Set in 1992 in a small, college town in central NY, Breath and Backbone dramatizes the events that led to the longest continually litigated civil rights case in American history. Dawn, an inexperienced and naive sophomore, chronicles in the college newspaper how local police illegally search her fellow black, male students who are famously dubbed the "Brothers of the Blacklist." Her odyssey of personal relationships with faculty in the Intercultural Studies Department give the reader first-hand knowledge of how police obtain the Blacklist and a behind-the-scenes look at academic life. Gavel and Mohit are professors of color who rival for Dawn's attention while mentoring their victimized male students. Supported by her irreverent friend Martha and other housemates, Dawn participates in a series of humorous, risky, and painfully enlightening misadventures. She unlocks her sexuality, bears witness to the upsetting connection between brutality and civil rights, and discovers the strength necessary to self-advocate in a dysfunctional academic institution. As the legal battle begins under the national spotlight, Dawn and her friends are forced to confront hypocritical forces in the only way they know how: with bravado, practical jokes, and solidarity.