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.
David Brian
as John Gavin Stevens
Claude Jarman Jr.
as Chick Mallison
Juano Hernández
as Lucas Beauchamp
Porter Hall
as Nub Gowrie
Elizabeth Patterson
as Miss Eunice Habersham
Charles Kemper
as Crawford Gowrie
Will Geer
as Sheriff Hampton
David Clarke
as Vinson Gowrie
Elzie Emanuel
as Aleck
Lela Bliss
as Mrs. Mallison
Harry Hayden
as Mr. Mallison
Harry Antrim
as Mr. Tubbs
