A Family Thing is a 1996 American drama film starring Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones and Irma P. Hall.

Earl Pilcher (Robert Duvall), an equipment rental company business owner in a small Arkansas town, receives a shocking letter from his mother, Carrie, on her deathbed.

Working at city hall as a police officer, Ray reluctantly agrees to meet Earl at a local diner.

Wandering Chicago, Earl gets drunk at a bar, where he is tossed out for becoming obnoxiously overfriendly with a black couple in his eagerness to establish a sense of acceptance.

They bond as they find similarities between them, both having served in the Marines and Navy, respectively, during the Korean War, and receiving lifelong scars.

Earl's life was saved by Carrie, who brought a white doctor to Willa Mae's shack to help with the delivery.

Standing over her grave marker, Earl decides to take Ray to meet his family and tell them their story.

Earl jokes that when his bigoted nephew finds out he is part black, Virgil's initial hostility will seem mild.