An Analysis of Racial Practices in the Film Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker

AN ANALYSIS OF RACIAL PRACTICES IN THE FILM MISSISSIPPI BURNING BY ALAN PARKER

A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Strata I Degree

Mustika Dendy No. 102026024567

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2009 APPROVEMENT

AN ANALYSIS OF RACIAL PRACTICES IN THE FILM MISSISSIPPI BURNING BY ALAN PARKER

A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Strata I Degree

Mustika Dendy No. 102026024567

Approved by Advisor

Elve Oktafiyani, SS. M.Hum. NIP. 150 317 725

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2009

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or the other institute of higher learning, Except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.

Jakarta, December, 2009

Mustika Dendy

LEGALIZATION

The thesis entitled “An Analysis of Racist Practices in the Film “Mississippi

Burning by Alan Parker” has been defended before the Letters and Humanities

Faculty’s Examination committee on December, 2009. The thesis has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the strata I degree.

Jakarta, December, 2009

Examination Committee

Chair Person, Secretary,

Dr. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd. NIP. 150 299 480 NIP. 150 261 902

Members:

Examiner I Examiner II

Innayatul Chusna, M.Hum. Drs. Abdul Hamid, M.Ed NIP. 150 331 233 NIP.150 181 922

ABSTRACT

MUSTIKA DENDY, an Analysis of Racial Practices in the Film Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker. English Letters Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatulllah State Islamic University, Jakarta 2009.

This research is aimed to know, the Racial Practices in Mississippi Burning Film, especially in how racial discrimination most heated during 60’s in daily American life. The writer uses qualitative method and uses descriptive analysis, where he describes per scene that related to racial practices. To support the analysis, the writer uses James M. Blaut theory to explain the scene.

The result of this study is the author knew that acts of racial practices since long bloom occurred on American soil, especially in the southern part of Mississippi. Hostility between the white and colored very thick in southern areas of Mississippi that many people-oppressed people of color.

As the conclusion, the writer finds the scenes that describe the including of discrimination like: violence, burning, kidnapping, lynching, and intimidation in Mississippi Burning Film.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The writer would like to thank to Allah the one for divine gift of grace. He alone we ask for help, for guidance and everything. He has given the writer many favors and he has allowed the writer to finish this thesis. Praise and peace be upon the

Master of the Messengers, the prophet Muhammad SAW. May we always he in straight way until the end of the world.

The writer also absolutely deserves to thank to his advisor, Elve Oktafiyani,

SS. M.Hum for guiding him by counseling and advising the writer until this thesis finished. Without her guidance, this thesis will never be completed.

The writer also wants to thank to:

1. Dr. Abdul Chair, MA, the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities.

2. Dr. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd, the Head of English Letters Department.

3. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd, the Secretary of English Letters Department.

4. Best regarded must be expressed to his beloved parents (Kasman. T & Evi

Ziarni), they have supported him much morally and materially, their merits and

sacrifice will never paid.

5. All of lecturers in English Department for having taught and educated him during

his study at UIN. 6. All staff of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Main library, all staff of

English Department library, all staff of Cultural Science Faculty of Indonesia

University library, and all staff of Atmajaya library, South Jakarta.

Finally, the writer hopes this thesis will be useful for the writer himself and for those who are interested in literary research.

Jakarta, December, 2009

Mustika Dendy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVEMENT……………………………………………………...…….. i

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….. ii

LEGALIZATION………………………………….………………………… iii

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….. iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………………………….. v

TABLE OF CONTENTS...... vii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study…………………………… 1

B. Focus of Study………………………………….. 5

C. Research Question……………………………… 5

D. Significance of the Research…………………… 5

E. Research Methodology…………………………. 6

1. Objective of the Research……………………. 6

2. Method of the Research………………………. 6

3. Data Analysis…………………………………. 6

4. Unit of Data Analysis…………………………. 6

5. Research Instrument…………………………... 7

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Definition of Racism……………………………. 8

B. Racism in Mississippi…………………………… 12

1. Historical Racism of Mississippi…………….. 12

C. Reflection Theory of Cultural Racism………… 19

CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS

A. Data Description………………………………… 25

B. Data Analysis……………………………………. 27

C. Further discussion of Data Analysis………….... 37

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion……………………………………... 41

B. Suggestion……………………………………… 43

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………….. 44

APPENDIX

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the genocide of another race and then the enslavement of colored people. This enslavement happened for long time ago. In short the history of the United States is the history of enslavement. From this point of view, we may see how American life, claimed to be the most democratic country in the world, started his history by

enslavement.

Many historians argue that 1451 as the starting date for Atlantic slave trade, for that was when substantial numbers of African slaves, perhaps 700 to 800 a year, began to reach Portugal. The Atlantic slave trade therefore was generally seen as running from 1451 to 1870, roughly the effective end of the slave trade to American.1

In 1619, the first Africans arrived at Jameskrwn, Virginia, consisting of twenty people with the status of “indentured” servants with the growth of slavery, many thousand of Negroes were brought to the cogaporelonies.2

1 David M Brownstone and M, Frank Irene, Facts about America Immigration. (New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2001), p. 321.

2 Everett D. Dyer. The American Family: Variety and Change, (New York: McGraw–Hill Book Company, 1979), p. 60. For a long time period, American slavery under the white supremacist must go on until the end of 19 century. Finally, slavery period disappeared when Abraham

Lincoln’s Emancipation proclaimed, but the end of slavery came only with Union victory in the Civil War. In reality, however, Negro families were under white people’s shadows. For many years forward, the black people’s lives have to become under the shadow of white people.

This subordination makes the fate of Black people into racial discrimination in every field of life such as in education, political, social life, occupation, etc. There is no right for black people to get equality as well as white people get. But the time change and the fate of black people also change. In the early of 20 century African

American has little chance to gain their dream. One by one Black society has the raising stars just for his community in every formal or informal field such as preacher, politician, labor, literary figures, etc. They born not to be slave anymore but born to be fighter against intimidation, hatred, cruelty of white people in America.

Slowly but sure during 1960s they were able to make American history more colorful with their mob most well known by the Civil Rights Movement.

The struggle of African Americans for equality reached its climax in the mid-

1960s. During this time, the Civil Right movements spread in the rest of America soil, especially in the South, the bases of African American stay in. Since that time groups that previously had been submerged or subordinate began more forcefully and successfully to assert themselves: African Americans, Native Americans, women, the white ethnic offspring of the "new immigration," and Latinos. Much of the support they received came from a young population larger than ever. They realize their future by making the mob possible through a college and university system, street long march, community gathering in various place and etc. They presented the

"countercultural" life styles and radical politics, many of the young people of the

World War II generation emerged as advocates of a new America characterized by a cultural and ethnic pluralism that their parents often viewed with discomfort.

According to Leon E. Wynter, essayist and columnist for the Wall Street

Journal, that the 1950s set up the social political and technological disorders of the

1960s and 1970s. This decade also became much more representative of the long- term pattern of American identity formation and thus perhaps is more important in understanding the meaning of the 1980s.3

But America still remains the same before. Racial practices such as prejudice, discrimination, and personal abuse still haunted the colored people. In short, racism as cultural practice of white people became dominant theme during American history even today. Richard T. Ford, the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford

Law School, argue that the day-to-day manifestations of group difference – folk beliefs, stories, and narratives, subjective identifications, outward expression of group affiliation and performances of “group culture” – are not reflections of intrinsic

3 Leon E. Wynter, American Skin, Pop Culture, Big Business & the End of White America, (New York: Crown Publisher, 2002), p. 72. human differences but rather are effects of social, political and legal institutions that produces and group difference.4

The explanations above give us understanding what racial practices actually are happened in America history. Thus, from the study above, the writer is interested to make study about it as far as reflected in the movie Mississippi Burning, a movie by Alan Parker, outline the disappearances of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, three young civil rights workers who were part of a voter registration drive in

Mississippi. And then this case tries to reveal by two FBI Agents: Willem Defoe as

Alan Ward and Gene Hackman as Rupert Anderson starred in this movie. Both of them met some difficulties while searching some clues and asking information from civilian whether the white or the black people.

