Eva Sexton's late husband worked as a waiter at a restaurant called the Coon Chicken Inn that featured a sign with a cartoonish black man with exaggerated lips. Her grandfather was a slave.

Frank Satterwhite spent a career in the U.S. military defending his country, yet could not live in many parts of Ogden.

And James Green, 104-year-old Allan Jackson, Florence Lawrence, Anna Belle Mattson and the late Dovie Goodwin all experienced the kind of Utah racism that forced them to sit in the balconies of Utah movie theaters, refused them service at many restaurants, only opened a public swimming pool to blacks in Ogden on the day when the lifeguard was off duty, and forced them to take jobs below their educational levels.

Yet, if the 40-minute movie that premiered before a multi-racial crowd of hundreds in the Calvary Baptist Church gymnasium Sunday conveyed a message, it was one of hope.

Speaking as part of a panel of African-American youth after the movie, University of Utah professor Lynette Danley said she found the faith of the Utahns in the movie humbling and admired their sense of community, respect for others and humility in the midst of so many challenges.

Though he experienced all sorts of racism after moving to Utah in 1951, Green was more inclined to accentuate the positives, praising Utah for not segregating its educational system.

Asked about Barack Obama's win in the recent Utah Democratic presidential primary, Green showed respect for his adopted state, even one that discriminated against him in many ways.

"It just shows you that people in Utah have always been kind of smart," he said. "They look at things in an open way."

The 86-year-old Sexton, who has been a foster mother to 154 children during her time in Utah, said many of those she has helped raise don't believe the stories she told of the racism she experienced after moving to the state any more than she believed her grandfather's stories about what it was like to be a slave.

She had much to say about the presidential aspirations of both Obama and Hillary Clinton, mostly about concerns.

"I wonder if I want a black in there as president right now," she said. "The country is in a mess. Bush got it in a mess. And I don't know how anybody can fix it."

Satterwhite seemed to view Obama's candidacy as part of an evolution he has seen throughout his lifetime.

"There have been changes with the Voting Rights Act and such," he said. "There was the desegregation of the armed forces, Gen. [Colin] Powell and other black generals. I thought there would come a time [when a black would run for president]. Barack seems to be a well-educated man. But I never dreamed there would be this kind of thing. It's good for the country. So is the woman [Clinton]. Either way, it's going to be history. It's a good time in America."

The movie was produced by Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Utah Chapter President Phyllis Caruth, who introduced the cast of the movie Sunday. Groups who would like to request a showing of the film can contact her at 801-414-0501.

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* TOM WHARTON can be contacted at wharton@sltrib.com. His phone number is 801-257-8909. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.