Joan Little (pronounced "Jo Ann") (born 1953) is an African-American woman who was charged with the 1974 murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina, who attempted to rape Little before she could escape.
Little was the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault.
Her mother, Jessie Williams was a "religious fanatic" who frequently consulted "root workers,"[3][page needed] or hoodoo folk healers.
Her social worker, Jean Nelson, who once called her an "escape artist," also noted her intelligence, telling her "some day you could do a lot of good.
In 1973, she went to work with a sheetrock finisher named Julius Rogers, whom she later accompanied to Greenville and later to Chapel Hill, where she would become entangled with the law.
After a few weeks at Dobbs, Little fled, walking to a nearby service station where she and a friend hitched a ride back to Washington.
Three weeks after graduating from high school there, Joan developed a thyroid problem and returned to North Carolina for an operation.
[4] In December 1973 and January 1974, Little, now 20, incurred a spate of arrests for theft and eventually for breaking and entering, with escalating legal consequences.
[4] Nearly three months later, before dawn on August 27, 1974, a police officer delivering a drunken prisoner to the Beaufort County jail discovered the body of jailer Clarence Alligood, 62, on Joan Little's bunk, naked from the waist down.
[6] She turned herself in to North Carolina authorities more than one week later, and said that she had killed Alligood while defending herself against sexual assault.
[7] Clarence Alligood had a record of forcing female inmates to take part in sexual favors as payment for gifts he'd given them.
Other inmates had previously stated that he had given them gifts in the form of snacks and magazines and expected to receive sexual favors.
[4] Little's trial brought attention to her being the first women of color to cite self-defense during sexual assault against an accusation of murder.
The question of whether or not black people were treated equally by the criminal justice systems in the American South drew the attention of the national media.
[10] The defense team made crucial use of applied social science, including the new method of scientific jury selection, which had just come into existence in 1972.
[8] Others who took part in Little's case included Maulana Karenga (Ron Karenga), Ralph Abernathy, who spoke during a protest outside Beaufort County courthouse,[19] Bernice Johnson Reagon, who contributed to funding support for Ms. Little,[20] and Dr. Larry Little, a Black Panther Party leader (Winston-Salem chapter), who stood by Little's side and was vocal in his concerns about the trial and about subjects that weren't well covered during the trial.
[4] Jerry Paul, Joan Little's chief attorney, was sentenced to fourteen days in jail for choice of words and wants against Judge Hamilton H.
Those who thought of her as being guilty saw her as luring Alligood into her cell with ideas of sex and killing him in order to escape the prison.
The a cappella musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock included a song titled "Joanne Little" on their 1976 self-titled album.