‘Simple Justice’

This 1993 TV film introduces us to Thurgood Marshall (Peter Francis James, second from right,) as a Howard University student in a law school that at one time was the only fully accredited one for African Americans. His mentor--and ultimately early collaborator in the NAACP’s crusade to erase the legal concept of “separate but equal”----is the law school’s visionary dean, Charles Houston (James Avery). Based on Richard Kluger’s book, John Greevey’s script tracks the winding legal road that these underdogs pugnaciously follow for 20 years. Fellow law students are played by Michael Burgess, Scott Whitehurst and Donald Chambers, from left (KCET Sunday at 1 p.m.).