At the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Jane Pittman, a 110-year-old former slave, is visited by a determined journalist urging her to recount her past life. Jane can remember her long days as a slave toiling in the cotton fields. Finally, the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 gave the slaves their freedom. Addressing all his slaves, Master Dysart, the plantation owner states, “Y’all can stay; Y’all can go; just as you please.” But freedom would not be easy for Jane Pittman. She was forced to work as a sharecropper on a plantation for 12 years. That too was a form of slavery. In 1962, Pittman became convinced the blacks must take action if they are to attain real freedom. She displays this with a simple but incredibly courageous act: she proceeds to drink water from an “Only Whites” fountain surrounded by outraged white onlookers.

Through the eyes and memories of 110-year old Jane Pittman, a former slave, we witness the horrors black people endured even after the end of the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. The highlight is Jane Pittman, at age 110, joining the 1962 civil rights movement.