Lawyer Julius Chambers files a class action suit to desegregate the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system. The suit is dismissed by a federal judge. Plaintiffs Rev. Darius Swann and his wife, Vera, are Johnson C. Smith University graduates and former missionaries in India. They want their son James to attend an integrated school near their home, but James is assigned to an all-black school farther away. The case will later be heard before a new judge.