The prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, was looking out at an angry mob below, and the governor of Florida, LeRoy Collins, was watching him do so that Easter Monday evening in 1957. He and Mrs Collins had just moved into the new gubernatorial mansion in the state capital, and that weekend they had hosted several hundred locals who had come to tour. The calendar for the next few days was sure to be exhausting as well, with a large midweek reception planned to which numerous state dignitaries had been invited. But that Monday night, thankfully, the governor had some time to relax and so, settling into his new living room, he decided to turn on the television set. Consulting the ‘Entertainment Log’ of the Tallahassee Democrat, he might have chosen to watch the sitcom December Bride, which was playing at 9:30 pm on either WMBR-TV Channel 4 from Jacksonville or Pensacola’s WEAR-TV Channel 3. But WCTV Channel 6 was the local station with the best reception, and besides, the Robert Montgomery Presents programme that evening looked like it would be more appealing, an original Easter-themed drama by the award-winning playwright Robert Sherwood. Governor Collins was glad that he had selected The Trial of Pontius Pilate to watch that night, as it would give him serious food for thought in the years to come – and, make no mistake, the years to come would be challenging ones, not just in Florida, but all over the American South. New ways of thinking would be demanded from the governor, as well as a good deal of courage, for by the spring of 1960 the streets of Tallahassee would be in a state of uproar over race relations such as they had never seen.