In 1963 Northern Alabama, Tug is a young, white farmer, who people perceive as mentally and physically challenged, but he manages to get white folks in his community to go against the KKK and defend a black family’s right to their land.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1963 Alabama, a successful black farming family, the Washingtons, are in danger of losing their land due to the mysterious disappearance of their property title. Jealous and malicious Klansmen take advantage of this mishap and plot to destroy the Washingtons, who have owned their land since their ancestors acquired the farm at the end of the Civil War.

Tug Maylif (white), the victim of a childhood hog trampling, is still bright and functional but has difficulty speaking most of the time. Despite his slight disfunctions, he is this community’s purveyor of good will. He works to urge nearby white families to help the Washingtons keep their farm.

This isolated farm community lie in stark contrast to the new white family, the Wagners, from Los Angeles, who have recently bought a small farm between the Maylif and Washington farms. Rob Wagner, who has always had dreams of becoming a “weekend farmer,” is an aerospace engineer who has just taken a job at Redstone Arsenal (the NASA facility) in Huntsville, Alabama. Inexperienced in the reality of Jim Crow racism, the Wagners clumsily manage to accidentally harm the Washingtons.

How does this happen? The Wagners are having trouble with a large squatter family, the Eaglets, who have been using their pond for bathing. Two of the male Eaglets jump into the Wagner’s pond, in which the swimsuit-clad Wagner girls are playing, and where the men wildly grope the girls’ bodies. Of course, Tug comes to the girls’ rescue before the situation turns into rape. However, this leads the Wagners, who cannot secure the help of local sheriffs, to an attorney who can help prove that the Eaglets are squatters: if they can prove this, perhaps they can force a legal eviction. The ensuing title search is what brings the lost Washington title to the Land Office’s attention. Since the Wagners have already become friends with the Washingtons, they are ashamed of their own cultural clumsiness and team up with Tug Maylif and a few other white families to right this wrong in favor of the Washingtons and against the KKK, who now have plans to exact great harm on the Washingtons.

TUG