- Jane Richards: Oh yes, I want to thank you for that lovely gift.
- School Principal: Oh, I'm glad you liked it. You know I was afraid you might have thought it was a bit too
- [pause]
- School Principal: too...
- [pause]
- Jane Richards: Too gay? No, I like to be gay once in a while!
- School Principal: Well that's uh,
- [pause]
- School Principal: that's fine, just fine.
- Jane Richards: Just what is it you have against school?
- C.T. Young: Who me? Oh, I got nothin' against school. But, I got nothin' for it, either.
- C.T. Young: I ain't never been to New York, but I know one thing silly ol' Rachel don't know. Ain't nothin' in the world as tall as the sky. Nothin'!
- Jane Richards: Suppose we begin at the beginning. "In the beginning, was the word. And the word was with God." Now, who can tell us who God is?
- Tanya Hamilton: Are you going to be at Sunday school this year?
- C.T. Young: Nah.
- Tanya Hamilton: Don't you want to go to heaven?
- C.T. Young: Nope. This place right here looks good enough for me.
- Jane Richards: God created everybody in His image, black and white.
- C.T. Young: How come? What color is God, anyway?
- Jane Richards: Well, it isn't a matter of color at all. When God made us in His image, he put a bit of Himself in each one of us, just like your mother and father love you. We're all brothers, together.
- C.T. Young: If white people and black people are brothers, how come they don't act like brothers?
- School Principal: Be careful, Jane. A good teacher loves the children in her class, but she doesn't let them break her heart. She needs her heart for next semester.
- Jane Richards: You can talk to your heart, but how can you make it listen?
- Jane Richards: [first lines - voice over] I'm Dorothy Dandridge. I play the role of Jane Richards, a teacher, and I wasn't sure how it was all going to work out.
- Jane Richards: How many years did you spend in the second grade, C.T.?
- C.T. Young: Two.
- Jane Richards: And in the third?
- C.T. Young: Two.
- Jane Richards: And this is your first year in this grade?
- C.T. Young: Yes. I always spend two years in each grade.
- C.T. Young, Tanya Hamilton: [singing] Dear birdie, fly back now, With a message and kiss, For I may not go too, Lest me, they should miss...
- School Principal: [singing] True love don't weep, True love don't mourn, True love don't weep, True love don't mourn, True love don't weep, Or mourn to me...
- Mrs. Hamilton - Tanya's Mother: Everything lasts such a little while. Why, Miss Richards? Why can't things last just a bit longer? Why?
- C.T. Young: Miss Smith, the white lady Mama works for, she was sick a bit. I took care of her chickens. I thought she'd give me one maybe, but, she didn't. I was going to take one, but I didn't.
- School Principal: Running away from school, staying away, fighting as soon as you get back. What would you recommend I do?
- C.T. Young: What else is there but a whippin'?
- School Principal: That's right.
- C.T. Young: Well, might as well whip.
- Jane Richards: I never said thank you, did I?
- C.T. Young: It's all right, Miss Richards. I never said I was sorry, either.