Cross of Fire is a 1989 American television mini-series based on the horrific rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer by D.C. Stephenson, a highly successful leader of the Indiana branch of the Ku Klux Klan. It was originally shown in two parts. In syndication, it is shown as a television movie.

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.