The Hazel Brannon Smith Story

Drama, 1 hr 35 min, James Keach, 1994

The year is 1954 at the town of Lexington, Mississippi. Many whites resist the change in granting blacks equal rights under the law. At first, Hazel Smith (Jane Seymour), a flamboyant publisher, is too caught up with her new found happiness of a perfect marriage to sense the trouble ahead.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to integrate public schools, the whites in Lexington from a committee to combat the imminent civil rights revolution. Smith who has always been part of the white establishment decides that it is time for society to adapt and change. Her views are criticised and soon she finds herself ostracised by friends and society.

This does not deter her from speaking up against the prevalent injustices. When a young black man is shot by the sheriff without substantive reason, Smith writes an emotionally- charged editorial in her own newspapers denouncing the police for their treatment of blacks. The white community which is rallying against the impending changes of the Civil Rights movement lashes out against Smith.

Overnight, Smith becomes a ‘traitor’ of her own colour. Many of her press subscribers and advertisers disown her and ‘friends’ keep a safe distance from her. Her printing plant is even vandalised. Still, the dogged woman marches on and believes that she will see light at the end of the struggle.

By: Television Corporation of Singapore. Copyright 1996. All Rights Reserved.