Today, Shadrach Greenwood sits on the courthouse steps, dismayed that the Confederate flag is still flying on his town square. As he sighs at the Silent Sentinel monument next to it, he recalls fifty years ago his hopeful teen friends assured him these relics would be gone soon.
In 1968, Carroll County was the epicenter of everything wrong with race relations in the state of Mississippi. Its proximity to violence against "agitators" as well as an incident at its own center of justice kept fanning passions over fairness and rights. A verdict on an exception to ending local school segregation would certainly anger many more.
But for the local teenagers, life must go on with hope for the future. Shadrach and Penny become friends with the new boy in town, Matthew.
Penny rides her pony, Pinto, to the town square. Matthew pleads with his parents for a motorcycle. Shadrach pushes back on adults enforcing racial norms. The three hold out hope they will attend school together with their friends in the fall.
Sam, the newspaper publisher and father of teen Matthew, unwittingly fuels the community's divisions through biased opinion pieces. Interactions with a Black cotton farmer, a racist employee, public school administrators, and even Shadrach cause Sam to begin reporting on local issues differently. He resolves to use his influence to repair divisions and improve community relations. In an impetuous attempt to unite his town, Sam convinces a Hollywood studio to use Carrollton as the location for a movie based on William Faulkner's The Reivers: A Reminiscence. However, when a violent group learns of the diverse cast coming to town, long-simmering tensions boil over and crosses burn.
Through his reminiscence, the narrator recounts how three teens did not allow a difference in race to prevent their friendship and reminds readers life goes on, with hope for the future, thanks to the agitators.
