A former slave Gideon Jackson, after fighting in the civil war returns home as a free man and becomes a U.S. senator. Will he ever achieve real equality with his former white master?

Muhammad Ali, in a rare acting role, plays Gideon Jackson, an ex-slave in 1870's Virginia who gets elected to the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C. and battles other former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they tended all their lives.—Anonymous

Gideon Jackson (Muhammad Ali), once a black slave, returns home after the civil War as a free man. The Union Army has won the war against the Southern Confederation, but in reality, the country still remains bitterly divided. Gideon Jackson soon becomes a U.S. senator from South Carolina, the very state which was previously a flag barrier of "white supremacy" and "slavery". How will the illiterate and blue-collar former slave utilize his newfound freedom? Racism is not ended with the war, Can he ever hope to achieve real equality with his former white master?