Sins of the Father (2002)

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A man must decide if his greater loyalty is to his family or to justice in this made-for-TV movie based on a true story. In 1963, several members of a Southern Ku Klux Klan chapter bombed an African-American church in Birmingham, AL. Four young girls died in the blast, but the police were unable to prosecute the most case at the time because no one was willing to testify against the most likely suspects, or even say what they knew about them. Tom Cherry (Tom Sizemore) is the son of Bobby Frank Cherry (Richard Jenkins), who moved from Alabama to Texas not long after the bombing. Now a grown man in middle age, Tom has known since he was a boy about his father's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan and his participation in the Birmingham church bombing, but he's never been able to bring himself to tell the police what he know, or turn his dad over to authorities. However, when investigators reopen the case and begin asking both Tom and Bobby Frank tough questions, Tom struggles to decide what he should do, with his good friend Garrick Jones (Ving Rhames) urging him to help the authorities bring the guilty parties to justice. For a look at the facts behind the Birmingham church bombing case, viewers should also take a look at Spike Lee's acclaimed documentary 4 Little Girls. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi