This is a fact-based story about how Durham, North Carolina, schools were integrated*, thanks to a black woman and a white man who learn to work together.

The story is not well-known. In 1971, when some Durham schools were still segregated*, a fire in the black school led to a dispute* about whether those students could share the white school’s space. Taraji P. Henson plays Ann Atwater, who works for an advocacy group*. She has once insisted that a councilman listen to her complaints about the broken plumbing in her apartment. When he dismisses her and takes a phone call, she grabs the receiver and hits him on the head.

Sam Rockwell plays C.P. Ellis, a gas station owner and chief of the local Ku Klux Klan*.

Babou Ceesay plays Bill Riddick, whom the city brings in to run a 10-day series of community meetings leading to a vote on school integration.

When the reasonable, urbane Riddick, who is black, shows up at the gas station asking the Klansman to be part of the problem-solving panel, Ellis shouts, “Boy, you better get on out of here,” and refuses to shake his hand. Atwater refuses to have Ellis involved, too, because she doesn’t think the Klan should be given a voice. Of course, there would be no film if the two didn’t join the panel.

Bruce McGill plays Carvie Oldham, the head of the city council, who tries to pacify Atwater by giving her a chance to speak at a meeting, only to ask Ellis to fill the seats with Klan members before Atwater and her supporters arrive.

Riddick’s strategy is to give a little to get a little. When black townspeople at the panel want to end meetings with gospel songs, Riddick gets the whites to agree by giving in to Ellis’ demand to display Klan material in the hallway.

A turning point comes when Atwater does a Good Samaritan turn that helps Ellis’ family and his mentally challenged son, who is in a nearby institution. Ellis’ wife (Ann Heche) visits Atwater to thank her. Soon Atwater and Ellis bond over their roles as caring parents and he comes to see her as a person.

Ellis’ big moment seems over the top*, but actually happened in real life: He tears up his Klan membership card during the final voting meeting of the panel. As end titles reveal, the two were friends for the next 30 years.

(SD-Agencies)