School Daze

School Daze is a 1988 American musical comedy film written and directed by Spike Lee and starring Lee along with Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry Fishburne), Giancarlo Esposito, and Tisha Campbell. Released on February 12, 1988 by Columbia Pictures as Lee's second feature film, and based partly on his experiences as a student at Morehouse College in the Atlanta University Center during the 1970s, it is a story about undergraduates in a fraternity and sorority clashing with some of their classmates at a historically black college during homecoming weekend. It also touches upon issues of colorism, elitism, classism, political activism, hazing, groupthink, female self-esteem, social mobility, and hair texture bias within the African-American community. Plot On Friday of homecoming weekend at Mission College, a leading historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia, Vaughn “Dap” Dunlap, a politically militant and socially conscious black senior leads an anti-apartheid demonstration, demanding that the school divest from South Africa. However, the fraternity Gamma Phi Gamma and their pledge class, the Gammites, arrive to interrupt the demonstration. Julian “Dean Big Brother Almighty” Eaves, the head/president of Mission College's Gamma Phi Gamma Fraternity chapter and Dap's former friend, upsets Dap by stating his opposition to the protest, after which Student Government Association president Virgil Cloyd breaks up both their subsequent fight and the rally. Dap's younger cousin Darrell, a Gamma pledge known as “Half-Pint” to Julian and his fellow Big Brothers (Chucky, Dr. Feelgood, Lance, X-Ray Vision, and General George Patton), is ordered to bring a girl to the fraternity that night, and goes to Dap for advice. Cedar Cloud, chairman of Mission's board of trustees, warns college president Harold McPherson that Dap's divestment protests may scare off the school's wealthy donors. In the evening, Dap asks his friends Da Fellas (Grady, Monroe, Jordan, Edge, and Booker T.) to return with him to the administration building to protest. Although supportive of Dap’s cause, they decline, waning to complete their college education and get good jobs in the future.