In fact, this investigation makes Jessup County’s public life most exposed by the news and television. For some group of white young men the fanatic’s followers of Ku Klux Klan of this county feel not comfortable. They intimidated who ever give information to two FBI agents. It is not surprisingly if they take any effort to make both of the agent go away from Jessup County. They are creating terror, burning house, making horrible kidnapping, vandalism etc.

The majority of the movie takes place during 1964 in towns, exactly Jessup

County of Mississippi. This movie surveys the geography of racism, segregation; discrimination, social hatred, bullying, etc., which caused the victim of three human

4 Richard T. Ford, Racial Culture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 169. right workers. In addition, this movie was inspired by actual events which took place in the South during the 1960’s. The characters, however, are fictitious and do not depict real people either living or dead.

B. Focus of Study

In doing the research, the writer would like to limit the discussion on the racial practices which happened in the movie Mississippi Burning. The research is referred to the theory of cultural racism of James M. Blaut and other relevant theory to the study.

C. Research Question

Due to the focus of study above, the research question is formulated as follow:

• What kinds of Racial Practices are showed in the Mississippi Burning film?

D. Significance of the Research

The writer hopes the result of the research will be advantageous to him specifically and the reader generally, in order to know how racial discrimination most heated during 60’s in daily American life.

In addition, the writer hopes that this research give more or less contribution especially for the Department of English Studies in State Islamic University (UIN) of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Many things can be found in this research that racial practices could happen to everyone: whether white of non-white people. The last, the writer hopes the results of this research make us deeply consciousness on that issue.

E. Research Methodology

1. Objective of the Research

The objectives of the research are to find out the kinds of racial practices

as reflected in the movie Mississippi Burning.

2. Method of the Research

This research applies qualitative method and descriptive analysis about the

Mississippi Burning. Of course this research also discusses the main theme of the

movie about racial practices happened to colored people in the Mississippi

Burning.

3. Data Analysis

The writer analyzes the data using descriptive analysis technique. The

collected data such as the script, whether it is dialogue (conversation among

characters), monologue (broadly speech by one person), or the actions of its

characters will be analyzed to find out the events or cases that show the theory of

cultural racism which also compared with the relevant theories. In this description, the writer notes and explains the relevant data related to the research object.

4. Unit of Data Analysis

The study is conducted by analyzing the movie script of Mississippi

Burning directed by Alan Parker which published premier was on December 9,

1988 and released by Orion Pictures, USA.

5. Research Instrument

The instrument of this research is the writer himself by watching the movie

Mississippi Burning, reading the movie script, and signing the intended data related to racial practices that support of the research correlated with the relevant theory. In addition, American history references in 1960s, and other racial references also supported the data above.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. The Definitions of Racism

Before discussing about racial practices it is better to know what racism really is. For that study this chapter will describe the definition of racism, racism in

Mississippi, and reflection theory of racism point by point. This division used to make comprehensive understanding about the Mississippi Burning movie discussed in the next chapter. For every section the writer will give general explanation about the point below with no detail.

In general, racism has many definitions. The most common view of racism widely accepted as the belief that humans are divided into more than one race, with members of some races being intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. The term of racism it self has much definition. In so far there is no definitely term of racism. It is due to many people with variety and different background who see racism as something bias to concept about. There is no one single term for this racism.

For the most common view explain that racism always refers to race-based prejudice, discrimination, violence, or oppression. Racialism is a related term intended to avoid these negative meanings. According to the Oxford English Dictionary,5 racism is a belief or ideology that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as being either superior or inferior to another race or races. The Merriam-Webster's Webster's

Dictionary6 defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, and that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief. The Macquarie

Dictionary7 defines racism thus: the belief that human races have distinctive characteristics which determine their respective cultures, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule or dominate others.

Racism not only local problem but also has rooted for long time ago as old as human history. That is why racism considered as one of the most important issues in twentieth century. In 1966 United Nations held world conventions discussed about racism. As the result, this forum makes good comprehension about the term of racism as follow.

“The term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."8

5 Oxford English Dictionary. 6 The Merriam-Webster's Webster's Dictionary. 7 Macquarie Dictionary. 8 See. UN International Convention on the Elimination of All of Racial Discrimination, New York 7 March 1966. This legal definition does not make any difference between prosecutions based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the ethnicity and race remains debatable among anthropologists. According to British law, racial group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, color, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin".9

Racism as practices happened in society also become interest of social scientist or sociologist. Some sociologists have defined racism as a system of group privilege. According to David Wellman, American sociology, in his book Portraits of

White Racism has defined racism as culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities.10

Sociologist and former American Sociological Association president Joe

Feagin argues that the United States can be characterized as a "total racist society" because racism is used to organize every social institution.11 More recently, Feagin has articulated a comprehensive theory of racial oppression in the U.S. in his book

Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression. Feagin examines how major institutions have been built upon racial oppression which was not an accident of history, but was

9 http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/rrpbcrbook.html accessed on December 20, 2008. 10 David T. Wellman, Portraits of White Racism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. x. 11 Joe R. Feagin, Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations (New York: Routledge, 2000). created intentionally by white Americans.12 This example can be traced in court practice as the black people prohibited become jury or witness.

In Feagin's view, white Americans labored hard to create a system of racial oppression in the 17th century and have worked diligently to maintain the system ever since. While Feagin acknowledges that changes have occurred in this racist system over the centuries, he contends that key and fundamental elements have been reproduced over nearly four centuries, and that U.S. institutions today reflect the racialized hierarchy created in the 17th century. Today, as in the past, racial oppression is not just a surface-level feature of this society, but rather pervades, permeates, and interconnects all major social groups, networks, and institutions across the society. Feagin's definition stands in sharp contrast to psychological definitions that assume racism is an "attitude" or an irrational form of bigotry that exists apart from the organization of social structure.

From many explanation about racism viewed by many scholar give us rich understanding that racism consist of belief, organized system of race-based group privilege that at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color race supremacy. According to Cazenave and Maddern, American sociologist,

12 Joe R. Feagin, Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression (New York” Routledge, 2006). those racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry.13 And we know better at glance that slavery as the rooted of racism existed in the United States.

B. Racism in Mississippi

1. Historical Racism of Mississippi

There is plus minus between north State and South state in America. For the northern states, economically grow up by establishment of center of American industry. And socially they are more open and more liberal in daily life. The north’s also become the center of American political activity. The most of the north states such as New York and Washington D.C.

In contrary, the South State most well known as the center of American agricultural economy. The south’s also export big commodity for US consumption in agriculture. But socially, almost the south states fulfilled hatred and racial discrimination by white people to the colored people. The sentiment of race also happened in political activity which supported by government powered by the white.

In this region white supremacist is the rule.

Mississippi is one of the South States that have bad reputation on racism. This problem has rooted when the white people lose their benefit from the new system on cotton sharing benefit. As we know that Mississippi's major crop, became highly

13 Noel A. Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern, “Defending the White Race: White Male Faculty Opposition to a White Racism Course,” in Race and Society 2, 1999, pp. 25-50. profitable in the 19th century, with steamboats as the principal means of shipping.

The bank of the Mississippi filled rapidly with river towns and luxurious plantation homes. The cotton economy was based on the use of slave labor. When the conflict over slavery came to a crisis, Mississippi was the second state to secede from the

Union (January, 1861). Jefferson Davis, Mississippi soldier-statesman became

President of the Confederate States.14

But this situation comes to change in the twentieth century when the sharecropping system applied and practiced to all white landlords. Since that time cotton no longer made Mississippi prosperous. In the hill country the white farmers, derisively called “rednecks" or “peckerwoods," became as impoverished as the black sharecroppers. In addition, in the early 1900's more than half of Mississippi's population was black, but blacks were denied the vote by rigid application of a literacy-test requirement in the 1890 constitution.

