The civil rights movement of the 1960’s is the center of attention in the southern United States.Racism and segregation are still a way of life in Jessup County, Mississippi. The disappearance of three civil rights workers, who are sent to Jessup during the “Freedom Summer Project” in 1964, causes a huge investigation. The disappearance of the activists, the ignorance of the townspeople and the horrible methods used by the police and the Ku Klux Klan, brings the F.B.I. in to investigate. The movie shows how morally wrong the southern judicial system really is.
In 1964, three civil rights workers are in the small Mississippi town as part of “CORE”. The goal of the organization, “Congress on Racial Equality”, is to set up booths in small towns for the local black community to register for voting rights. The KKK burns down the church where the registration is supposed to be held in Jessup. As a result, the three volunteers, who are in town to set this up, try to leave town. They are followed by the KKK. The Klan kills them and hides their bodies. “Whoa, shit! We into it now, boys. You only left me a nigger, but at least I shot me a nigger. Yes, indeed”. (Parker, Mississippi Burning) The KKK did this so the black people of the town would not have rights or a vote of their own like all white people. When the three activists turn up missing in Jessup, the F.B.I. is called to investigate their suspicious disappearance. The mayor states: “Fact is, we got two cultures down here: a white culture, and a colored culture. Now, that’s the way it always has been, and that’s the way it always will be.” (Parker, Mississippi Burning) . The two white F.B.I. agents that come to Mississippi to investigate are from two very different cultures....
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...mmunities suffer at the hands of the police and the Ku Klux Klan when the efforts of the volunteer project Freedom Summer fail. The intimidation by such extreme and inhumane practices is disgusting. The injustice is even more obvious when the F.B.I. resorts to the same corruption to capture the perpetrators. The end of the movie draws the conclusion that the fight for civil rights is not over but will continue with perseverance and hope.
Works Cited
Congress of Racial Equality, “Freedom Summer”. n.d March 2014
Mississippi Burning. Dir. Alan Parker. Perfs. Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand.
Orion Pictures Corporation, 1988. 20th Century Fox/MGM, 1998. DVD.
Mississippi Burning -Conclusion. Ms. DeNobile-Blasato, March 2014. Print
Mississippi Burning. script-o-rama.com, n.d. WEB. March 2014
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Mississippi serves as a catalyst for the realization of what it is truly like to be a Negro in 1959. Once in the state of Mississippi, Griffin witnesses extreme racial tension, that he does not fully expect. It is on the bus ride into Mississippi that Griffin first experiences true racial cruelty from a resident of Mississippi.
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