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(CNN) - When the torrent of hate struck for the first time, Taylor Dumpson curled up in a fetal position and rocked, unable to speak.
Then, he made sure he was never alone in case people who hung bananas on ropes and attacked her online decided to attack her in person.
“I was terrified. I didn't know who these people were. I didn't know where they were. I didn't know if they would come looking for me, ”Dumpson told CNN in an exclusive interview.
And finally, she decided to defend herself.
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Not with threats of their own or joining the horde, but demanding justice. His quest to challenge the anonymous trolls led to something that nobody predicted: a personal apology.
"People think about protests and defense or the lobby or different things," Dumpson said about ways to fight hate. "But litigation can also be a tool for social change," he said.
The neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin had encouraged the trolls to attack Dumpson after his historic victory in May 2017 as the first African-American president of a student body at the American University of Washington. She was black, she was a woman and she excelled in college, all that white supremacists hate.
Taylor Dumpson took his case of online attacks to court.
Anglin did not respond to the lawsuit against him and his neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, much visited, even when a sentence of $ 725,000 was issued against him, the site and another troll, money that Dumpson will never see. And no one was ever identified as the author of lynched bananas around the UA campus, a clear reminder of the racist murderous past of the United States and a tactic of intimidation.
But one of the people who tweeted hatred of her did not avoid justice, but offered to repent.
The white man in his late Pacific Northwest adolescence decided that he had to make peace. His attacks were far from being the worst Dumpson received, but he was the only one who took responsibility.
Dumpson wanted someone, a real person who didn't hide behind an avatar or sneak around the campus, to take responsibility for the very real terror he had endured from anonymous enemies. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the torrent of abuse she suffered. She wanted something similar to closing.
But she also believes in restorative justice. The possibility that she and her troll know each other could create an opportunity for another human being to change his mind.
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“I needed you to understand this: I am a real person. I have real feelings. You have real impacts, ”he said.
“It's not just words and you're not just writing bad things. It's bigger than that, ”he said.
She agreed not to name or shame the man publicly. Nor did he reveal the words they exchanged when they finally sat face to face.
He barely talked about how he felt.
"It was a difficult time," he said. But it was worth it.
"That's why I could look him in the eye and it's because I have the true belief that people can change." Dumpson said. "I had to remind myself, I have to believe that because if I didn't, then they would win."
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Neither Anglin nor the man who apologized to Dumpson responded to CNN's requests for comment.
Dumpson left Washington after graduating and obtained a place in law school in a different city.
She hopes that her torturer and others like him will stop her harassment forever.
"Even if you're a white supremacist, even if you're a neo-Nazi, even if you think like that, I don't think you'll always think like that," he said. "I don't think it has to be that way."
Your case could set a precedent. She won the argument that, like physical harassment, online harassment can also interfere with civil rights, such as the right to receive education.
"To our knowledge, this is the first judicial decision in the country that has argued that online harassment can interfere with public activities," said David Brody, a lawyer for the Civil Rights Lawyers Committee under the Law that supported the case. from Dumpson.
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"Civil rights laws don't stop where the cloud begins."
More than two years after it began, hate follows Dumpson and is still nervous, she said.
And there are parts of his life that he has lost forever, as he had planned to begin his leadership of the students of the American University.
“I did not have the opportunity to send an email to the student body about 'Hello, welcome. I'm glad to be your student government president. ' No, I was sending a notification to the student body about: “Hello, there was a hate crime on campus. I was his target, but this is what we will do to keep moving forward. ”
She is proud of how she decided to respond, not shrink but try to make a difference for the better.
"For me, the litigation was my support applause," he said.
She has a little advice for anyone who has experienced being trolled online.
“It's traumatic and it takes its toll. I think the most important thing is to protect your peace. ”
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