Working Together
One of the key themes in this film is Gillespie and Virgil working together. Virgil is a black man and a police detective from Philadelphia and Gillespie is a white man and Sheriff of the small Mississippi town where a murder has occurred. The two must work together and put aside racial differences as best they can in order to find the truth. This creates a tension between the two as they must overcome stereotypes, lies, and fears in order to work together towards a common goal.
Post Civil Rights Act Era
The film is set just after the Civil Right Act of 1964 was passed. What we see is one look into a Southern town a few years after the passage of the Act. Still, we watch as black people are used in the fields to pick cotton for white folks, and are servants rather than in positions that allow for true autonomy in their lives. We also see how racism runs deeply in the memory of pretty much all of the white people in the film as black people are seen as a means to the end of their making money. Virgil then serves to break the tradition of the black man only being in a position in service in the fields as he is a police detective who must now work in this segregated town to find the murder.
Racism
Virgil is a man suspected of killing Colbert simply because he is black in Mississippi. And in the process of uncovering the true killer Virgil is threatened by the people of the town because of his race. They have no respect for the law because the law doesn't have the same color skin as them. Virgil must navigate the very real dangers of violence and potentially death in order to keep himself alive while solving the crime.
