With slavery formerly abolished in the South, were white rapists no longer as free to force sex upon African American women, or did their status as citizens offer no protection?
When discussing the widespread rape of black women, historians generally characterize this as a grim reality of the slave era. However, I'm skeptical that it became unacceptable to have sex with black women as soon as they became legally free. In 1870, if a black woman was raped by her white employer in Georgia, would she be able to bring the crime to any kind of trial?
Do we know how cultural permissiveness toward this kind of sexual contact changed after black women became legal citizens with rights? Was it no longer acceptable for men to rape them?
Read "the Dark End of the Street" by Danielle L McGuire. She goes over the sexual exploitation of black women in America leading up to the civil rights movement in the 1950/60s, so she kind of answers your questions here.
http://www.amazon.com/At-Dark-End-Street-Resistance-A/dp/0307389243