Ames-area elementary and junior high students won’t be learning about racism and segregation inside the classroom next week. Instead, they’ll take their lessons from the stage.

“The Color of Justice” comes to Ames just in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The play is based on the U.S. Supreme Court case in which Thurgood Marshall struggled against segregation in the school systems. Although the play is loosely based on the famous Brown v. The Board of Education case, the fictional Carter family on which the play centers is actually a composite of 20 different families involved with the case. The show is intended for younger viewers.

“The story is told through the eyes of the little girl,” says actor Elroy Hawkins, who is playing the role of Thurgood Marshall. “Even though it deals with adult themes, it holds the interest of the younger audience.”

Hawkins says playing a role based on a real person is difficult, because it is important to portray the person correctly.

“I’ve done a lot of children’s theater with fictitious characters, but it’s different with a real person,” Hawkins says. “You feel responsible of the role.”

Since the play is aimed at a younger audience, many of the local Ames schools will be sending students to the show.

“I hope they get a better understanding of the court case that changed the land of that time,” says Kathy McCarty, a seventh-grade teacher at Ballard Junior High. “And they relate that to now, and how they treat people.”

McCarty’s students have also been learning about discrimination in class, and some students will be competing in a writing competition on the same topic.

“We do a unit of discrimination, and [the play] really ties into what we do in class,” McCarty says. “Some of the kids are going to be entering an essay contest about Brown verses the Board of Education, so hopefully it gives them some insight.”

Glenna Bents, a fourth-grade teacher at Northwood Elementary school, says students are not exposed to many of the effects segregation has caused.

“Most of [the students] do not know what segregation is,” Bents says. She hopes to show her students freedoms and rights regarding to their own race.”

Although this show is not completely historically accurate to one particular family involved with the case, Hawkins says it still tells the story of the fight for the right of a people.

Hawkins says that the play is like a journey and even though at the end of the show life is not perfect, at least they have made a difference.

“My favorite part is at the end of the journey, the main characters accomplish what they set out to do,” Hawkins says.