January 22, 2007

The Color of Justice

The Color of Justice is the story of a courageous young girl and a great warrior for justice and their battle for equal rights. It is also the story of America in the 1950s – a time of segregated restaurants and schools, and separate restrooms and drinking fountains for “colored” and “whites” in many places. And it was a time when the policy of “separate but equal” was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall, prominent legal counsel for the NAACP, endeavors to challenge the segregation law with families who have the courage to take their lawsuits all the way to the nation’s highest court in the landmark case Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Carters are just such a family seeking justice for their child, Grace.  Eight-year-old Grace Carter doesn’t understand why her “colored” school has to settle for ripped hand-me-down books from white schools, or why she cannot attend the school close to her home. And so the little girl and the great man begin a battle – a battle against bigots, a battle against fearful friends and neighbors who want to leave well-enough alone, a battle that threatens the Carters’ safety and their home. But it is a battle that they ultimately win, forever changing their lives and the lives of schoolchildren all over America.