Following the official Supreme Court ruling that schools had to be desegregated, Southern communities such as Durham struggled with how to obey the court mandate in a community that heavily resisted. The local labor union received a grant to work through the problem, and a 10-day committee meeting was called. Leaders asked Atwater and Ellis to bring their viewpoints and chair the meeting.
The pair were, obviously, at odds. As The Hollywood Reporter describes, however, they discovered that they were more similar than they thought, especially given their impoverished upbringings and their mutual concern for the education of local children. Ellis came to realize that civil rights and desegregation could benefit everyone, and that poor black communities were not at fault for white communities in poverty; instead, they should be allies.
According to Davidson's book (on which the movie is based), their two-week meeting ended with Atwater and Ellis presenting a list of balanced recommendations to the board, focusing on creating mechanisms to hear students' voices and improve curriculum. More significantly, Ellis renounced his membership in the KKK by publicly tearing up his membership card, leading to death threats and shunning by many members of his own community.
Atwater and Ellis had become real friends, and remained so for decades. Atwater continued her civil rights work, while Ellis became prominent in labor and union organizations. Ellis died in 2005, and Atwater in 2016.
