When the law fails and the streets scream, only faith can break the cycle.
Inspired by the haunting grief of a Syracuse funeral for a 17-year-old lost to a stray bullet, Cursed Black is a raw, fictionalized journey into the heart of a broken system. Drawing on my own history as the first Black public defender in an upstate New York county, this first installment of the Living in Color trilogy confronts the silent epidemic of community violence and the desperate need for a justice system that actually heals.
Seeing the world in black and white…
When Sam Hicks becomes the first Black attorney in the public defender’s office in Utica, New York, he was stepping into the unknown. Coming from a background marked by poverty, he understood the devastating impact of violent crime on the Black community. With his own struggles with anger and trauma, Sam now faces the daily challenge of defending young Black clients and others who are caught in a cycle of violence and despair on the city’s streets.
As his personal and professional worlds collide, Sam confronts the insidious whispers that Black skin signifies inferiority and servitude. Can he find a way to break the cycle of generational poverty, incarceration, and premature death?
Cursed Black is Ed Thompson’s compelling Christian drama about Black-on-Black crime in America and the criminal justice system.
