Most people would agree that history is an important subject to study. Not everyone, however, enjoys learning about it.

There are several common ways to learn about the past -- reading about it in books or listening to an older, wiser person. These methods of instruction are fine, but sometimes reading about a historical event, or even hearing someone speak on the subject, doesn't interest children.

There is another way of teaching history that can be both effective and enjoyable. Plays based on historical events often are able to bring history to life and may better be able to capture students' attention.

At least that is what a group of fifth-graders from Fox Hill Elementary said after seeing "The Color of Justice" at the Indiana Repertory Theatre earlier this year.

"Sometimes during school, the kids are just bored. They don't want to listen. But in plays, there's actually action to it -- movement, characters. There's a thrill to it," said Cameron O'Connor, 11, a student at the Washington Township school.

"The Color of Justice," by Cheryl L. Davis, is based on Brown v. Board of Education, a court case in which Thurgood Marshall -- then an attorney -- and many others fought to end segregation in U.S. schools.

Until 1954, there were white schools and there were black schools in this country. The Supreme Court had ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 that white and black schools could be separate as long as they were equal. However, these schools were anything but equal: Black schools were often housed in dilapidated buildings, with untrained or underpaid teachers and inadequate supplies.

Marshall was part of a huge effort, on behalf of nearly 200 black plaintiffs from five states, to convince the Supreme Court that this division had no place in the United States. In Brown v. Board of Education, he argued that black children felt inferior to white children because they were given lesser educations in unequal settings.

"The Color of Justice," which ran from Feb. 1 to March 11, is a semi-fictional account of this court case. Though the Fox Hill students had studied this time period in class, they said the play helped them to learn about it in a new and exciting way.

Peyton Crantford, 11, said the play gave him a better understanding of the whole segregation period. "After seeing that play, I understood more what it was like back then to be black. It wasn't very fair for them. And I think I learned a lot more about the '50s from that play."

Cameron said that he also was struck by the discrimination going on during that time. "I learned how horrible it was. I had heard about it, I knew it, but it didn't come to me how terrifying it was to be a child and be threatened," he said.

Grace Hopkins, also 11, said she was surprised by the seriousness of the discrimination. "The play left me speechless. And you know, things have changed, but still, black people like myself have been labeled before. But I was very shocked by how the whites treated them."

But did these students really need to see a play when they already had read about these events?

Paige Rawl, 11, said plays capture students' attention in a unique way. "Some kids, if the teacher's reading or something, or they're reading, they get off the subject. But if they're watching a play, they might pay attention with all the movement, and they will actually get the feeling of it. They will see what actually happened and probably be more interested," she said.

Taylor Bolejack, 10, is one of the two actresses who played Grace Carter, one of the plaintiffs in the court case. She says a play can transport an audience back in time.

"You just kind of sit there and watch and it's like, 'Wow.' You never knew that people like yourself could really do that. They can make it look like that's really what they're going through, and like they're really in 1954," she said.

Sophia Daniels, 10, the other actress who portrayed Grace, says the play managed to convey the terror of the times. "People don't really realize how difficult it was back then. They're like, 'Oh yeah, they didn't let blacks go to this, they didn't let blacks go to that, it's no big deal.' Yes, it was a big deal. If you looked at a white person the wrong way, they would actually hang you or kill you or drag you," she said.

The Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." These kids also believe that an understanding of history is important for everyone.

"I think it shows all the wrongs that we did back then and how we can make those things better today," said Carley Primavera, 11. "We can learn from those things. (It's) like missing a math problem, then you remember that math problem."

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Malachi Carter, 14.

REPORTERS: Jonathan Gainer, 14; Ariana Gainer, 11; Alyse Phillips, 11; Max Dean, 13; Renee Wellman, 12.

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Scene with doll had a lot of impact

Some scenes from "The Color of Justice" had more impact than others on the Fox Hill students. One in particular involves a conversation between Thurgood Marshall, then a lawyer, and Grace, a black girl.

In it, he holds up two dolls, one black and one white, and asks her, "Which one would you like to take home with you?"

Grace points to the white doll. "That one," she says. "I'd take Susie."

"Why do you want her?" Marshall asks.

"'Cause she's better."

"Why?" he insists.

"On account of 'cause, she's prettier than the other one," Grace replies.

Marshall presses her to elaborate. "She has pink skin and blond hair and pretty blue eyes," she explains.

"Yes, pink skin and blond hair and blue eyes are pretty, but aren't brown skin and hair and eyes pretty, too?" Marshall asks.

"You're just being silly, Mr. Marshall," Grace says. "You know blond hair and blue eyes are prettier than brown hair and brown eyes. Everybody knows that."

Grace then adds that the white doll has something else going for her: "She looks a million times smarter than that old dumb doll."

The black doll, she explains, "looks bad and dumb and dirty."

Marshall then asks Grace which doll looks more like her.

She is quiet for a spell, then says, "I don't want to look bad and dumb and dirty."

She starts to sob. "I don't want to look like her. I want to be pretty and smart like Susie."

In real life, Marshall did not show the dolls to any child. However, a group of researchers did perform this experiment with black children at the time, and the children overwhelmingly chose the white doll as the most attractive.

Marshall included this study in his arguments before the Supreme Court to show that black children did not think of themselves as equals to white children.

To Paige Rawl, 11, this scene is particularly powerful.

"It kind of described the play for me more because Thurgood pretty much knew that she was going to pick the white doll," she said. "She decided to choose the white doll instead of the black one because she was basically told that white people were better than black people."

Cameron O'Connor, 11, also found the scene poignant. "It was one of the most powerful parts I think because that's how African-Americans were taught, that white people were better, which is not true. Everyone is equal."