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Line of Events
Elwood Curtis’s college dream is shattered along a two-lane Florida highway. Carrying the burden of an innocent misstep, he is sentenced to the underworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory in the heart of the Jim Crow South. He meets another guard, Warden Turner. Two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner imparts basic survival advice, Elwood clings to his optimistic worldview. Against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, Elwood and Turner’s lives seem far removed from the polished discourse of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood tries to retain his humanity and awaken a new vision in Turner.