Sidney Poitier stars as the dazzling legal mind Thurgood Marshall in this drama that follows the strong-willed attorney as he battles to desegregate schools, taking on John W. Davis (Burt Lancaster) in the courtroom case Brown vs. Board of Education . This made-for-TV movie, which garnered seven Emmy nominations, traces the struggle behind the NAACP's pre-Supreme Court fight that changed the face of education.