The Liberation of L.B. Jones
Steve and Nella Mundine arrive in Somerton, Tennessee, where Steve is to join the law firm of uncle Oman Hedgepath. Arriving on the same train is Sonny Boy Mosby, a young black man bent on avenging a childhood beating inflicted by white policeman Stanley Bumpas. Hedgepath is persuaded by Steve to accept the divorce suit of Lord Byron Jones, a wealthy black undertaker. Although Jones has named white policeman Willie Joe Worth as corespondent, his wife Emma contest the suit, hoping to receive a settlement sufficent to meet the needs of the child she has pregnant by Worth. Jones wants an uncontested divorce, but Emma won't give it to him; nor will she give up her lover. She likes playing a mistress. Hedgepath would rather not practice what he calls "nigger law", especially since contested divorce involving a white co-respondent would cause an uproar. When he informs the officer of the suit, he is alarmed; he pressures Worth to "fix things"; drop his affair with Jones's wife and get her to agree to an uncontested divorce, otherwise he will face exposure in court. Fearful of scandal, Worth demands that Emma forego the contest and beats her when she refuses. After fruitlessly requesting Jones to drop the suit. Although Jones escapes, he is pursued into a junkyard. Tired of flight, Jones confronts the officers and is prompltly shot and castrated. Notwithstanding Worth confession Hedgepath and the town mayor that he murder Jones and begging them to send him to jail, but Hedgepath and the mayor decline and tell him to take the day off. Sonny Boy Mosby, however, unknowingly avenges Jones's murder by pushing Bumpas into a harvester. Steve discover the southern town racism and corruption, he and Nella leave town, departing on the same train as Sonny Boy Mosby, while the black community attends Lord Byron Jones funeral.
murder, violence, melodrama, tragedy, revenge, blaxploitation