By mid twentieth, exactly in the early 1960s, Mississippi was the poorest state in the nation. 86% of all non-white families lived below the national poverty line.15 In addition, the state had a terrible record of black voting rights violations. In the 1950s,

Mississippi was 45% black, but only 5% of voting age blacks were registered to vote.16 Some counties did not have a single registered black voter. Whites insisted

14 http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/history-of-mississippi.htm accessed on December 25, 2008. 15 Steven Kasher, The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), pp. 132-135. 16 Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987), p. 208. that blacks did not want to vote, but this was not true. Many blacks wanted to vote, but they worried, and rightfully so, that they might lose their job.

In 1962, over 260 blacks in Madison County overcame this fear and waited in line to register. 50 more came the next day. Only seven got in to take the test over the two days, walking past a sticker on the registrar's office door that bore a Confederate battle flag next to the message "Support Your Citizens' Council."17 Once they got in, they had to take a test designed to prevent them from becoming registered. In 1954, in response to increasing literacy among blacks, the test, which originally asked applicants to "read or interpret" a section of the state constitution, was changed to ask applicants to "read and interpret" that document.18 This allowed white registrars to decide whether or not a person passed the test. Most blacks, even those with doctoral degrees, "failed." In contrast, most whites passed, no matter what their education level.

By 1960 blacks no longer made up the majority of adults of voting age, but a movement to register blacks for voting met with uniform resistance. In 1962 a federal court ordered the University of Mississippi to enroll James Meredith as its first black student. Defiance of the order was led by Governor Ross Barnett, and serious rioting broke out at the university. Federal troops were needed to help Meredith enter the

17 Anthony Lewis, Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 135. 18 Williams, Eyes on the Prize, p. 225. university. Other racial violence included the murder in 1963 of civil rights leader

Medgar Evers, and in 1964 of three civil rights workers.19

In the mid-1960's, the participation of blacks in politics increased. In 1969

Charles Evers, Medgar's brother, was elected mayor of Fayette - the first black mayor of a biracial Mississippi town since Reconstruction. Also in the late 1960's, white opposition to public school integration led to racial disturbances. By the early 1970's, court-ordered desegregation of public schools at all levels was under way.

During sixties the black people faced some serious difficulty to determine their life for social economy domain as well as in political participation. It is not surprisingly if black people make a mob to demand their civil right as well as the whites. Approximately, there are 5.000 of black people of Mississippi out of the list of register to vote. The white people, who joined in some community based color like

Ku Klux Klan, fraternal organization, make intimidation, kidnapping, and lynching the black who try to register.

For this reason NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of

Coloured People) went to Mississippi in an effort to register more blacks in the late

1950s. Amzie Moore, a local NAACP leader in Mississippi, met with SNCC (Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) worker Robert Parris Moses when Moses

19 http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/history-of-mississippi.htm accessed on December 25, 2008. traveled through the state in July 1960, recruiting people for a SNCC conference.

Moore encouraged Moses to bring more SNCC workers to the state, and the following summer he did, beginning a month-long voter registration campaign in the town of McComb, in conjunction with C.C. Bryant of the NAACP. SNCC organized a voter registration education program, teaching a weekly class that showed people how to register.20

SNCC worker Marion Barry arrived on August 18 and started workshops to teach young blacks nonviolent protest methods. Many of the blacks, too young to vote, jumped at the opportunity to join the movement. They began holding sit-ins.

Some were arrested and expelled from school. More were expelled when they held a protest march after the murder of Herbert Lee, who had helped SNCC workers, on

September 25. In response to these expulsions, Moses and Chuck McDew started

Nonviolent High School to teach the expelled students. They were arrested and sentenced to four months in jail for "contributing to the delinquency of minors."21

Other protests by blacks were met with violence. At sit-ins which began on

May 28, 1963, participants were sprayed with paint and had peppered thrown in their eyes. Students who sang movement songs during lunch after the bombing of NAACP field director Medgar Evers' home were beaten. Evers himself was the most visible target for violence. He was a native of Mississippi and World War II veteran who was

20 http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/missippi.html accessed on December, 25, 2008. 21 Williams, Eyes on the Prize, p. 213. greeted by a mob of gun-wielding whites when he attempted to register after the war in his hometown of Decatur. He later said, "We fought during the war for America,

Mississippi included. Now, after the Germans and Japanese hadn't killed us, it looked as though the white Mississippians would." After he was denied admission to the

University of Mississippi law school, he went to work for the NAACP. By 1963,

Evers was aware that, in the words of his wife Myrlie Evers,

. . . Medgar was a target because he was the leader. The whole mood of white Mississippi was that if Medgar Evers were eliminated, the problem would be solved. . . . And we came to realize, in those last few days, last few months that our time was short; it was simply in the air. You knew that something was going to happen, and the logical person for it to happen to was Medgar.22

In next program, after succeed for Freedom Vote, SNCC also decided to send volunteers into Mississippi during the summer of 1964, a presidential election year, for a voter registration drive. It became known as Freedom Summer. Bob Moses outlined the goals of Freedom Summer to prospective volunteers at Stanford

University: (1). to expand black voter registration in the state; (2). to organize a legally constituted "Freedom Democratic Party" that would challenge the whites-only

Mississippi Democratic party; (3). to establish "freedom schools" to teach reading and math to black children; (4). to open community centers where indigent blacks could obtain legal and medical assistance.23

800 students gathered for a week-long orientation session at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, that June. They were mostly white and young, with an

22 The murder of Medgar Ever was filmed by some American director. The Ghost of Mississippi by Rob Reiner is one of the film describe a courtroom drama. 23 Williams, Eyes on the Prize, p. 229. average age of 21. They were also from well-to-do families, as the volunteers had to bring $500 for bail as well as money for living expenses, medical bills, and transportation home. SNCC's James Forman told them to be prepared for death. "I may be killed. You may be killed. The whole staff may go." He also told them to go quietly to jail if arrested, because "Mississippi is not the place to start conducting constitutional law classes for the policemen, many of whom don't have a fifth-grade education."24

On June 21, the day after the first 200 recruits left for Mississippi from Ohio, three workers, including one volunteer, disappeared. Michael Schwerner, Andrew

Goodman, and James Chaney had been taken to jail for speeding charges but were later released. What happened next is not known. Local police were called when the men failed to perform a required check-in with Freedom Summer headquarters, but

Sheriff Lawrence Rainey was convinced the men were hiding to gain publicity. The

FBI did not get involved for a full day. During the search for the missing workers, the

FBI uncovered the bodies of three lynched blacks who had been missing for some time. The black community noted wryly that these murders received nowhere near the same nationwide media attention as the murders of the three workers, two of whom were white.

The murder case of three workers above for more detail wills discuses in the following chapter.

24 Williams, Eyes on the Prize, p. 230.

C. Reflection Theory of Cultural Racism

The movie script of Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker describes the

Mississippian social life fulfilled by segregation, racial discrimination and etc. during

1964. Before discussing the movie the writer will discuses the theory of cultural racism. This theory used to analyze and explain about racism happened in the

Mississippi Burning movie. It is important for the writer to give perspective more colorful.

There is the essential difference between racist theory and racist practice.

According to James M. Blaut racism most fundamentally is practice: the practice of discrimination, at all levels, from personal abuse to colonial oppression. Racism is a form of practice which has been tremendously important in European society for several hundred years, important in the sense that it is an essential part of the way the

European capitalist system maintains itself.25

Racist practice, like all practice, is cognized, rationalized, justified, by a theory, a belief system about the nature of reality and the behavior which is appropriate to this cognized reality. Since racism as practice, that is discrimination, is an essential part of the system, we should not be surprised to discover that it has been supported by a historical sequence of different theories, each consistent with the

25 See James M. Blaut, “The Theory of Cultural Racism,” in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Volume 23 (1992), pp. 289. intellectual environment of a given era. Nor should we be surprised to find that the sequent theories are so different from one another that the racist theory of one epoch is in part a refutation of the racist theory of the preceding epoch.

