Gertrude Perkins: They Hurt Her. Then They Blamed Her. 1949 Alabama

In 1949 Alabama, 25-year-old Gertrude Perkins was stopped by two Montgomery police officers. She never made it to jail. This isn’t just the story of a crime. It’s the story of how the law silenced truth — and criminalized survival. This episode is the third in our Injustice by Design series — a series that asks: What if the system was never broken? What if it was built this way? It comes from the Memory Justice Project — a research and storytelling initiative led by civil rights attorney Julian Johnson, created to document the lives the law refused to defend. 🕊️Storytelling & Mission Approach 🕊️ This channel shares historical stories based on scholarly research, archival records, legal documents, and public sources. Some episodes reference difficult or painful parts of the past. These stories are presented for educational purposes, with care and respect for those whose experiences are remembered. Our goal is to educate, preserve memory, and foster deeper understanding — never to shock or sensationalize. 🏢 About Julian Johnson 🏢 The Law Office of Julian Johnson is a Chicago-based civil rights firm dedicated to seeking justice for those who have been wronged. We represent victims of police misconduct, personal injury, and wrongful death. But this channel is about more than just legal cases — it’s about history. It’s about truth. It’s about telling the stories of Black life in America — especially the lives history tried to bury and the law refused to protect. Through these videos, our firm is committed to helping the public understand the deeper patterns of racial injustice — exposing legal abandonment, confronting the harms Black communities have endured, and preserving memory through storytelling. Because justice isn’t only about what happens in the courtroom. It’s also about what we choose to remember. 🕯️The Memory Justice Project 🕯️ The Memory Justice Project is a research and storytelling initiative led by civil rights attorney Julian Johnson — committed to honoring those who lived and died in injustice, the ones history tried to bury and the law abandoned. Every video is grounded in historical research, legal context, and moral clarity. We tell these stories to preserve memory, restore dignity, and confront a past that still echoes today. If you’ve felt the weight of these stories — and believe in the truth they hold — you can support the work directly on Patreon: patreon.com/JulianJohnsonLaw 📲 Stay Connected 📲 To keep up with the latest legal insights, valuable tips, and updates, make sure to follow Julian Johnson on various social media platforms: 🌐 Website: https://www.julianjohnsonlaw.com 🤝🏾 Patreon: patreon.com/JulianJohnsonLaw 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/ 📸 Instagram:   / julianjlaw   📘 Facebook:   / julianjlaw1   📧 Email: [email protected] ⚖️ Legal Issue ⚖️ Some viewers reach out after watching a story, wondering if Julian can help with a legal issue they’re facing — particularly involving police misconduct, wrongful death, or serious injury. If that’s you, the best place to start is the website: julianjohnsonlaw.com. 🎥 Subscribe to the Channel 🎥 Don't miss out on the opportunity to enhance your legal knowledge and make informed decisions. Hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell to stay notified about the latest uploads from Julian Johnson. 👥 Join Our Memory is Justice Community 👥 This channel is more than content — it’s a community built on remembrance, truth-telling, and accountability. We believe that memory is justice. That by remembering the stories they tried to erase, we protect the dignity of those who were harmed and build a deeper understanding of the systems that failed them. Share your thoughts, questions, or reflections in the comments. This is a space for learning, healing, and truth. Together, we carry the memory — and we keep the record. Information provided here is for general purposes only, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed. Produced by The Memory Justice Project, a research & storytelling initiative of the Law Office of Julian Johnson Video Editor: Ariana Cavillo Hernandez Content Operations Assistant: Asivile Mzinyati Written & Narrated by: Julian Johnson #MemoryIsJustice #BlackHistoryMatters #TruthTelling #julianjohnsonlaw Sources Consulted: This story was developed using archival newspaper coverage, court documents, and historical scholarship. News content was accessed through a licensed subscription to Newspapers.com. The foundational account of Betty Jean Owens’s case draws heavily from Danielle L. McGuire’s essay “It Was Like All of Us Had Been…”: Sexual Violence, Community Mobilization, and the African American Freedom Struggle. Additional context was informed by public records and scholarship on the systemic use of sexual violence against Black women. The framing, interpretation, and narrative storytelling are original to this platform.