An African-American woman recalls the story of her life from the days of slavery to the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In an interview with a journalist, she reveals the painful and uplifting events that helped to shape her as a person. Drama, starring Cicely Tyson, Barbara Chaney, Richard Dysart and Katherine Helmond.

In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized.