Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. Quickly arrested for murder and jailed, Beauchamp insists he's innocent and asks the town's most prominent lawyer, Gavin Stevens, to defend him, but Stevens refuses. When a local boy whom Beauchamp has helped in the past and who believes him to be innocent hears talk of a mob taking Beauchamp out of jail and lynching him, he pleads with Stevens to defend Beauchamp at trial and prove his innocence.
Elenco: David Brian , Claude Jarman Jr. , Juano Hernández , Porter Hall , Elizabeth Patterson , Charles Kemper , Will Geer , David Clarke , Elzie Emanuel , Lela Bliss , Harry Hayden , Harry Antrim , Homer Arnold , John E. Avent , Joyce Ann Baron , Tommy Bond , Jack Bronfield , Allison Busby , Alberta Dishmon , Harold Gean , W.P. Haley , Ann Hartsfield , George T. Hemphill , Ben Hilbun , Noel Hodge , E.L. Hooker , Eylla Jacobs , John M. Keel , W.G. Kimmons , James Kirkwood , Will Lewis , Edmund Lowe , Ephraim Lowe , Julia S. Marshbanks , Dewey McCoy , John Morgan , Jack Odom , Freddie B. Patton , Mike Riva , Eugene Roper , C.E. Slough , Guy Turnbow Sr. , Dan White , R.X. Williams , E.H. Windham , George Winter , Howard Winters , Robert Lee Young .