Plot SummaryThis film is the classi

Plot Summary
This film is the classic story of a Joanna, a young, charming and innocent woman,
who falls in love with, and decides to marry, John, a wonderful black doctor.
More specifically, it is the story of how the people around them, including their
parents, friends and others, react to the news of a possible marriage between a
black man and a white woman.
Joanna had been convinced that her parents would have no problem with the
situation, because they had always raised her to believe that blacks and whites
were equal, and that that any kind of racial intolerance was unacceptable.
However, when her mother learns of the marriage plans, she is at first more
shocked than happy, and when her father finds out, he finds himself unable to
support what his daughter was about to do. Soon after, Mrs. Drayton comes to
fully embrace the marriage, but Mr. Drayton must come face to face with the fact
that he has trouble accepting his own liberal philosophy when it is applied so
dramatically to his own life.
Over the course of the day, various other people face the news with greatly
varied reactions, from Monsignor Ryan, who is extremely happy for the young
couple, to Tillie, who seems as opposed to the idea of an interracial couple as the
most conservative white people. That afternoon, John’s parents fly up to San
Francisco, and when they discover that Joanna is white, they too must face their
own fears and prejudices. Eventually though, it is Mr. Drayton who must
emotionally struggle the most, and who must come to realize that a truly liberal
and progressive person can’t oppose their marriage simply because other people
in the world could make their lives difficult.
Some Brief Words on the Legal and Social Situation Concerning Biracial Couples
in 1960’s America: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner came out in 1967, which was
also the year that the United States Supreme Court ruled in a case called Loving v.
Virginia that all laws which banned interracial marriages violated the United
States Constitution. In fact, until that year, over 15 states still had statutes which
prohibited a black and white person from getting married! The Loving case
reflected the great social changes that were occurring within the United States at
the time, most specifically because of the long and often violently opposed Civil
Rights Movement. And as this film showed, even among socially liberal people
who lived in such cities as San Francisco, the idea of a black and white person
getting married was still shocking. Indeed, in many parts of the country, it
probably still is….