Sample Scene From Script: Brady Brown

Prologue



Fade In: Ext. Phillis Wheatley Association, Cleveland, 1927



A series of pictures showing the dedication ceremony of the Phillis Wheatley Association.



NARRATOR: In April of 1928, the Phillis Wheatley Association celebrated the dedication of its new home, an eleven-story symbol of hope and salvation for countless black women throughout the Cleveland area. One-hundred young females found shelter behind those walls that day as hundreds of citizens representing all parts of the community gathered as one in show of support.

Around the turn of the 20th century, a large migration occurred, during which a substantial number of African-Americans left the South in favor of the North. Many set their sights on Cleveland, Ohio—including a number of single young females. Arriving filled with hope and aspirations, the women found themselves in a city alien to anything they had ever known. Consequently, they fell prey to those set on exploiting young women. Which is just why the Phillis Wheatley Association was so meaningful. It provided shelter from not just the cold, but also from the people willing to take advantage of the needy, the desperate. Those like Albert D. Boyd, better known in the community as Starlight, a man who exemplified the side of humanity which languishes in the shadows, often overlooked, but very real.



The camera slowly zooms in on a picture of the dedication. Hundreds of elated people stand together. At last it focuses on one face. This is JANE EDNA HUNTER.

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NARRATOR: Behind this symbol of hope stood one women. A beat. That women was Jane Edna Hunter. This is her story.