The $5,000 for the half interest in the small town newspaper would equate to approximately $60,000 in 2022.
The "N" word is overdubbed with "Negro" on at least two occasions. [Note: this may be a local station's practice; the version shown on TCM contains the uncensored language.]
The story is about a black (African-American) servant who is wrongfully charged with murder. Molly is played by Mary Anderson, who is white. Proof of this is that she attended Howard College (Samford University since 1965), a private, segregated institution near Birmingham, Alabama that accepted its first black student in 1967.
Mary Anderson, a white actress, portrayed the black servant Molly because the producers feared there would be poor box office results in southern U.S. states if a black actress had the role.