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Narrative
Elwood Curtis’ college dreams are dashed on a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the weight of an innocent mistake, he is sentenced to the underworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school deep in the Jim Crow South. He meets another ward, the all-seeing Turner. The two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner offers basic survival advice, Elwood clings to his optimistic worldview. Backslidden by the burgeoning civil rights movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence seems a world away from the glowing oratory of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s cruelty, Elwood tries to grasp his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.