The King of Colored TownTen years after Brown v. School Board, there are still good people and bad on both sides of the tracks that divide Laureate, FL. Our instruction in that hard truth comes by following Cilla Handsom and Joe Billy King, two African-American teens caught up in the backlash following the integration of their segregated school with the all-white school run by Lafayette County?s all-white School Board. The education of Laureate?s children will expose hatreds on both sides of the color divide. Cilla will emerge from her ordeal carrying scars and grace to become a widely traveled classical musician. Joe Billy will be found hanging from the bars of his cell in a Florida penitentiary. Their twin dramas put courage, cowardice, loyalty and betrayal side by side in a narrative where the demons and angels of a time and place are portrayed in black and white. |
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ain't asked B.B. King band hall bassoon beneath Billy King Butler Bulldogs called chair Chicken Swamp church Cilla Clarion Cody Hewitt Collard Jackson Colored Town Corrie Jean damn desk dogwood trees door eyes face Fanny Florida French horn Garner Hewitt girl gonna Grandma guitar hair hand hard head hear heard Hicks inside instrument jail JayBee Joe Billy Joe Billy's Juanita Kerbo School King knew Lafayette County Laureate lips looked ma'am Mama Miss Chandler Miss Handsom Miss Hattie Monk Folsom Monk's mother Negroes never nigger night nodded Ode to Joy Pellicore piano play porch Pudding pulled pump Putnal radio Raymond replied seat Sheriff Jackson Shirley Lee side smiled somethin sure Suwannee County talk Tallahassee teacher tell thing Thurman told took truck turned wait Weintraub Wilburn