One can tell that they couldn't bear to have an actual mulatto/ lighter complexioned 'black' person play my cousin-- "Hernandez"?? Yes.. this was 1949. And, this movie was based on a book, which was based on my cousin Ben Ingram in Mississippi in around 1919/1920. The facts are even better than the fiction! Ben Ingram, his wife Ruth, and his daughter Ruth's picture were featured in a January 10, 2008 newspaper article. But the front page headline in a 1919 edition of The Commercial Appeal read the following manner: " Negro Kills White Man; Is Acquitted". This stunned the public in those days, as lynchings were a regular affair in the South, and my cousin, Ben Ingram, was acquitted by an all-male, all-'white' jury. He had the support and love of his friends and neighbors, both 'white' and 'black' and they rallied around his home and stayed with him. It is unfortunate that cousin Ben felt that to the end of his life he had to sleep with a gun, which should let us know the times that he had to endure!
Review of Intruder in the Dust
