- Racial tensions threaten to explode when a black man is elected Sheriff of a small, racially divided town in the deep south.
- This is the story of a black man who has been elected sheriff in a U.S. southern county, due to the vote of blacks. He receives a huge amount of hostility from the non-tolerant white establishment, making his job very hard. The white former sheriff has his own struggle, as he balances his devotion to the law with his family and community relations. Things come to a head when the black sheriff puts a white man, the son of a wealthy land-owner of a neighboring county, in jail, and his daddy comes after him. Everyone around has to decide where their values really lie.—Luis Carvacho <lcarvach@lascar.puc.cl>
- Jim Price (Jim Brown) is elected the first black sheriff of rural Colusa County, Mississippi, with the help of northern organizers. A hotbed of racial prejudice, Colusa has a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Retiring incumbent sheriff John Little (George Kennedy), though he believes he was fairly defeated, offers Price no help on the new sheriff's first day. Price is greeted only by Mayor Parks (Fredric March), an elderly and local patriarch who admonishes Price to consult him before appealing for outside help in solving problems. Price shows his desire for moderation when he refuses to deputize a black militant named George Harley (Bernie Casey). Price instead hires another black man for a deputy, a Vietnam veteran named Bradford Wilkes (Richard Elkins).
After his first day while in office, Price's wife Mary comes to the police station to pick him up and when they go outside they discover Price's car vandalized, which prompts Price to drive through the town in a police car with the siren blaring and lights flashing as a protest.
Price's first arrest, on a charge of manslaughter, is John Braddock (Bob Randome), the son of an influential white man. Driving while drunk, Braddock caused the death of a child in an automobile accident. That night Price's deputy Wilkes is beaten by a group of white men led by Little's former deputy Bengy Springer (Don Stroud), who had vowed to kill Price.
Price next arrests Harley for raping a teenage black girl, and in doing so he risks alienating the black community that unanimously elected him.
Braddock, Sr. (Karl Swenson), arrives in Colusa and angrily demands that Price release his son, whose bail is set at $25,000. Braddock refuses to pay the bail and threatens to take the boy by force, whereupon Little arrives to defuse the situation and accepts the deputy's badge. Braddock departs, but Price, knowing that he will return with a mob, makes an unsuccessful request of the mayor to call in Federal troops.
As the Braddock mob approaches Colusa, Price and Little enter Junior's Place, a bar for whites only, to look for deputies. Failing to recruit any, Price and Little set up a barricade at the edge of town. Just as Braddock's men approach, however, the whites from Junior's, led by Junior himself (Dub Taylor), along with other redneck locals including D.J. Rankin (Clifton James) join the sheriff and disperse the mob and the confrontation is defused.
The next day, John Braddock is picked up by the state police and transferred to the Mississippi state capital of Jackson for his arraignment and trial. As Price, Little and Mayor Parks relax now that the issue with Braddock is over, Little asks Price if he will be running for sheriff next year. Price decides that since the county still is in a racial divide he will not seek re-election... but to decide to seek election for mayor when Parks will retire.
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