Today’s movie is a courtroom drama with a scene that happens on May 28. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
In Clarendon County, South Carolina the principal of a Black school asks for a bus for his school and is refused. Thurgood Marshall comes to South Carolina. A petition is started to ask for equal schools. At the court hearing the judge asks them to address the question is segregation itself legal. The petitioners bring in experts for a hearing on May 28, 1951 and present evidence that segregation does harm children. [48:52 to 1:07:20] The KKK tries to scare the judge and the organizer of the petition. There is discussion in the Black community as to whether they should ask for equal schools or an end to segregation. The case goes up to the US Supreme Court. The justices are divided. After Ike is elected president Justice Frankfurter asks for rearguement about what the drafters of the 14th amendment thought about school segregation. Earl Warren is appointed the new Chief justice, while the NAACP is having cash problems. After the rearguement Warren convinces his fellow judges to rule for the plaintiffs in a unanimous decision.
A mostly fact based account of the background of part of one of the most important Supreme Court cases of the Twentieth Century. Good performances from everyone involved.
Lift Every Voice: The NAACP
and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement by Patricia Sullivan (The New Press, New York, 2009) at page 404 and the film at 49:40 give the hearing date
Director - George Stevens, Jr.
Screenplay - George Stevens, Jr.
Awards - The film won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Miniseries or a Special and Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special and Miniseries. It was also nominated for Outstanding Editing for a Miniseries or a Special - Single Camera Production; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special (Poitier); Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries or a Special; Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Special; Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special (Kiley) and Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries or a Special
Runtime - 3 hours 6 minutes
Released - April 7, 1991
Starring -
Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshall
Burt Lancaster as John W. Davis
Richard Kiley as Earl Warren
Cleavon Little as Robert Carter
John McMartin as James F. Byrnes
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.
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