A Family Thing movie review & film summary (1996)
Now streaming on: Early in "A Family Thing," Earl Pilcher's mother dies, and leaves him a letter for the reverend to deliver after her death. Earl runs a garage and filling station in Arkansas, and is so devoted to his mother that he locked a customer inside the station in his hurry to be at her bedside. The letter contains information Earl was not expecting: His mother is not his mother. There is more unexpected news: Earl, who has lived all his life as a white man, has a black mother, who became pregnant by his father. Because the young black woman was Mrs. Pilcher's best friend and closest...
Source: rogerebert.com