In the 1970 film drama The Liberation of L.B. Jones a wealthy Black undertaker, Lord Byron (L.B.) Jones performed by Roscoe Lee Browne, seeks to engage a respected lawyer to represent him in a divorce action against Emma (Lola Falana), his young wife who’s having an affair with Willie Joe Worth (Anthony Zerbe), a white cop. Jones is seeking a divorce from his considerably younger Emma, alleging she had an affair with white police officer Willie Joe Worth, whom he suspects is the biological father of her unborn child.
Based on Jesse Hill 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 Liberation of L.B. Jones
