The Smithian

Lionsgate has acquired screen rights to...Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Devil In The Grove: Thurgood Marshall, The Groveland Boys, And The Dawn Of A New America, by Gilbert King...Set in 1949, with Florida's...orange industry as a backdrop, as citrus barons got rich on the backs of...Jim Crow labor, the novel tells the all-too-familiar story of four young black men falsely accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl, and the NAACP's legal team's attempts to free them. It was a case that would bring an...attorney by the name of Thurgood Marshall into the...fray...

...the dramatic and deeply disturbing account of one of the least known, but most important, Jim Crow criminal cases of the 20th century.

"What is the quality of your intent? Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through. We cannot sugarcoat the feelings in our heart of hearts. The emotion is the energy that motivates. We cannot ignore what we really want to create. We should be honest and do it the way we feel it. What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent. My intent will be evident in the results.”