Prologue: ‘Do You Enjoy Being a Symbol, Pontius?’ The Trial of Pontius Pilate and Governor Collins

On Easter Monday, 1957, The Trial of Pontius Pilate, a drama by the highly regarded playwright Robert Sherwood, aired on NBC. Among its viewers, that evening was the governor of Florida, LeRoy Collins, who later would make specific reference to the program during a significant speech given at the height of race riots in Tallahassee in which he publicly denounced segregation and embraced the civil rights movement. Speaking about a strange new situation through a new mode of mass communication, Collins appealed to Biblical authority, not as he found in the Scriptures but rather as found on the screen. As compelling a message as it contained for viewers like the governor of Florida, however, The Trial of Pontius Pilate had in fact almost not reached the air. NBC had been worried about charges of anti-Semitism in the script, asking noted rabbi Louis Finkelstein to work with Sherwood on revisions. In the end, the program did not air until years after Sherwood’s death. As he suspected it would, Collins’ political career came to an end with this speech, but the governor’s subsequent reputation is held in far higher regard than that of his ancient Roman counterpart.