The Liberation of L.B. Jones

The Liberation of L.B. Jones is a 1970 American drama film directed by William Wyler, his final project in a career that spanned 45 years. The screenplay by Jesse Hill Ford and Stirling Silliphant is based on Ford's 1965 novel The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones. The novel, in turn, was based on events that happened in a Southern town where writer Ford lived. After he wrote the book, he was verbally attacked for writing about the events that had occurred in his town. The motion picture's release added to the controversy, especially in Humboldt, Tennessee, where Ford lived. The film stars... Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb, Lola Falana and Lee Majors. The title character, a wealthy African American funeral director in fictional Somerset, Tennessee, seeks legal representation from the local law firm run by Oman Hedgepath and his newlywed nephew Steve Mundine. Jones is seeking a divorce from his considerably younger wife Emma, alleging she had an affair with white police officer Willie Joe Worth, whom he suspects is the biological father of her unborn child.
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