The Jewish lawyer who fought racial injustice in the Deep South

A new documentary, ‘A Crime on the Bayou’, shines a light on civil rights lawyer Richard Sobol’s efforts in a 1960 case

IT IS A HORRIBLY generic title: A Crime on the Bayou. Is it a new James Lee Burke thriller, in which Dave Robicheaux investigates how Alec Baldwin killed a potential film franchise stone-dead with just one performance in 1996’s Heaven’s Prisoners? Perhaps it’s a buzzy podcast that’s sure to spark a fierce bidding war for the screen rights, only to later be disgraced over dubious reporting methods? Or a shamelessly clickbaity headline that turns out to be about neither crime or the Bayou, and will make you want to wash your hands afterward?

You may not be surprised to learn that it is none of the above. A more accurate, but less snappy, title would be “A Crime on the Bayou: Two Mensches Fearlessly Take on the Racist South” – but I have few other complaints about director Nancy Buirski’s new documentary (out now in select US cinemas and a shoo-in to feature at Israeli film festivals later this year).

FULL STORY The Jewish mensch who helped fight racial injustice in the Deep South (Haaretz)

Photo: The mug shot of Richard B. Sobol, following his arrest in Louisiana in the mid-1960s (Shout! Studios/Augusta Films)