Blaut is not special one who gives comprehensive theory of cultural racism. It was already noted by W.E.B. DuBois, Africa American scholar, that in making the difference between races, it is not race that we think about, but culture: “…a common history, common laws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving together for certain ideals of life.”26 But DuBois didn’t make culture comprehensively as theory used to explain racism.

There were preceding intellectual and scholar offered the theory of racism.

The dominant racist theory of the early nineteenth century was a biblical argument, grounded in religion; the dominant racist theory of the period from about 1850 to

1950 was a biological argument, grounded in natural science; the racist theory of today is mainly a historical argument, grounded in the idea of culture history or simply culture. Today's racism is cultural racism. For the purpose of the research, the writer only discusses the last three theory of cultural racism. The one and the second theory, the writer just explains it at glance.

What make culture so important to explain racism it is due to that cultural racism substitutes the cultural category "European" for the racial category "white."

Samir Amin gives us understanding that we no longer have a superior race; we have,

26 W.E.B. DuBois, The Conservation of Races (1897), p. 21. quoted from http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/racism accessed on December, 25, 2008. instead, a superior culture. It is "European culture," or "Western culture," "the

West".27 What counts is culture, not color.

The term of Eurocentrism is as well as and ideology of Europeans that denote to their cultural superiority over the other culture. The rest of cultures absolutely nothing and this is not a new one. This notion existed in the beginning of the 19th century, where Europeans considered themselves to be superior because they are

Christians and a Christian god must naturally favor His own followers, particularly those who worship Him according to the proper sacrament. He will take care of such matters as hereditary abilities, thus making it easier for His followers to thrive, multiply, progress, conquer the world. In a word: it was believed that the people of

Europe, traditional Christendom, possess cultural superiority, biological superiority, even environmental superiority, but all of this flows from a supernatural cause. This was the theory which, in the period up to roughly the middle of the 19th century, underlay most racist practice.28

But the end of the 19th century, the theological argument replaced by naturalistic arguments in most scholarly discourse. But it should not be thought that religious racism as theory had entirely disappeared. In many contexts thereafter, this theory was and still is used to justify racist practice in which people of one religion oppress people of another on grounds of this or some very similar, theory.

27 Samir Amin, “Eurocentrism,” in Monthly Review Press, 1989. This article quoted by James M. Blaut in Theory of Cultural Racism. 28 Blaut, “The Theory of Cultural Racism,” p. 290.

It is important to note that even the theological argument considered as continuation basis for biological argument set for biological theory of racism.

Religious racism had already established the causality by which God gives better heredity to Christians, and this argument could now be adapted to assert the genetic superiority of the so-called white race. The genetic superiority of the so-called white race was now believed in axiomatically by nearly all social theorists. Cultural superiority was mainly, though not entirely, considered to be an effect of racial superiority.

Like the religious theory of racism, the genetic theory of racism is over and obsolete in scholarly communities discourse. As the growth of intellectual progress who give better comprehensive theory use the culture as the foundation of theory

(e.g., Boas, Radin), psychological theory (e.g., Lewin), philosophies grounded in experience rather than the Cartesian-Kantian a priori (e.g., Dewey, Whitehead,

Mead). In addition, there are two reason why either theological or biological theory of racism out of mode. Firstly, the rise of egalitarian values, notably socialism, which counter attacked against theories of innate superiority and inferiority. Secondly, there is a very powerful one, was opposition to Nazism, which almost necessarily meant opposition to doctrines of biological superiority and inferiority.29

Cultural racism, as a theory, needs to prove the superiority of Europeans, and needs to do so without recourse to the older arguments from religion and from

29 Blaut, “The Theory of Cultural Racism,” pp. 291. biology. How does it do this? According to Blaut what we need is by recourse to history - by constructing a characteristic theory of cultural (and intellectual) history.30

The claim is simply made that nearly all of the important cultural innovations which historically generate cultural progress occurred first in Europe, then, later, diffused to the non-European peoples.31

Therefore, at each moment in history Europeans are more advanced than non-

Europeans in overall cultural development (though not necessarily in each particular culture trait), and they are more progressive than non-Europeans. This is asserted as a great bundle of apparently empirical facts about invention and innovation, not only of material and technological traits but of political and social traits like the state, the market, the family. The tellers of this tale saturate history with European inventions,

European progressiveness, and European progress.

This massive package of supposedly empirical, factual statements was woven together by means of a modern form of the 19th-century theory of Eurocentric diffusionism.32 This theory evolved as a justification and rationalization for classical colonialism. It asserted, in essence, the following propositions about the world as a whole and throughout all of history. (1) The world has a permanent center, or core, and a permanent periphery. The center is Greater Europe, that is, the continent of

30 Ibid, p. 293. 31 James M. Blaut, Fourteen Ninety-Two, in Political Geography Quarterly, 1992, vol. 11, no. 3. 32 James M. Blaut, “Diffusionism: A Uniformitarian Critique,” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1977, p. 33. Europe plus, for ancient times, the Bible Lands and, for modern times, the countries of European settlement overseas. The core sector, Greater Europe, is naturally inventive, innovative, and progressive. (2) The periphery, the non-European world, naturally remains traditional, culturally sluggish or stagnant. (3) The basic reason why Europe is progressive, innovative, etc. is some quality of mind or spirit, some

"rationality," peculiar to Europeans. (4) Progress occurs in the periphery as a result of the diffusion, the outward spread, of new and innovative traits from the core to the periphery.

Modern diffusionism therefore describes a world in which Europeans have always been the most progressive people, and non-Europeans are backward, and permanently the recipients of progressive ideas, things, and people from Europe. It follows that progress for the periphery, today as always in the past, must consist of the continued diffusion of European "rationality" and institutions, European culture and control. The periphery, today, includes the Third World, along with Third World minorities embedded in the European-dominated countries like the United States, in ghettos, reservations, prisons, migrant-labor camps.

All American whites are the origin of European white who theologically puritan; biologically superior race and culturally more progressive than color people such Africa America, native people, Hispanic people, Asians, Arabic and etc., This belief culminated in their consciousness as well as practices. That is why cultural theory of racism gives us more advantage to see racism comprehensively.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH FINDINGS

In this chapter, the writer will discuss the racial practices in Mississippi

Burning. The discussion will be divided into several descriptions based on the event that shows racial practices in the film Mississippi Burning. The writer uses pictures, dialogues and the discussion that refer to racial practices. This chapter consists of

Data Description and Data Analysis.

A. Data Description

The selected data will be tabulated as follow:

The table of Racial Practices in the film “Mississippi Burning”.

Racial practices Explain the situation Picture

• Burning In the beginning of the film, a burning church 1

showed by the activists of Ku Klux Klan

• Intimidation In the middle of night, three civil right 2 - 3

workers, two young Jews and one Negro, go

out of the police office. While driving the car,

they followed by the Activist of Ku Klux

Klan and interrogated by.

• Violence to the In the middle of pig cage. 4 - 5

black people The activists of Ku Klux Klan caught, stroke

and threaten the black kid.

• Violence to the Out of the church. 6 - 7

black people

• Discrimination In the court. The judge helped the activists of 8

and unfair- Ku Klux Klan who did burning the ghetto of a

treatment blacks’ home.

• Racialist Clayton Townley interview. 9 - 10

• Lynching and The Ku Klux Klan activists burn a black 11

Burning home who gives some information to the FBI

agents. One of their extreme actions was

lynching the black on the tree.

