Elwood Curtis’ college dream is shattered on a two-lane Florida highway. He bears the brunt of an innocent mistake and is sentenced to the underworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school deep in the Jim Crow South. He meets another inmate, Turner, who sees this. The two black youths form an alliance: Turner offers basic survival advice, Ellwood clings to his optimistic view of the world. Against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, Ellwood and Turner’s existence seems a far cry from the fiery oratory of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Ellwood struggles to maintain his humanity and awaken a new vision in Turner.
