Directed by Joe Allen, (who will be in attendence for Q&A) Two Schools in Hillburn is a documentary that tells the story of the brave efforts of the families of the 49 children who attended the beat up, old "colored" school and young NAACP attorney, Thurgood Marshall, who came to Hillburn and saw that segregation was alive and thriving here. Thanks to Mr Marshall, the practice ended and the families of children attending Brook School would be able to send them to Hillburn School. But it wasn't easy.
This was more than a decade before Marshall would gain notariety by winning Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka, KS, which tore down the legal grounds for separate but equal Jim Crow laws. It is said he learned how to defend the integration of schools, in part, because he had seen how his opponents would defend the practice in Hillburn.