__An
aspiring young New York journalist is assigned by his editor at Life
Magazine to travel to a small Alabama town—an assignment Richard
Curtis resists with all his might—to look into the events surrounding
the arrest and conviction of a county sheriff who was charged with aiding
and abetting a mob of alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan in the flogging
of several Negroes in the early 1950s. Elevating the story to national
level is the suspicion that a conspiracy was carried out by some influential
members of the little town, designed to rid the county of a sheriff
who apparently had stepped on some toes in his efforts to clean up the
corruption, a job which he was allegedly elected to perform.
__Encountering
a citizenry that, not unexpectedly, is resentful of a seemingly biased
Northern journalist coming to their town asking what they consider to
be meddling questions, Richard soon finds himself in a predicament where
he sees no way out. Fortunately, he meets a few people in the town who
seem to want to befriend him, although primarily by suggesting that
for his own well being he should get on the next bus heading North.
What he did not expect to encounter were either of the two extremes:
his life being threatened by those who with secrets they did not want
revealed; and falling madly in love with a gorgeous girl from the little
Southern town.
__Eventually
returning to his job in New York, after learning the true story that
he was assigned to uncover regarding a conspiracy, Richard is torn between
doing his duty by publishing the story and keeping his job, or maintaining
his personal honor and integrity by refusing to reveal the horrendous,
unbelievable truth about what really happened, a revelation that he
is convinced would devastate the lives of several townspeople, including
many members of the family of the woman he has come to love.
__Through
a strange sequence of events over the next several months, Richard returns
to the little town, which he finally realizes, and admits to himself,
that he likes. Soon, however, he becomes embroiled in another bizarre
episode that puts him in what seems a no-win situation; yet, as sometimes
happens, this series of unexpected events results in his finding his
one true love, albeit not in the way he had expected or would ever dreamed
possible.
__As
the years pass, Richard becomes a respected citizen of the place where
he was once reviled and distrusted by most, and where he once believed
most of the people were ignorant, racial bigots. This heartwarming story
parallels attitudes and events of the mid-twentieth century regarding
racial biases and the Civil Rights movements, while at the same time
providing a vehicle for clearing up many of the misunderstandings Northerners
held about Southerners, and vice versa.