B. Data Analysis

For detail explanation of the table above, the writer will analysis and elaborate the data with further discussion.

B1. Analysis

• Burning

In the beginning of the film, a burning church showed by the activists of Ku

Klux Klan

Picture 1

The opening scenes of the movie were some of the most traumatic ever seen in any film of the 1980s. An Apostolic church was the first building seen in the film, burn with the Ku Klux Klan because they hatred to the blacks people. In the

Mississippi Burning Film, the blacks’ people are just quite and receive what the activists of KKK done.

• Intimidation

In the middle of night, three civil right workers, two young Jews and one

Negro, go out of the police office. While driving the car, they followed by the

Activist of KKK and interrogated by.

Picture 2 Picture 3

Frank (K. K. K) :Y'all think you can drive any speed you want around here? Jew boy :You had us scared to death, man. Frank :Don't you call me "man", Jew-boy. Jew boy :No, sir. What should I call you? Frank :You don't call me nothin', nigger-lovin' Jew-boy. You just listen. Jew boy :Yes, sir. Frank :Hell, you even startin' to smell like a nigger, Jew-boy. Jew boy :Take it easy. We'll be all right. Frank :Sure you will, nigger-Iover. Deputy Pell (K. K. K) :He's seen your face. That ain't good. You don't want him seein' your face. Frank :Oh, it don't make no difference no more. [shooting the civil rights workers] Deputy Pell :Whoa, shit! We into it now, boys. You only left me a nigger, but at least I shot me a nigger. Frank :Yes, indeed.

After describing the pictures of the racial practices in Mississippi Burning

Film, the writer knows the factors why American white people did the discrimination towards the blacks and other ethnics like Jews, Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals nor

Negroes. In the history, the oppressing towards the color ethnics especially to the blacks had been exist as slave since 17 century, and written in the bible of Christian.

In the middle of 1960s, America will be facing the president election. But not all the citizen of America follows the election. Like the Blacks people in the south. To solve this problem the government sent three Civil Right Workers to select the Blacks rights in the south in giving their contribution in president election. The three Civil Right Workers are two Jews boy and one of them was black.

But, the coming of the Civil Right Workers to Mississippi county smelled by KKK activists who the Anglo-Saxon followers. They don’t want the Blacks get their rights in presidential election. The KKK activists try everything to protect their democracy even that by intimidation and murdered.

The dialogue above happened when the three Civil Right Workers stopped their car because the KKK activists caught and ordered them to stop their car. The

KKK activists interrogated them didn’t let them out from their car. That time, the

KKK activists oppress the Civil Right Workers (Y'all think you can drive any speed you want around here?). They talk rough to the Civil Right Workers with “Jew boy and nigger”. This is a form of racism.

The dialogue above shows that the KKK activists didn’t want the Civil

Right Workers done something they didn’t like in their county. They will do everything to block and do the intimidation to their enemies. The KKK are the followers of Anglo-Saxon democracy and they didn’t want other races reject their democracy and their superiority.

The white people, who joined in some community based color like Ku Klux

Klan, fraternal organization, make intimidation, kidnapping, and lynching the black who try to register. This case related with the theory which the writer choose for. The intimidation was one of KKK way to scare and to threaten the African-American.

Based on the dialogue above, the writer concludes that there is the deep hatred to the color races. Combining between white American race and colored race will make their superiority in threatened. They believe the white American race is more superiority than colored people.

• Violence

In the middle of pig stable

Picture 4 Picture 5 The violence, intimidation and kidnapping show in picture 5 and 6. Begin when two FBI agents came to a restaurant which has segregation. The separation chairs between white American race and colored race. When they into the restaurant they saw there is no an empty chair except in color side. One of them get the empty chair then began talk with a Negro child.

After the agent get closer and ask some questions to him, the black boy look around him to the white’s chair then they look to him with unlike scene. The white thought that the black boy talked and give the FBI agent the information about the

Civil Right Workers.

At night, the KKK activists came to the black’s home. They caught until the pig cage, stroked, and did the violence to him. After finished with their toy (the black boy) they intimidated him and talked” We better not catch you talkin' to the FBI. Or you'll be dead, boy. Real dead”. Afterward they brought him to cotton cage and get him in (picture 4), until the morning they throw the black in the middle of town.

Based on the dialogue and the pictures above, the writer find the discrimination and the violence that referred to James M. Blaut theory on this scene.

• Violence to the black people

Out of the black church

Picture 6 Picture 7

The hatred has been root in the heart of white people. The discrimination toward black people continues this time. This event can be seen in picture 5 and picture 6. There is a lot of Klan activists came to the church. They waited until the blacks finished their pray. After the blacks finish, all the Ku Klux Klan members directly rush upon the blacks, kicked and stroked them. On the pictures above we can see a child was attacked and stroked by one of the KKK members.

Religious racism had already established the causality by which God gives better heredity to Christians, and this argument could now be adapted to assert the genetic superiority of the so-called white race. The genetic superiority of the so-called white race was now believed in axiomatically by nearly all social theorists. The cultural superiority of Europeans white automatically consists of. Cultural superiority was mainly, though not entirely, considered to be an effect of racial superiority. These racial violence acts based on the blacks reported what they did to the blacks who burned the ghetto of the blacks until the FBI agents got and brought them to the court session. They hated very much to the black people even though the blacks did not do anything to them.

• Discrimination and unfair treatment

In the court

Picture 8

Judge : But I want you to know that the court understands... that the crimes you have committed have been, to some extent at least... brought about by... outside influences. Outsiders have come into Jessup County... and they've been people of low morality... and unhygienic. And their presence here has provoked a lot of people. So the court understands... without condoning them, mind you... that the crimes to which you men have pled guilty... were, to some extent at least, provoked by these outside influences. So, with all this, I'm gonna make your punishment light. I'm gonna sentence you each to five years' imprisonment. But I'm gonna suspend these sentences.

The dialogue took in the court session when the defendants of burning the ghetto of the blacks found by help of a child who saw the event. After burning the ghetto of the black people, the defendants who mixed up in the burning are caught with the FBI agents, and then, they were got to the court session. Because the judge was a member of Ku Klux Klan, of course the defendants got the protection from the judge. The judge gave the punishment to the defendants with five years in jail, but he suspends the sentences.

After heard the decision form the judge the blacks who show the court session just quiet and sat on the balcony without do their equal to ask the justice from the court. The blacks who sat on the balcony because the white people don’t want to sit in the same row with the black. They don’t want because the blacks are not in same level with them, and it can make down their superiority. So, in the court the practice discrimination and unfair-treatment to the black people go on even it in the court.

• Racialist Clayton Townley Interview

Picture 9 Picture 10 Clayton Townley :I am sick and tired of the way many of us Mississippians...are havin' our views distorted by your newspapers and on TV. So let's get this straight. We do not accept Jews because they reject Christ. Their control of the international banking cartels are at the root of communism. We do not accept Papists because they bow to a Roman dictator. We do not accept Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes... because we're here to protect Anglo- Saxon democracy...and the American way.

Picture 7 and 8 shows us Clayton Townley as the Ku Klux Klan activist interviewed when out from his office. He talked his feeling why he didn’t accept Jews because they reject Christ, they control of the international banking cartels are at the root of communism. And why he didn’t accept Papists because they bow to a Roman dictator, and he said he didn’t accept Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals, nor Negroes because he wants to protect Anglo-Saxon democracy and the American way.

These countries which Townley said are not believe in Anglo-Saxon democracy and the countries will be supposed to falling down the superiority of white

American.

• Lynching

The KKK activists burn a black home who gives some information to the

FBI agents. One of their extreme actions was lynching the black on the tree.

Picture 11

The picture 9 shows us how the violence towards the blacks continues this time, combustion and lynching toward the black until death. The happened took in the outside of a black’s home when they were sleeping; suddenly from the outside of their home the KKK activists burned their animal’s cage and home. The father who knows this event ordered his son to evacuate their family to the save place. The father out from his home with a gun then got some kicks and strikes. The KKK activists did some violence to the father then bind him until him dead.

