After two snowed-out attempts this winter, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is finally hoping to show a documentary about a woman brave enough to tell the truth, which was a radical act in the 1940s.
“The Rape of Recy Taylor” is about an African-American woman who was gang-raped by white men in rural Alabama in 1944. In those days, Southern black women were expected to keep their mouths shut when they were sexually assaulted by white men. But Taylor, a devoted wife and mother and pious Christian, was outraged by that expectation, so she went straight to the police and insisted the men be brought to trial. Taylor is considered one of the unsung heroines of the early Civil Rights movement.
Nancy Buirski’s film was originally scheduled to be shown in February and was snowed out, and was rescheduled in March and was snowed out again. It’s unlikely to be snowed out this time. It is set to be screened Saturday, June 16, at 2 p.m. at the museum at 600 Main St. in Hartford.
The screening is part of the Shaping Social Change film series, which the museum presents with The Amistad Center for Art & Culture and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. Admission is $9 $8 seniors and students, $7 members. thewadsworth.org.
