Biography
Joan Little (also written Joanne Little) was a young Black woman who became a landmark figure in the women's, Black-liberation, and anti-death-penalty movements. As The Black Panther reported (November 16, 1974), she had been held in the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina — pending appeal of a breaking-and-entering conviction — when, on August 27, 1974, the jail's night guard Clarence Alligood was found dead in her cell, killed with an ice pick and naked from the waist down. Little, the only woman and only Black woman in a jail with all-White guards, had fled and turned herself in to authorities in Raleigh eight days later, explaining that Alligood had forced repeated sexual advances on her and that she killed him defending herself. Charged with first-degree murder and facing the death penalty, she was acquitted in August 1975 — widely recognized as the first woman in the United States acquitted of murder on the grounds of resisting sexual assault.
Black North Carolina woman who became a national cause after killing a jailer who sexually assaulted her (acquitted 1975 on self-defense). The Black Panther Vol. 18 no.17 (1978) covers her subsequent prison-escape trial in Raleigh, with attorney William Kunstler seeking removal to federal court.
The pamphlet compared the campaign for Dessie Woods with the campaign for Joan Little, emphasizing defense against sexual violence and racial prosecution. It supplies no new individual custody endpoint. The Story of Dessie Woods, second printing, June 1978, original PDF page 11. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Dessie%20Woods/513.DessieWoods.TheStoryofDessieWoods.pdf#page=11
The May 31, 1975 Philadelphia rally for Joan Little, printed here as Joann Little, drew about seventy-five people. Defense coordinator Patricia Chance received more than 2,000 supporting signatures. The report describes a July 14 trial date as a future plan, rather than an actual custody endpoint or verdict. Source: https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/ww1975-0613-v17n24.pdf#page=11
The January–February 1975 Triple Jeopardy report reprinted in Seize the Time describes three months of Beaufort County Jail confinement before Little fled after the August 27, 1974 confrontation with jailer Clarence Alligood. This earlier jail period is separate from the later murder-case detention after her surrender. The report also describes her October 1 bond hearing, shackling and subsequent confinement in Raleigh’s women’s prison.
After escaping North Carolina imprisonment in 1977, Little was arrested in New York on December 7 and confined at Rikers Island while fighting extradition. At the January 6 hearing, Justice Cornelius O’Brien denied attorney William Kunstler’s initial bail application. She was subsequently released on $51,000 bail on January 31, 1978, while the extradition proceedings continued.
The Black Panther, volume XVIII number 2, January 28, 1978, PDF page 10; The Militant, February 10, 1978, printedpage 7, PDF page 7.
Source-reported institution for this episode: Rikers Island Women’s prison, New York.
The Black Panther, volume XVIII number 2, January 28, 1978, PDF page 10; The Militant, February 10, 1978, printedpage 7, PDF page 7.
Printed JoanneLittle, her case is invoked as a defense victory symbolizing resistance to oppression of Black people, women and prisoners. This is retrospective campaign context, not a fresh detention or an individual custody endpoint.
The April 18, 1975 Militant names Karen Galloway and Jerry Paul as Little’s attorneys, reporting their participation in her April 5 Washington support meeting.
