- [Last lines]
- John Little: Come next November, I'm going to run your legs off.
- Jimmy Price: I'm not going to stand for Sheriff next year
- John Little: Why not?
- Jimmy Price: My brother, he's going to run for Sheriff.
- [pause]
- Jimmy Price: I'm going to run for Mayor.
- Jimmy Price: I'm the sheriff. Not the white sheriff. Not the black sheriff. Not the soul sheriff. But, the *sheriff*!
- Mary Price: A dead hero makes a poor father.
- Jimmy Price: Look, even the dumbest white man has to know if he kills me, a thousand will take my place.
- Mary Price: And out of that thousand there is not one that can take your place with me. I am your woman. Your children's mother. And you are my life!
- Jimmy Price: That's why I'm doing it.
- John Little: [after Julia sends their two daughters to bed] Kinda late, aren't they?
- Julia Little: TV special. The Wizard of Oz.
- John Little: You got a back room here, Junior.
- Junior: So?
- John Little: Has it got a bed in it?
- Junior: Sometimes I sleep.
- John Little: There's a rumor goin' around. This particular rumor has you rentin' it out to teenagers.
- Junior: It ain't so!
- John Little: I'm bettin' it is.
- John Braddock: [Harley has just been locked up in jail with Braddock] Welcome to the Colusa County jail, Sambo.
- George Harley: Shut your mouth. You red neck, peckerwood.
- John Braddock: Oh, now what's the matter? You don't like us kindly white folk?
- George Harley: You tell it like it is, honky!
- John Little: Found a colored boy out on the highway, all beat up, last night. Now, somebody had painted a white KKK on his forehead.
- H.C. Tolbert: Hello, John. Gettin' any?
- John Little: I hear your wife had another baby, Tolbert. That makes 10, don't it?
- H.C. Tolbert: Last time I counted. Done run out of fingers to count on.
- Junior: Unless my calendar's a liar, this is your last day in office. You out on your keister, tomorrow noon. How's if feel havin' a nigger take your job?
- John Little: He's voted into office, I was voted out.
- D.J. Rankin: John, some around here, just can't understand how you let that black boy walk in and take your job away from you - you bein' raised around here and all.
- John Little: Because its the law, Rankin.
- D.J. Rankin: You know as well as I do he didn't get a single white vote out of the whole county.
- John Little: According to the law, black or white don't make no difference. A vote's a vote. That's the law.
- D.J. Rankin: Yeah, I reckon it is. Who made that law, you suppose?
- John Little: [calling on the police radio] Warren, this is Sheriff Little. Where are you? Over.
- Deputy Joe Warren: I'm just sittin' out here on number 10. Scratchin'. Chewin'. Not doin' much of nothin' to speak of. Over.
- John Little: You wouldn't be runnin' a Yankee trap, would you be, Warren? Over.
- Deputy Joe Warren: No, Sheriff. I'm bird watchin'.
- [whistles]
- Deputy Joe Warren: Over.
- John Little: Rev it up, Warren. Bring it on in. Over.
- Deputy Joe Warren: 10-4.
- Fred Price: How do you feel?
- Jimmy Price: I feel like I'm gonna be a good Sheriff.
- Fred Price: If they let you, you mean.
- Jimmy Price: If they let me, I'm gonna be a good sheriff.
- Mary Price: If you don't, you'll be a dead one.
- Fred Price: You mind if I go along with you, today?
- Jimmy Price: And hold my hand?
- Fred Price: Jim, you haven't even got a deputy! Those organizers, who helped get you elected, man, they done flew back north, like, like big birds. You all alone now.
- Jimmy Price: Baby, you got to look at the bright side of things, you know. Just think about it. For the first time in history people will have a sheriff they can call boy.
- [Jim laughs, his wife doesn't]
- Mayor Jeff Parks: Anything happens with this colored boy, we'll have the Washington peek-a-boos all over Colusa County by sundown. And we don't want that! You understand me?
- Mayor Jeff Parks: I reckon you know some of the problems you're liable to run into.
- Jimmy Price: I was born in this town, Mayor.
