Overview
An intimate look at life in the ghetto: Johnny Williams is a house painter who moonlights as a poet, struggling to financially and emotionally support his cancer-ridden wife Mattie. But times are tough and the poverty-troubled streets are even tougher, and it takes every ounce of Johnny's love and courage for the couple to make it through their strife, finding redemption in the River Niger.
Cast
- James Earl Jones as Johnny Williams
- Cicely Tyson as Mattie Williams
- Louis Gossett Jr. as Dr. Dudley Stanton
- Glynn Turman as Jeff Williams
- Jonelle Allen as Ann Vanderguild
- Roger E. Mosley as Big Moe Hayes
- Ralph Wilcox as Al
- Teddy Wilson as Chips
- Charles Weldon as Skeeter
- Shirley Jo Finney as Gail