Bright Road

Bright Road is a 1953 lowbudget film adapted from the Christopher Awardwinning short story See How They Run by Mary Elizabeth Vroman. Directed by Gerald Mayer and featuring a nearly allblack cast, the film stars Dorothy Dandridge as an idealistic firstyear elementary school teacher trying to reach out to a problem student. The movie is also notable as the first feature film appearance by Harry Belafonte, who costars as the principal of the school.

Miss Richards efforts with C.T. begin to pay dividends and his grades improve somewhat, but all of her progress with him seems to be undone when Tanya Barbara Ann Sanders, another student in the class and C.T.s closest friend, dies after being stricken with a viral pneumonia. Devastated at the loss, C.T. runs away from school for a time, and even upon his return, immediately starts a schoolyard fight. Insistence that he apologize for his actions causes him only to completely withdraw and isolate himself from his teacher and classmates. Frustrated and saddened, Miss Richards must return to giving C.T. the failing marks that had been his previous pattern.One day, however, she overhears C.T. helping another student with arithmetic, revealing to her that despite his stubborn refusal to participate in class since returning to school, he has actually been continuing to learn. Seeing this demonstration of knowledge, she is heartened and quietly changes his most recent failing grade to an A. C.T.s reintegration into the class is completed when he calmly handles a situation in which a swarm of bees invades the classroom, following the queen bee which had flown in. As the other students, and even Miss Richards, panic and swat at the bees, C.T. calmly collects the queen and carries it outside with the swarm following him. ........

Source: Wikipedia