Soul Man (film)

Soul Man is a 1986 comedy film about a white man who temporarily darkens his skin, in order to pretend to be black and qualify for a blackonly scholarship at Harvard Law School. The movie was directed by Steve Miner and stars C. Thomas Howell, Rae Dawn Chong, Arye Gross, James Earl Jones, Leslie Nielsen, James B. Sikking, and Julia LouisDreyfus.

The movies protagonist is Mark Watson Howell, the pampered son from a rich family who is about to attend Harvard Law School along with his best friend Gordon Gross. Unfortunately, his fathers neurotic psychiatrist talks his patient into having more fun for himself instead of spending money on his son. Faced with the horrifying prospect of having to pay for law school by himself, Mark decides to take up a scholarship, but the only suitable one is for African Americans only. So he decides to cheat by using tanning pills in a larger dose than prescribed to appear as an African American. Watson then sets out for Harvard, navely believing that blacks have no problems at all in American society.However, once immersed in a black students life, Mark finds that people are less lenient than he imagined and more prone to see him as a black person instead of a fellow student. He meets a young AfricanAmerican student named Sarah Walker Chong, whom he first only flirts with gradually, however, he genuinely falls in love with her. As it turns out, she was the original candidate for the scholarship which he had usurped, and now she has to work hard as a waitress to support herself and her son George while studying. Slowly, Mark begins to regret his deed, and after a chaotic dayin which Sarah, his parents who are not aware of his double life and his classmate Whitney Melora Hardin, who is also his landlords daughter, make surprise visits at the same timehe drops the charade and openly reveals himself to be white. ........

Source: Wikipedia