According to the writer this violence was a great action than the others. The murdered is the end of everything.

C. Further Discussion of Data Analysis

After describing the scenes of the racial practices in Mississippi Burning

Film, the writer knows the factors why American white people did the discrimination towards the blacks and other ethnics like Jews, Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals nor

Negroes. In the history, the oppressing towards the color ethnics especially to the blacks had been exist as slave since 17 century, and written in the bible of Christian.

The first scene is talked about intimidation by KKK activists toward the

Civil Rights Workers when they finished their job to collect the data of Blacks for

President Election. On the road, the KKK activists tried to stop the Civil Rights

Workers. They intimidated the Civil Rights Workers on their car without let them out from their car. The intimidation continues and the Klan doesn’t want the Civil Rights

Workers see their face then shot them all.

The white people, who joined in some community based color like Ku Klux

Klan, fraternal organization, make intimidation, kidnapping, and lynching the black who try to register. This case related with the theory which the writer choose for. The intimidation was one of KKK way to scare and to threaten the African-American.

The second scene is showed the intimidation and violence towards a Negro kid by the Klan activists. The Klan caught, kicked and threatens the kid because the

Klan guesses he give the information to the FBI agent which sat with him in the restaurant. After that, they kidnap him and get into cotton cage until the morning. The third scene shows us the racial practice continues toward a kid. The violence can get in everywhere, even that in front of the church. In picture 5 and 6 we can see the Klan activists attacked the Negroes when they out from the church. All people get the violence even a kid. But the kid just shows his patient and prays God when he got some kicks from a Klan.

Religious racism had already established the causality by which God gives better heredity to Christians, and this argument could now be adapted to assert the genetic superiority of the so-called white race. The genetic superiority of the so-called white race was now believed in axiomatically by nearly all social theorists. The cultural superiority of Europeans white automatically consists of. Cultural superiority was mainly, though not entirely, considered to be an effect of racial superiority.

The fourth scene shows us the atmosphere in the court session. Three of

KKK activists who mixed up of the burning the Blacks ghetto arrested and sit on the court. But the defendants got protected from the judge because he guesses this all because of the provoked by outside influences. And the judge punishes them with five years in jail, but the judge will suspend the sentences. From this case the discrimination seen in this scene, because the judge help the white race even them did wrong, and ignore the Blacks who wants the justice from the court.

The next scene showed the interview with Clayton Townley as the entrepreneur and the chief of KKK. He hated Jews because they reject Christ. The mean of the first sentence, is Jews and other colored ethnics reject the Anglo-Saxon

Christian because this system were not fair according to the colored people. The bible said: God had created white people, in a region which Europeans considered to be their own cultural hearth: the "Bible Lands.”

And these countries which Townley said are not believe in Anglo-Saxon democracy and the countries will be supposed to falling down the superiority of white

American as Anglo-Saxon followers.

After a brief scuffle with Ward, the two FBI agree that they will work together and bring down the Klan using both men's approach to the investigation. The ending shows several scenes of the takedown of the Klan heads:

• The new tactics begin when an African American man abducts the mayor. The

abductor threatens the mayor with castration and tells a story about a man

who was castrated by the Klan for the color of his skin. Using information

from the mayor, the agents get more detailed information on the murders. It is

revealed that the African American abductor is a special operative for the FBI.

• Next, Anderson pays a visit to the barber shop and gives the Deputy Sheriff

an enormous beating and thereby punishes him for abusing his wife.

• Following this, some FBI members disguise themselves as Klan members and

chase another Klan head, before cornering him and pretending to lynch him.

The FBI suddenly shows up and "chases" them away, before offering the head

protection from the Klan if he co-operates.

The final scene shows each Klan member arrested and detailing their sentences. Related with the scenes above, in the scene sixth is the last scene and the writer thinks this is the extreme action than the others. Lynching till the dead. From the picture 9 above we can see a people lynch on the tree with the KKK activists.

This case related with the James M. Blaut Theory, Cultural Racism.

Racist practice, like all practice, is cognized, rationalized, justified, by a theory, a belief system about the nature of reality and the behavior which is appropriate to this cognized reality. Since racism as practice, that is discrimination, is an essential part of the system, we should not be surprised to discover that it has been supported by a historical sequence of different theories, each consistent with the intellectual environment of a given era.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

The writer concludes that film Mississippi Burning is the story about violence discrimination in Mississippi Jessup County and the struggle to equal in law of Blacks rights. The film backgrounds take setting in Mississippi Jessup County, South America in 1964. The great racial acts in Mississippi Burning film in 1964 in which politic, and culture are important things looked here.

In the beginning of the film the writer sees the three boys (Civil Rights

Workers) who drive a car down a long road, they are chased of what they think are the police. But in reality it’s some members of the Ku Klux Klan and the deputy, who also is a member of the KKK. The boys are stopped out on a field and the men kill the three young boys and hide their bodies.

Two FBI agents are sent down to Jessup County where the boys were helping the colored people to vote. The Sheriff’s office does not helping the FBI agents. They say they think that the civil right workers have just played them a trick and are sitting up in New York laughing of them, although they know that they are dead. One of the

FBI agents is an older man from the south (Mr. Anderson), and the other one is a young city boy (Mr. Ward). The two agents have extremely different ways of working to solve the case. The young boy is a doctrinaire and wants to follow bureau procedure, but the older man wants to follow his own rules.

Mr. Ward gets over a hundred men down helping him solve the case. They combed the swamps but found nothing. After a while Mr. Ward realizes that his methods aren’t working out and that they don’t help on the black people’s situation.

It’s just making bad matters worse so he agrees to try out Mr. Anderson’s tactic. Mr.

Anderson gets on a good dialog with the deputy’s wife and he understands that she is the key to the mystery. She tells Mr. Anderson, despite that she is married to the deputy, where the bodies are. The FBI finds the dead bodies in a big mound out on a farm. All of the suspects were condemned except from the sheriff who became acquitted, but later on hang himself in the basement because of quilt.

This is a film which brings out strong feelings. The writer sees the situation for the blacks in the 1960’s, how they are depressed and treated like dogs. This is a subject which always will be inflamed. The maker of this movie wants to inform the viewers about how the situation was for the colored people in the South in the 60’s, and tell us that it is important to remember the past so the people of the future want do the same mistakes. The writer can feels how detail their hatred feels to the racists in this movie, how it replaces other entertainments, how it compensates for their sense of worthlessness.

B. Suggestion

Mississippi Burning film is an interesting subject to be studied or analyzed.

Racial practices with all of their points also become exciting subject to be explored especially in the Mississippi Burning Film. The writer suggests to the reader to concern on Racial Practices in the Mississippi Burning Film. The suggestion issue has been analyzing in this paper and the writer hopes next researcher can eliminate the weakness of this paper and find another interest issues that emerges in this film.

He believes, by focusing on this studying it will help the readers to do the similar research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books: Blaut, James M. “Diffusionism: A Uniformitarian Critique,” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1977, p. 33. Blaut, James M. Fourteen Ninety-Two, in Political Geography Quarterly, 1992, vol. 11, no. 3. Blaut, James M. “The Theory of Cultural Racism,” in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Volume 23 (1992), pp. 289.

Brownstone, David M and Irene, M. Frank, Facts about America Immigration. (New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2001), p. 321. Cazenave, Noel A. and Maddern, Darlene Alvarez, “Defending the White Race: White Male Faculty Opposition to a White Racism Course,” in Race and Society 2, 1999, pp. 25-50.

Dyer, Everett D. The American Family: Variety and Change, (New York: McGraw– Hill Book Company, 1979), p. 60. Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations (New York: Routledge, 2000). Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression (New York” Routledge, 2006).

