James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson worked together again on Broadway in The Gin Game from 2015 to 2016.
The film stars two Academy Award nominees and one Academy Award winner. James Earl Jones was nominated as Best Actor for L'Insurgé (1970), Cicely Tyson was nominated as Best Actress for Sounder (1972), and Louis Gossett Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for Officier et gentleman (1982).
Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett Jr. both appeared in Racines (1977) a year later, though they didn't share any scenes. James Earl Jones would go on to appear as Roots author Alex Haley in Racines 2 (1979).
The Broadway production of "The River Niger" opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in New York City on March 27, 1973, and ran for one hundred sixty-two performances. Joseph A. Walker wrote the play and the screenplay for this filmed production.
Niger is the principal river of Sub-Saharan Western Africa as well as one of the biggest countries in the west part of Saharan Africa that got its name after the river. It's also the title of the main character Johnny Williams' symbolic poem about the river.