- Mayor Jeff Parks: When you hit a wall, you think you can't climb over, dug under or go through, you come to me. Don't go pickin' up that phone to call Washington or the NAACP. If you hit a snag, come to me with it first. It might be can get it unsnagged for ya.
- Jimmy Price: What if you can't, Mayor?
- Mayor Jeff Parks: How's that?
- Jimmy Price: Suppose I have a problem and you can't help me solve it?
- Mayor Jeff Parks: Well, all I'm asking you to do is give me a chance to try. Is that asking too much?
- Jimmy Price: You weren't asking, Mayor, you were telling.
- Mayor Jeff Parks: Well, I'm used to telling! I ain't used to askin'.
- John Little: I wasn't voted out of office because I've been a bad sheriff. I was voted out because I ain't colored!
- [Julia starts to laugh]
- John Little: Did I say something funny?
- Julia Little: I've been meanin' to have a talk with you about your complexion.
- John Little: [laughs] Oh, you. Julie, I'm the first man in the whole state to get hit over the head with black power.
- Bradford Wilkes: You know, Jim, over in Nam, I got to be pretty close with some of the white boys in my detachment. They needed me. And I needed them. One day, on patrol, we got in a fire fight with Charley. It was a miracle that we got out of it alive. When we did, one of the white boys came up to me, through his arms around me and he hugged me tight. He was so happy.
- Jimmy Price: Man, you know, I've been there before too.
- Bradford Wilkes: Wait a minute. When my tour was up and I was on leave, coming home, he came up to me again and he made me give him my address. He said he wanted to keep in touch. Now, you know he won't. He meant it at the time, you know. But, he won't!
- Jimmy Price: Do you want to keep in touch with him?
- Bradford Wilkes: I think so. If it wasn't for that wall, man.
- Jimmy Price: I don't understand that. What wall?
- Bradford Wilkes: You know, the wall. The wall that somebody painted a long time ago with one side white, one side black. That sure is a high wall, man.
- John Little: What am I supposed to do?
- Mayor Jeff Parks: That depends.
- John Little: On what?
- Mayor Jeff Parks: On whether you mind being called a nigger-lover.
- Mayor Jeff Parks: Look, Price, I'm an old man. I don't see too well anymore. You tell me. Is John Little white or black?
- Jimmy Price: Well, I'd say he's kind of - off-white?
- Ira Jackson: Gotta eat with 'em, Washington says. Gotta go to school with 'em, Washington says. Gotta let 'em vote, Washington says. Next thing you know, Washington is gonna say we gotta sleep with 'em. - - Hey boy, you spit on my boot.
- Shoeshine Boy: Good for 'em. Make 'em shine!
- Ira Jackson: Yeah? Well, spit on the other one.
- Mrs. Harley: Where you takin' my boy? He's a good boy. He ain't done nothin'. I told you he ain't done nothin'! How come you got to go messin' 'round with good, descent black folks, anyhow, Mr. Muckaty-Muck! Huh! Your head all swoll up 'cause you da sheriff, now. Huh! You old no good, thumbs down, high faloontan dog. You white folks nigger! I get you for this. You pig! You pig, you!
- Julia Little: You keep sayin' you're not going to do it; but, I know you are.
- John Little: No, I'm not either. There's no chance.
- Julia Little: No chance, my foot. You know I know you like chalk on a blackboard. You're gonna be that nigger's deputy, just as sure as the sun is gonna shine in July.
- Julia Little: Everybody's gonna say, "John Little's gotta nigger boss. Ha-ha-ha." They're gonna say, "John Little is a nigger lover." But, you're just gonna go out and do it anyway. Every white woman in Caloosa County is gonna look at me with big, sad, pitying eyes; but, that won't stop ya! And the children are gonna get hurt; but, that won't stop ya either.
- Jimmy Price: Anybody seen George Harley?
- Ruby: You must be gettin' along with whitey pretty good, Jim. If you're going to start lockin' up your brothers.
- Jimmy Price: No man who rapes a 15 year old virgin is a brother of mine.