Ford, Richard T. Racial Culture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 169. Lewis, Anthony Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 135. Kasher, Steven The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), pp. 132-135. Wellman, David T. Portraits of White Racism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. x. Williams, Juan Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987), p. 208.

Wynter Leon E. American Skin, Pop Culture, Big Business & the End of White America, (New York: Crown Publisher, 2002), p. 72.

Websites: http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/racism accessed on December, 25, 2008. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Burning+mississippi+burning accessed on December, 25, 2008. http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/missippi.html, accessed on November, 25, 2008 http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/rrpbcrbook.html, http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/history-of-mississippi.htm accessed on November 25, 2008. W.E.B. DuBois, The Conservation of Races (1897), p. 21. quoted from http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/racism, accessed on December 25, 2008

Mississippi Burning Script – Dialogue Transcript

Appendix

Mississippi Burning Script:

What is it? What do they want? I don't know. Just pass me. Pass me. Is it a cop? I can't see. What the fuck joke are they playin' at? They ain't playin'. You better believe it. What are we gonna do? I don't know. OK. Hold on, you guys. There's a truck too. Shit. It is a cop. You better stop. OK. Sit tight, you guys. Don't say anything. Let me talk. All right? All right, we'll be all right. Just relax. Y'all think you can drive any speed you want around here? You had us scared to death, man. Don't you call me "man", Jew-boy. No, sir. What should I call you? You don't call me nothin', nigger-lovin' Jew-boy. You just listen. Yes, sir. Hell, you even startin' to smell like a nigger, Jew-boy. Take it easy. We'll be all right. Sure you will, nigger-Iover. He's seen your face. That ain't good. You don't want him seein' your face. Oh, it don't make no difference no more. Whoa, shit! We into it now, boys. You only left me a nigger, but at least I shot me a nigger. Yes, indeed. Now listen, you communists and niggers and Jews Tell all your buddies to spread the news Your Day of Judgment will soon be nigh As the Lord in his wisdom looks down from on high Will his battle be lost by mixin' the races? We want beautiful babies, not ones with brown faces Never, never, never, I say For the Ku Klux Klan is here to stay Never, never, never, I say Cos the Ku Klux Klan is here to stay These Ku Kluxers are better with lynchings than with lyrics. Just read the file, Mr Anderson. I can do without the cabaret. You don't like me much, do you, boss? Sure I like you. I just don't share your sense of humour. Sometimes that's all you got left. How long you been in the Bureau? Three years. Right outta college, huh? No. From the Justice Department. Kennedy boy. Now I see. No. I don't think you do see. Let's get this thing straight. I haven't had a pimple in years. I shave every morning. I even go to the bathroom by myself. So you can quit this "boss" stuff. I'm in charge because I've been through this before. Birmingham? Montgomery? Oxford. I was with Meredith at Old Miss. Oh. You got hit in the head with a brick, so they gave you a promotion. No. Shot in the shoulder. Well, at least you lived. That's important. Meredith lived. That's what's important. What's got four eyes and can't see? What? Mississippi. Never, never, never, I say Cos the Ku Klux Klan is here to... Big building for a small town. Yeah. Howdy. Good morning. My name's Alan Ward. I'm with the FBI. Federal Bureau of Integration? In that get-up, you ain't undercover. We're here to see Sheriff Stuckey. Sheriff's right busy now. You'll have to wait or come back some other time. We'll wait. Listen to me, you backwoods shit-ass, you. You got two seconds to get the sheriff out here or I'll kick the goddamn door in. OK? Well, hell. Looks like we got some company. Some Hoover boys come down to visit. How ya doin'? Good. I'm Sheriff Stuckey. Rupert Anderson. Rupert, we've been expectin' you. I assume you met my deputy, Mr Pell. Sure did. You down here to help us solve our nigger problems? No. It's just a missing-person case. Well, come on. You gonna want your boy in on this? Sheriff... I'm Special Agent Ward and I'm in charge of this case. We think it might be a little more serious than missing persons. I don't think so, boy. Know what I think it is? It's a publicity stunt cooked up by that Martin Luther King fella. Come on. At around 15.00 pm, Deputy Pell says he arrested the three boys for speeding. He held them in jail until 22.00 pm and then released them. They drove off. He says he followed them as far as the county line...and never saw them again. Why didn't they make a phone call? Why should they? Mr. Anderson, these boys were trained activists. They're taught to check in every hour and, if arrested, the moment they're released from custody. The hotel is two minute from the jail. They could've phoned from the lobby. It doesn't follow. Maybe they had a beer. Not these boys. The civil rights office in Rossville started making calls when they didn't check in. The sheriff's office here said they had no idea where the boys were. First lie. By who? Sheriff's office or civil rights office? Who would you believe? Mr Ward, I was a sheriff in a little Mississippi town just like this. Yes, I'm aware of that. Well, lyin' just don't come into it. We were ten miles from Memphis, a million miles from the rest of the worid. If a sheriff in a town like this says that's what happened, that's what happened. Let's go eat. We're full up, honey. Y'all wanna wait a while? Is the wait worth it? We're not full for nothin', sugar. Y'all wanna look at a menu while you wait? Thank you. Well, what y'all gonna do? Wait or leave? We're gonna wait cos we wanna be near you. There are some empty seats down there. Uh, Mr Ward... That's coloured down there. Don't even think about it. People here are gettin' ready to leave. Aren't you hungry, Mr Anderson? Good afternoon. Looks good. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? I'm looking for some information. I ain't got nothin' to say to you, sir. Just a few questions. I ain't got nothin' to say to you, sir. The civil rights boys came to propose setting up a voter registration clinic. Before the locals got a chance to say yes, the Klan burned 'em down. You give a man a vote but he can't use it. Yeah, that's the way it works. What did their office in Rossville say? That the boys came back here to apologise to the congregation. "Sorry you folks didn't get to vote." "I suppose most of you never knew you even had one." "Now you got no place to go on Sunday." Apparently, after they came back here, they talked to some locals down the road. I think that's where we should start. Oh, they won't talk to you. These people have to live here long after we're gone. They'd rather bite their tongue off than talk to us. Bureau procedure, Mr Anderson. The church caught fire and you ran home. Is that correct? Yes, sir. And then the four white men stopped you? Yes, sir. And these four white men attacked your husband? Yes, sir. But you can't identify them. No, sir. Did you report this to the police? No, sir. But you told the civil rights boys what happened? Yes, sir. Ma'am, did they tell you where they were going after that? No, sir. Nothing? No, sir. All right. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. Come on, boy. Open up. Your brother Hollis here, Fennis? Yes, sir. Well, wake his ass up. We wanna see him. Why? Just wake him up, boy. What is it? There you are, nigger trash! Come here, boy! Hollis! Hollis! Get your ass back here, you fuckin' nigger! Hollis! Hollis! We better not catch you talkin' to the FBI. Or you'll be dead, boy. Real dead. You admire these kids, don't you? Don't you? I think they're bein' used. They're sent here in their Volkswagens and sneakers...just to get their heads cracked open. Did it ever occur to you that maybe they believed in what they were doing? Did it occur to them they'd end up dead? Maybe. In Washington they sure as hell knew, didn't they? Some things are worth dying for. Well, down here they see things a little differently. People down here feel some things are worth killin' for. Where does it come from, all this hatred? You know, when I was a little boy...... there was an old Negro farmer lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was... Well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. My daddy hated that mule. His friends kidded him that they saw Monroe ploughin' with his new mule...and Monroe was gonna rent another field now that he had a mule. One morning that mule just showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that there was never any mention about that mule around my daddy. One time we were drivin' past Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He'd just packed up and left, I guess. Gone up North or somethin'. I looked over at my daddy's face... and I knew he'd done it. And he saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and he said... "If you ain't better than a nigger, son, who are you better than?" Do you think that's an excuse? No, it's not an excuse. It's just a story about my daddy. Where does that leave you? With an old man who was so full of hate...... that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killin' him. Get the light! Get the light! You all right? I guess they know we're here. Now you know what you're gettin' into. I'm gonna call Washington. I need more agents. Would it change your mind if I say that's exactly the wrong thing to do? No. The whole place for 75 a month. It's private. It's central. It's perfect. There's room for a hundred more agents. Two hundred, maybe. More in the balcony. We're just trying to find the three boys, Mr Anderson. I'll take all the help I can get. When's the show start? Who's the big shot? It's the Klan. No pointy hats but plenty of pointy heads. Let me run a check on the plates. