By TaRessa Stovall

A courageous eight-year-old black girl. A warrior for justice in racially segregated 1950s America, when “separate but equal” was the law and bigotry the order of the day. Playwright Cheryl L. Davis brings the true-life drama of the landmark case Brown v the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to the stage for student and family audiences across the nation.

“I have heard kids today say now that blacks and whites are in school together, everything is fine, right?” Davis said in describing some recent audience responses to “The Color of Justice,”‘ a fictional account of a well-known chapter in the African-American struggle to obtain equal treatment under the law.

A previous production of "The Color of Justice" features L. Roi Hawkins as Thurgood Marshall and Lolita Foster as Grace Carter. Photo by Patrick Dwyer

The play, which Davis wrote in 1996 for audiences 8 years old and up, has been widely produced throughout the U.S. and is now on an East Coast tour. “There are children who are seeing it who were not born when it was written,” Davis said. “I’ve had a number of kids express surprise that this [legalized segregation] was ever the case, because they’ve grown up with integrated schools.”

Davis fictionalized the true story of Linda Brown, an elementary school student in Topeka, whose working-class family wanted her to go to the nice school near their home rather than the “colored” school further away, where students were given substandard books handed down from the white schools. In the play, Linda Brown becomes Grace Carter, whose family decides to sue the Topeka Board of Education for her right to attend the school of her choice.

The family is represented by NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Thurgood Marshall and his team. Despite intense community pressure and occasional threats, the family fights for their rights. Reviews of “The Color of Justice” praise Davis’ skill in bringing the historic case to life and showing the psychological aspects of segregation, activism and legal battles.

At the heart of “The Color of Justice” are Marshall’s arguments before the Supreme Court, which led to a reversal of the law of the land and the declaration of segregation as unequal and therefore illegal. Davis strove to portray the iconic Marshall “as a human being. He had a wicked sense of humor, some of which is in the play. He had a lot of determination. And he did not work alone. I learned a lot about his team, which included Jack Greenberg and Constance Baker Motley,” Davis explained.

Envisioning “The Color of Justice” as an entertaining teaching tool, Davis wrote it to be 50 minutes long so it could be presented in a classroom. “I would like audiences to take away the idea that individuals can make a difference, because they’re the ones who have to stand up and be counted.”

In addition to being an award-winning playwright, Davis, a graduate of Princeton University with a law degree from Columbia University, is a partner in Menaker, Herrmann LLP, a New York City law firm. “The Color of Justice” was her first drama with a legal theme.

Now at work on a musical about blues great Bessie Coleman for general audiences (but still suitable for family viewing), Davis believes in the power of live theater, whether it is a play or a presidential election. “It’s the oldest art form that there is, because nothing can duplicate the feeling of being in a theater where you’re one of a group of people, all experiencing the same thing simultaneously.

“Theater can be expressed in different ways: the theater of watching a politician speak; the theater of being in a church service; the theater of being connected to people around you,” Davis said. “That’s part of what Obama created. You can see them being moved; you can see them being excited and energized. You can watch that on TV, but it’s never the same as being among the people when it’s happening. I don’t think that will ever go away.”

“The Color of Justice” premiered at the New Victory Theatre in New York City in July 1996, as part of Theatreworks USA’s annual Free Summer Theater production, and continues to tour widely under the auspices of Theatreworks, America’s largest professional not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences.

Get more information about the East Coast Tour of “The Color of Justice.”

TaRessa Stovall is Managing Editor of TheDefendersOnline and Web Content Manager for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.