Complex sentence: By virtue of his relationship with Gillespie from a previous murder investigation in which he assisted, Tibbs is persuaded to remain in Sparta as chief of detectives as part of an effort to help overcome the local squad's reputation of being racist and underskilled.
Split into simpler sentences: By virtue of his relationship with Gillespie from a previous murder investigation in which he assisted, Tibbs is persuaded to remain in Sparta as Chief of Detectives. As part of an effort to help overcome the local squad's reputation of being racist and underskilled.