Freedom Road

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

Barbara O. Jones

Rachel Jackson (as Barbara-O Jones)

Sonny Jim Gaines

Brother Peter

Grace Zabriskie

Ruth Lait

Joel Fluellen

James Allenby

Ossie Davis

Narrator

Jean Foster

Ellen Allenby

Alfre Woodard

Katie

Sonny Shroyer

Jason Hugar

Bill Mackey

Trooper

Earl D.A. Smith

Hannibal

Fred Covington

Sheriff Bentley

Ernest Dixon

Marion Jefferson

Sylvia Kuumba Williams

Louise Jefferson