PASSION FOR JUSTICE, THE HAZEL BRANNON SMITH STORY - (1994) - TV

Directed by James Keach
Writing credits (WGA) : Rama Laurie Stagner
Executive producers : Edgar J. Scherick / David Brooks

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Credited Cast:
Jane Seymour .... Hazel Brannon Smith
D.W. Moffett .... Walter Dyer Smith as "Smitty"
Michelle Joyner .... Ann Sinclair
Starletta DuPois .... Ruth
Richard Kiley .... Earl Clayburn
Brett Rice .... Sheriff Cole
Jeanette Lane Bradbury .... Lily Clayburn
David DeVries .... Lyle Sinclair
Ralph Wilcox .... Sam
Rebecca Wackler .... Phoebe
Mary Nell Santacroce .... Eudora
Dwionne Dickerson .... Selina
Derek Pruitt .... Ray
Marc Macaulay .... Buddy
L. Warren Young .... Davis Franklin
Tonea Stewart .... Henrietta
Ronn Leggett .... Marsh Jones
Carl McIntyre .... John
Mary Ann Hagan .... Agnès
Dan Biggers .... Judge
Ric Reitz .... Ed Lang

(complete cast listing)

Plot Summary:

Jane Seymour stars in this passionate and powerful true story about a crusading white journalist, caught up in the American civil-rights battle of the 1950s, who risked both her career and her life to speak out against the injustices of racism.

When the beautiful, flamboyant Hazel Brannon Smith returned with her new husband to Lexington, Mississipi, in 1954, she found a community torn apart by recent laws abolishing discrimination against blacks. When the white townspeople formed a committee to combat the civil-rights revolution, Hazel Brannon Smith began to speak out passionately against the injustice both in the streets and in the colums of her newspaper.

But even with the entire community against her and her own life under threat, nothing could prevent her from telling the truth.

"In 1964, Hazel Brannon Smith became the first woman to receive the nation's highest honor in editorial writing: the Pulitzer Price".

Before "Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble", one of the Jane's top roles, she had already led a crusade for the defense of the oppressed, especially for human rights and respect for the justice.