A child herself, Sherry Yvonne Johnson first gave birth when she was just 10 and was raising six children by the time she turned 17 — her own mother made her marry her rapist.
At just eight-years-old, Sherry Yvonne Johnson was raped for the first time by a man nine years older than her, by the age of 10 she had given birth to her rapist’s child, and by 11, she was married to him.
Her rapist, Alfonsa Tolbert, was a deacon at the strict apostolic church her family attended. Speaking about the horrific experience , Sherry said: “All you had to do was walk down the steps from the church and you’d walk into our kitchen. That’s where he raped me. I woke up with him on top of me. Many times.” The sexual abuse continued for another year, until, at the tender age of just nine, Sherry realised she was pregnant.
Worried doctors inquired after the father, however Sherry’s mother — who was at her side at the time — forced the little girl to conceal the horrific truth so as not to tarnish the family name.
Sherry was raped at 9 years of age by the deacon of her family church(Image: YouTube)
Instead, her mother had a different solution. Sending Sherry away with the bishop to give birth away from their hometown, thinking this would keep the situation to be under control. However, while on their way to Miami, the bishop himself pulled over and raped the seven months pregnant Sherry.
The little girl was forced to give birth thousands of miles away from her home in a strange hospital without anyone by her side.
As a result, child welfare authorities began investigating Sherry’s family and their church and that’s when her mother had another dangerous idea. In order to quell their inquiries, Sherry’s mother decided the best course of action was to marry her 11-year-old daughter off to her rapist. “This terrified me — I had no idea how to be a wife, I was just a child,” said Sherry.
Her own mother made the wedding dress, the wedding cake, and the veil for the ceremony — as Sherry was forced to marry the man who had been raping her for years.
After the first government clerk refused to grant Sherry and her rapist a marriage license due to her young age, they drove down to a different county, where the second clerk granted them a license to proceed with the frightening situation.
“The state of Florida failed me. The school knew. The hospital knew. The doctors knew. The courts knew. Nobody protected me — not one person. No one.”
In a post on AHA Foundation’s website, Sherry writes: “In my eyes, not only my family, but also the whole state of Florida, sanctioned child marriage by allowing an 11-year-old to marry a grown man. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to be married, if I was scared, or if I “loved” the man I was forced to marry. All they needed me to do was sign a piece of paper saying that I had a child.”
Now, Sherry is an activist and a staunch advocate against child marriage(Image: YouTube)
“I feel the whole system failed me. It wasn’t just one person. It wasn’t just one source,” Sherry said in an interview with CBS News .
After the marriage, Sherry’s rapist moved into the house with her, her mother, her husband, and their child. Sherry said: “We lived in my mother’s home for the entirety of our so-called marriage. Our relationship was extremely unhealthy. My husband was largely absent and was never there for me emotionally.
“I was forced to stay home and take care of my child, while learning how to be a wife at the age of 11. I never even finished elementary school. By the time I was 17, I had six children. I was a child raising children.”
Her rapist, Alfonsa, often disappeared, especially around the time she would be pregnant, and offered no financial support to Sherry or their six children. And because Sherry was still not 18, she wasn’t allowed to begin divorce proceedings against her husband. By this time, Sherry had moved out of her mother’s home and into housing authority with her six kids.
Eventually, a lawyer took note of Sherry’s case and agreed to take it on, leading to a divorce from the deacon. Sherry writes: “He [the lawyer] defied state bar rules that would have prevented him from offering me assistance and worked successfully in getting my divorce granted by the court.”
However, this left Sherry as a teenage mother of six without any monetary support.
But this remarkable woman is not one to be beaten down. Turning her traumas into hope, Sherry was inspired to help other children going through similar frightening situations. In 2013, she authored the book Forgiving The Unforgivable, which details Sherry’s experience of being in a forced child marriage.
“Releasing this book allowed my journey to be heard in every corner of the US and shed light on child marriage in our country,” she writes. Next, Sherry began her advocacy for heightened legal protections for children.
In her article on the AHA Foundation website, Sherry says: “For many years, legislators shut the door in my face. They questioned my story and denied that my experiences happened. This didn’t stop me, because I had a mission and passion for those children who had no way out. Eventually, someone finally went back and did their research and realized I was telling the truth: Florida allows children to marry adults.
“After this, legislators were very open and receptive to requests to work on legislation that would change state marriage law. They eventually enacted SB 140, which strengthened the protections around child marriage, but it still allows 17-year-olds to marry in certain circumstances.”
Now an activist and staunch advocate against child marriage in the United States, Sherry considers herself “the voice for the voiceless” and serves as an endlessly inspiring example for others — even though her own childhood was brutally taken away from her.