the Starz channel. Only 24-years-old at the time, Taylor was abducted by the men and taken to the woods. Parks established the Committee for Equal Justice to demand prosecution of Mrs. Taylors attackers. Anyone can read what you share. Is it any wonder that when, after a campaign of local and national pressure finally led authorities to act, two all-white male grand juries refused to hold anyone accountable? You can always change this later in your Account settings. Chan, Sewell. Taylor died in AbbevilleDec. 21, 2017, three weeks after the release of The Rape of Recy Taylor. She was 97. . In this day of the deliberate proliferation of fake news, the facts are more important than ever. Toshiko Akiyoshi changed the face of jazz music over her sixty-year career. "We were in her brother's living room in Abbeville, Ala., and we were watching the inauguration on this little black-and-white television," McGuire says. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Recy Taylor died at 97 in Abbeville, Ala., on Dec. 28, just three days before her 98th birthday. Recy Taylor, a black Alabama woman, who was a victim of rape by six white men in 1944 that drew national attention, died Thursday at the . Oprah 2020? Taylor did end up telling authorities, but like many attacks involving black victims during the Jim Crow era in the South, The New York Times reported, her case never went to trial. Buirski said Taylor felt no shame but rather entitled to justice for what happened to her that day. Amid the publicity, Alabama Governor Chauncey Sparks also launched an investigation. Or that one of the seven accomplices admitted he was there, but claimed he was just a bystander. Editor's note: We just learned that Recy Taylor died Thursday, December 28. Weve updated the security on the site. Recy Taylor died . Mindful of the outrage surrounding the case of the Scottsboro Boys nine black teenagers who had been wrongly accused of raping two white women in 1931 the county prosecutor took care to provide a semblance of equal justice. When their daughter was old enough to be taken care of by friends, Recy Taylor would go to work during the day. activist Rosa Parks investigated and which garnered extensive coverage in the black press, never saw an indictment for the accused. In the book At the Dark End of the Street Danielle L. McGuire writes,After World War I, the Alabama Klan unleashed a wave of terror designed to return uppity African Americans to their proper place in the segregated social order.. On TikTok, they describe the working conditions. By Shreesha Ghosh @Shreesha_94. Mrs. Taylor died in Abbeville on Thursday, three weeks after the release of The Rape of Recy Taylor, a documentary about the crime. They were filmed in the peoples homes, sometimes on their front porch, or in a church. Biracial women who appear White or racially ambiguous relate to the racist mistreatment Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has faced because she's Black and White. Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. Well never share your email with anyone else, Although it was very dangerous for African Americans to speak out against white people during the Jim Crow era, Recy Taylor refused to remain silent about sexual violence. [Taylor] was an American hero and an Alabama treasure who spoke up in the face of racism, hate and sexual violence, Alabama Rep. Terri A. Sewell said in a statement. ", McGuire spent a lot of time with Taylor. "Her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case, and together they sought justice. Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor. and she looked at me and said, 'Not in my lifetime.' One of Mrs Taylor's attackers confessed to the crime but her attackers were never indicted by all-white, male grand juries, as a result of segregation and racial inequality. All armed with guns and knives, one of the men ordered Taylor and her friends to stop walking. There was a problem getting your location. They noticed a green Chevrolet passing by several times. Academic hide caption. When she was 17 years old, her mother died and she was left to take care of her six younger siblings. Parks, who had spent much of her childhood in Abbeville, to interview Mrs. Taylor. In 1944, 24-year-old Recy Taylor and two friends were walking back from a late-night church service in Abbeville, Ala., when seven young white men in a car stopped them and threatened them with. The N.A.A.C.P. After six of the men took turns raping her, they blindfolded her, drove her back to the road, and left her to walk home. She was walking home from church with two friends, 61-year-old Fannie . Thanks for your help! The New York Times which didn't run the story about Taylor in 1944published her obituary. Her attackers were never prosecuted. The publication of Ms. McGuires book led to apologies from the mayor of Abbeville and from the county and state governments in 2011. When the sheriff returned with Mr. Wilson and his father, Mrs. Taylor identified Mr. Wilson as one of her attackers, as did the teenage friend. 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