The Liberation of L.B. Jones

Justice runs red in the deep South in this powerful drama. Steve Mundine (Lee Majors) is a young lawyer who, shortly after marrying his sweetheart Nella (Barbara Hershey), takes a position with a law firm in a small Southern town, run by his uncle Oman Hedgepath (Lee J. Cobb). L.B. Jones (Roscoe Lee Browne) is a well-to-do African-American funeral director who comes to Hedgepath's firm in search of legal representation. Jones wishes to divorce his wife Emma (Lola Falana), but his grounds make the case a hot potato -- Jones has learned Emma has been having an affair with Willie Joe Worth (Anthony Zerbe), a white police officer who is the father of Emma's unborn child. Worth does not want his affair dragged into a court of law, so he and his fellow officer Stanley Bumpas (Arch Johnson) violently take matters into their own hands. The last feature film from legendary Hollywood director William Wyler, The Liberation of L.B. Jones was based on a novel by Jesse Hill Ford.