The battle for Civil Rights was still raging during the preparation and filming of In the Heat of the Night. In 1965, the year Mirisch started working on the production, the march on Selma, AL, had galvanized the Hollywood community in support of the movement. The same year, the Watts riots brought to the front the grievances of African-Americans living in the inner city.

Race continued in the news as the film opened in August 1967. In the months prior to its premiere, race riots had shaken Newark, NJ, and Detroit, bringing heightened awareness to the rise of a militant element with African-American politics.

In September 1967, the Sunday New York Times carried an article by African-American playwright Clifford Mason called "Why Does White America Love Sidney Poitier So?" The article belittled Poitier's roles and attacked the actor as an Uncle Tom and predicted that the actor had been typecast as the black man who was "nonplussed by white arrogance...but, because of his innate goodness, finally [makes] that fateful decision to solve the problems for 'them'..." (Mason, quoted in Mark Harris, Pictures at a Revolution). Poitier would later say the article started a rash of criticism of his roles that eventually led to his box-office decline.

With the help of Norman Jewison, In the Heat of the Night editor Hal Ashby eventually broke into directing with The Landlord (1970). Subsequent films would include Harold and Maude (1971), Shampoo (1975) and Being There (1979).

Rod Steiger's success in the film only brought him one film offer, but it was a good one. Unfortunately, he turned down the chance to play the title role in Patton (1970), a decision he would regret the rest of his life.

U.S. politics in the '60s so upset Jewison, particularly with the assassination of Robert Kennedy, that he moved his family to Europe. He remained an in-demand director, with Oscar® nominations for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), A Soldier's Story (1984) and Moonstruck (1987).

In 1969, In the Heat of the Night was adapted to the stage in the Soviet Union. The adaptor added a scene at the end in which Tibbs boards the train home only to be forced to ride in the section reserved for black people.

Following up on the success of In the Heat of the Night, Poitier starred as police detective Virgil Tibbs in two more films. They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) transplanted the action to San Francisco, where Tibbs tries to clear the name of a crusading street preacher accused of murdering a prostitute. In The Organization (1971) he clears a revolutionary group of murder charges associated with their break-in at a powerful corporation. Both films co-star Barbara McNair as his wife.

Poitier's line "They call me MR. Tibbs!" has become iconic, landing at number 16 in the American Film Institute's poll to name the 100 greatest movie quotes. It is quoted or paraphrased in five episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and paraphrased by Pumbaa in The Lion King (1994) as "They call me MR. pig!"

In 1988, NBC debuted a television series based on the film starring Carroll O'Connor as Chief Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Virgil Tibbs, who takes over as Chief of Detectives in Sparta. The show ran on NBC until 1992, when it switched to CBS for its final two seasons, followed by four television movies that ran in 1994 and 1995. In the last season, Tibbs became a lawyer and only appeared on the series sporadically. Gillespie was named County Sheriff, with his job as Sparta Police Chief taken over by Hampton Forbes, played by Carl Weathers.

MGM restored the film's print in 1998. The work was supervised by Michael Friend, the archivist at the Motion Picture Academy®.

In the Heat of the Night was voted a place on the National Film Registry in 2002.

By Frank Miller