August 15, 1975 Joanne Little Acquitted

On August 27, 1974, Joan (Jo-Ann) Little sat in the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. The petite, twenty-two year old black woman had been incarcerated for two months while she awaited her court date on a breaking and entering charge. That night, sixty-two year old white jailer Clarence Alligood entered her jail cell, ice pick in hand, intending to coerce Little into sexual acts. In an act of self-defense, Little stabbed Alligood with the ice pick in order to wound him and escape. Little fled as her would-be assailant bled to death.
No stranger to the stereotypes about black women, Joan Little knew how the scene would look. Some would label her as a Jezebel and claim she was “asking for it.” Others would suggest that no respectable woman would have been in jail, or in this position, in the first place. Little hid out in the surrounding area for a little more than a week. Meanwhile, the state labeled her a fugitive and a murderer. Officials also issued a warrant for her arrest. In a scene that mirrored the manhunt of Angela Davis just two year earlier, state and federal authorities created a dragnet to capture Little. Local police arrested her on September 7^th for first-degree murder. Forty-eight hours later a grand jury indicted her for murder. The following year Little would stand trial. If convicted she faced the gas chamber.

https://www.aaihs.org/free-joan-little/