Lynn Whitfield And Linda Hamilton Battle Racial Injustice In TV Movie `The Color Of Courage'

Jet, Feb 15, 1999

Lynn Whitfield and Linda Hamilton star as next-door neighbors who become the best of friends and battle racial injustice in The Color of Courage on the USA Network cable channel.

Whitfield is Minnie McGhee, who with her husband Mac McGhee, played by Roger Guenveur Smith, moves next door to a White couple, Anna Sipes (Hamilton) and her husband Benjamin (Bruce Greenwood), in the movie which premieres this week, Feb. 10, at 9 pm ET/PT.

What makes Minnie and Annie's friendship so improbable is that this is the 1940s, and a Black family buying a home in a White neighborhood is unheard of and absolutely taboo.

The Color of Courage is based on the true story of the civil rights case, Sipes vs. McGhee, one of the most significant cases to hit the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP was involved in the landmark case, and Thurgood Marshall, who was then one of the nation's top civil rights lawyers, represented the McGhees.

The McGhees bring their family from Detroit's inner city to a nearby all-White neighborhood. When the residents find out that their community's covenant barring Black families from living in their neighborhood has been broken, they hire legal counsel to try to force the new family to move out. Despite Minnie's pleading, Mac insists that they stay in the community until they win the case or are forced out of their home.

As the newest White family on the block, the Sipes are asked by the other White residents to take the lead in the lawsuit.

Anna is outraged that her husband has agreed to take the forefront in pushing the McGhees out of the neighborhood because she has become friends with her Black neighbor, Minnie.

The powerful film was written by the McGhees' real-life granddaughter, Kathleen McGhee Anderson, who is an award-winning writer and producer and currently serves as consulting producer on Lifetime's new dramatic series "Any Day Now."

Whitfield, one of Hollywood's most versatile and sought-after actresses, won an Emmy Award for her portrayal of the legendary performer Josephine Baker in HBO's film The Josephine Baker Story and also starred in the critically acclaimed motion picture Eve's Bayou opposite Samuel L. Jackson.

She said she was drawn to Color of Courage because of its messages of a strong, proud Black family and the importance of taking a stand to fight for justice and equality.

"Those kinds of struggles are very noble," Whitfield notes. "It was, in fact, for something very normal to have a roof over your head that you felt good about."

She continues, "This was a family that was a very respectable family, a family where the mother and father were together, where they were doing the best that they could to raise their children. They didn't fit into any of the negative statistics that the media is so quick to discuss. I thought the film was worth lending my voice to."

The two women's friendship in the film actually changed history and also teaches viewers about the need to join forces and work together.

"It's important that we understand that it is very hard to win such huge battles without people joining forces, but at the same time we have to respect our differences," Whitfield explains.

"The relationship between the White woman and the Black woman ultimately gets to the point where they had to deal with each other's differences. The White character had to accept that she could not know absolutely what it was like, what was going on in this Black woman's experience. And at the same time, Minnie realized that she could not understand what her friend felt like."

She points out, "Nobody can be the one great White hope for our problems, for our issues. We have to fight our own right, but it is very helpful when people join forces, but you have to join forces with respect."

Roger Guenveur Smith stars as Minnie's tough husband Mac, who fights to protect his family from the racist ways of the community. His many film credits include He Got Game, Get On The Bus, Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing, School Daze and the upcoming Summer of Sam. He also portrays Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton in the national one-man play, A Huey P. Newton Story.

He describes the McGhees as "two people who had a profound love for each other, who went through a lot, who did their absolute best to not only keep their family together, but to fight the good fight."

He points out, "Mac is a very simple man who wants the best for his family, and this has led him into a rather dangerous territory. He is a rather simple American man who wants to achieve on the job as much as he can possibly achieve. And he wants to be regarded for his skills and not be discriminated against because of his race."

Smith emphasizes, "He wants to be able to provide for his family the same things that most Americans want for their family: decent housing, recreation, education for his children ... He is a man who never gives up."

Smith's character was a very light skinned Black man who some thought was White. He was a hard-working man who was in charge of custodial services at a Detroit newspaper.