The River Niger (1976)

Starring:

• Cicely Tyson
• James Earl Jones 
• Louis Gossett Jr. 
• Glynn Turman 
• Jonelle Allen 
• Roger E. Mosley 
• Ralph Wilcox 
• Teddy Wilson 
• Charles Weldon 
• Shirley Jo Finney

Storyline
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.