San Diego actress responds to canceled performance in new documentary
November 13, 2025
San Diego, California; November 13, 2025: The Storyteller’s Role, a new documentary short released today by Pacific Legal Foundation, tells the story of Annette Hubbell’s fight against the San Diego County library for canceling her performance of Harriet Tubman and other historical figures.
In December 2023, the manager of the San Diego County Library’s Rancho Santa Fe branch asked Annette to perform Women Warriors, a play based on her book Eternity Through a Rearview Mirror, the following March — specifically requesting that she portray Mary McLeod Bethune and Harriet Tubman. But two weeks before the performance, the branch manager asked Annette to remove the two black historical figures from the show.
“They said, ‘How dare I portray a black woman? How would I know what a black woman would feel?” Hubbell says in the new documentary, responding to criticism she received over her one-woman play. When choosing which figures to write about—and later, whom to perform on stage—“I did not take into consideration their station in life, their gender, or the color of their skin,” Hubbell says.
After the library refused to allow Hubbell to perform black characters, Hubbell sued the county for discrimination. Pacific Legal Foundation represented her in the lawsuit.
Joshua Thompson, PLF Director of Equality & Opportunity Litigation, explains in the film why PLF stood with Hubbell: “Anybody who treats someone differently because of race or skin color or ethnicity is committing a moral wrong,” he says. “And we should get rid of that in society.”
In the film Hubbell discusses the resolution of the lawsuit and she shares about the devastating recent health diagnosis that has only affirmed her desire to connect people across divisions through storytelling.
Watch the full eight-minute film, “The Storyteller’s Role,” produced by Pacific Legal Foundation.
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About Pacific Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation is a national nonprofit law firm that defends Americans threatened by government overreach and abuse. Since our founding in 1973, we challenge the government when it violates individual liberty and constitutional rights. With active cases in 34 states plus Washington, D.C., PLF represents clients in state and federal courts, with 18 wins of 20 cases litigated at the U.S. Supreme Court.