A Scholar Under Siege

About the show

Set against the 1941 Cocking affair, Governor Eugene Talmadge fires Walter Cocking for supporting racial integration, then dismisses Marvin Pittman for defending him. The firings cost the teachers’ college its accreditation, prompting student protests. Pittman and Cocking are eventually rehired. The opera adds fictional dialogue and portrays Pittman as the moral center; student leader Jack Averitt is fictionalized as leading the reinstatement movement.