A Crime on the Bayou

A young, white Jewish attorney defends an unjustly accused Black teen in this landmark Civil Rights-era case. Gary Duncan, 19, was arrested in 1966 after trying to deescalate a racially charged skirmish outside a newly integrated New Orleans high school. Though the incident is minor, Duncan is prey to a despotic D.A. using the parish courts to impose his segregationist views. Archival images, court transcripts and new interviews compellingly detail how Northerner Richard Sobol left his prominent law firm to save a wronged man, a search for justice that led to the Supreme Court. At a time of national reckoning over racial inequality, Emmy-winning documentarian Nancy Buirski presents a potent argument for the power of individual action to promote social change.

Accompanying the film premiere is a discussion with director Nancy Buirski, immediate past president of the NAACP (Miami chapter) Ruban Roberts, and JCRC director Josh Sayles. To view the conversation please click here.