Upon finding a wagon under attack by bandits, two black bounty hunters, Boss and Amos (Fred Williamson and D'Urville Martin, respectively) intervene and save Clara Mae, a black woman (Carmen Hayworth). Upon inspecting the bodies, the bounty hunters find several have rewards to their name and one holds a letter from the mayor of the nearby town San Miguel inviting him to become sheriff on the recommendation of fugitive Jed Clayton (William Smith). The pair take Clara Mae to safety in San Miguel and meet Mayor Griffin (R. G. Armstrong). Knowing that there is no sheriff and holding proof that the mayor intended to give it to a gang member, Boss is able to outsmart the mayor and intimidate other members of the town council into giving him the position. As sheriff, Boss and Amos keep the peace and enforce several "Black Laws" such as issuing fines or periods in jail for calling either of them a "nigger" in public. In his duties Boss meets Miss Pruit (Barbara Leigh), a white schoolteacher, who initially offends Boss by talking of the fond memories she has of her family's black slaves, but earns his forgiveness and develops a romantic interest in him. When a gang of Jed Clayton's men meet the mayor in the town saloon to extort supplies from the town (an arrangement that the mayor allows on the understanding that the gang will do no harm to the town or its citizens), Boss and Amos kill one gang member and arrest two more - with one prisoner being killed as he attempts to escape town assisted by the mayor.