It is perhaps a wee bit mean to include Tawana Brawley here, inasmuch as she was a hard-pressed 15-year-old when, in 1987, she hoaxed the public into thinking she had been raped. Her allegations were happily seized upon by the Rev. Al Sharpton and two lawyers to advance their anti-discrimination agenda, but the matter backfired on them when it became apparent that Miss Brawley had been fibbing.
Brawley, an African American, came from a troubled home and was afraid that she would be beaten for having skipped school to visit her boyfriend, who was in prison in a nearby town. Instead of 'fessing up, she went missing for four days, then smeared herself with dog excrement, used charcoal to scribble racial slurs on her own body, crawled inside a big green garbage bag, and lay down in the street.
When police were summoned, she told of having been raped by three white men, one of whom wore a badge.
The black community was understandably incensed. Bill Cosby helped raise money for her legal representation, and around a thousand people marched in her support through the streets of her hometown, Newburgh, NY.
Joining in her support were the Rev. Sharpton and two prominent civil rights attorneys. One of Miss Brawley's alleged attackers was identified as Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones,who promptly sued the three, plus Brawley, for libel.
Brawley's story fell apart when a neighbor came forward and said that she had seen Brawley crawl into the garbage bag and lie down on the sidewalk and no physical evidence of rape was found. Pagones won his suit.
This appears to have been a hoax that was used to advance a social agenda--an important social agenda, but one better advanced in more honest ways.
Brawley converted to Islam and assumed the name Maryam Muhammad.
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