Ex-slave and former Union soldier Gideon Jackson represents other ex-slaves at the constitutional convention, and is soon elected to the U.S. Senate despite opposition from white landowners, law enforcement and the KKK. He unites with sharecropper Abner Lait, who helps Jackson unite ex-slaves and white tenant farmers.
Muhammad Ali
Gideon Jackson
Kris Kristofferson
Abner Lait
Ron O'Neal
Francis Cardoza
Edward Herrmann
Stephen Holmes
John McLiam
President Ulysses S. Grant
Ossie Davis
Narrator
Barbara O. Jones
Rachel Jackson (as Barbara-O Jones)
Sonny Jim Gaines
Brother Peter
Joel Fluellen
James Allenby
Jean Foster
Ellen Allenby
Grace Zabriskie
Ruth Lait
Bill Mackey
Trooper