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Anderson. Say hello to our mayor, Mr Tilman here. How do you do, Anderson? Mr Mayor. Mr Barber. Well, this looks like the place to be. Even for me. Yep. Nothin' like a barbershop for jawin' your socks off. Where you from anyway, Anderson? Thornton, Mississippi, sir. Just a spit from Tennessee. Well, then you must know how we all feel down here. We don't take to outsiders tellin' us how to live our lives. And I'm here to tell ya, our nigras were happy...till those beatnik college kids came down here stirrin' things up. Before that, there wasn't anybody complainin'. Nobody dared. We got a real peaceful community down here, Anderson. Course, they're just like any other folks, I reckon, when you push 'em too far. The way I figure it, it's like three sticks of old dynamite. You shake it up... and we're gonna be scrapin' bodies off the street. I'm just here to investigate the missing three kids, ask some questions. If this all boiled down to gravy...there wouldn't be enough to cover a chicken-fried steak. Them kids you're lookin' for? I'd bet you a shiny new dime they're in Chicago right now...drinkin' a cold beer and havin' a laugh about the commotion they stirred up here. Well, I sure hope so. You can tell your bosses people got the wrong idea about the South. You know what I'm talkin' about. Everybody runnin' around ragged, backwards and illiterate...eatin' sowbelly and corn pone three times a day. Simple fact is, Anderson, we got two cultures down here. White culture and a coloured culture. That's the way it always has been. That's the way it always will be. The rest of America don't see it that way. The rest of America don't mean jack shit. You in Mississippi now. Oh, that's for sure! What's the score, Mr Barber? St Louis on top, five to nothing. What inning is it? Bottom of the seventh. You like baseball, Anderson? Yeah, I do. You know...it's the only time when a black man can wave a stick at a white man...and not start a riot. Sir. We checked on the plate, sir. Clayton Townley. Townley. Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. That's him. And we have a lead on the car. A Choctaw on the reservation thinks he knows where it is. Good. You have an appointment next Tuesday? I'll see you then. Bye-bye. Afternoon, ladies. Can I help you? Well, yes, you can. I tell you, I just...I hate the way I look. You know? What do you think? A permanent wave, maybe? Or a bleach job? That looks good. Was it done in here? No. Jackson. A wig's your only hope, hon. You won't be able to do much with that cue ball. If you wanna ask us some questions, this is where you'll hear it all. Yeah, matter of fact, I do. You know I was wonderin' who that gentleman was that just drove in over there. I know that isn't President Johnson. His name's Townley. Clayton Townley. Are you one of them FBI gentlemen? Yes, ma'am, I am. Well, I think it's a shame if those two kids are dead. But I sure hope you find 'em. Thank you. Actually, three kids are missin'. There's a coloured kid also. Do you think your people'd be down here if it weren't for those two white boys? Maybe not, miss. Mrs. Pell. Her old man's Ray Stuckey's deputy. But I'm single. Move out of the way. Move over, boy. We'll take care of this. It's a local problem. We'll handle this. We don't need your damn help. It ain't right havin' blood on Main Street. How'd that look on the TV news? Get up. OK, I got him. I got him. He's the kid from the diner. Think twice before you talk to coloured kids with an audience. They're sending a message from the boss in Tupelo, and you know it. I know it, yes. Clayton Townley, chief pointy head. Yeah, that's right. How did you know? Bureau procedure, Mr Ward. Try it sometime. We did. We found the car the kids were driving. Good morning. Good morning. Two beer cans, a Coca-Cola bottle, a green plastic bottle...a badly burned wristwatch stopped at 24:45 and a set of keys. No bodies. I want the area searched. Every inch. Yes, sir. It's a big swamp. Every inch, Mr Bird. I guess they never left Mississippi. They're dead. They're dead. Mr Bird? Yes, sir? There's a telephone at the truck stop. Get to it, get on it, and get me a hundred more men here by morning. A hundred? A hundred. Bureau people, sir? I don't care if it's the army! I want this entire swamp searched! Yes, sir. Don't do it, Mr Ward. You'll just start a war. It was a war long before we got here. Get the fuck outta here now! Sir? The sheriff's alibi is solid. He was playing poker with his wife's brother and cousins. The whole time? For three hours. He lost $ 11 and 38 cent. There's something else. We're having a little trouble with the motel manager. What kind of trouble? He wants us out. We're bad for business. Buy it. Sorry, sir? Buy it! The motel. How high can I go? Whatever it takes. Today in Jessup County, Mississippi...amidst the violence of this week, the eyes of the nation...have been firmly fixed on the search for the missing civil rights workers. I think it's all a big hoax. But if they are in that swamp, then they asked for it. Naval reserves have joined FBI agents in searching for the missing men. I think they planned it. They're sittin' up in New York laughin' at us Mississippi folks. You think it's a hoax? A big hoax. They gonna find nothin'. Civil rights leaders are optimistic as to the young men's whereabouts. But privately there is mounting concern that they will ever be found alive. They came lookin' for trouble and found it. This is Marek Baribobi, Network News, Jessup County, Mississippi. Tell you what I think they oughta be doin'. Lookin' up in Canada for them boys...instead of our swamps around here. I'll tell you somethin' else. I think it's a stunt dreamed up by NAAC people. NAAC people? NAACP. Know what it stands for? Niggers, Alligators, Apes, Coons and Possums. Tell you what you got. You got your NAACP. You got your SNCC. You got your COFO. You know what all that mess is? B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. You got it? One day we won't have to say "Good morning, sir, Mr Sheriff." Maybe there'll come a time when we won't have to say "Mr Stuckey". One day there'll come a time when we'll just say "Stuckey" or "Sheriff". And one day there'll come a time when the sheriff won't even be a white man. Hello. I wonder if I could ask you a few questions. I don't suppose you could tell me what kind of flower these are, could you? I been seein' 'em all over the place here and... Never saw such a darn pretty plant. They're trumpet-pitchers. Trumpet-pitchers? They're beautiful. They really are. They don't smell so good but they're pretty. It's nice talkin' to you. Sorry about interruptin' your meeting but we can't get anybody to talk to us. They zip up, like my momma used to say. People don't wanna talk to you because they're afraid it'll get back to the law. We are the law. Not around here you ain't. We came to find out what happened to those boys. They were here to help you. It ain't coloured folks you should talk to. Who should we talk to? Come on, Aaron. You should start with the sheriff's office. Why aren't you afraid? How come you ain't? Aaron? Aaron, come on, son. Here's the pitch. Swing and a line-drive base hit. Another run is home. On to the next pitch by the ruffled Bob Gibson. He is upset. Ron Hunt singled to centre. Hickman passed third...and scored the Mets' second run. Hunt holds on at first, and the Mets lead two to one. Good evening, Mrs Pell. I'm Agent Ward. This is Agent Anderson. We're with the FBI. Is your husband home? We'd like to have a word with him. Y'all come in, then. It's the FBI gentlemen, Clinton. They wanna ask you some more questions. You want me to put your dinner in the oven? Leave us alone. Mind if I take a seat? What's so goddamn important you got to bother me at home? I just wanted to run through once again your movements on June 21st. June which? June 21st. Deputy, we both know what day we're talking about, so let's do this civilised. Then you get back to your ball game and we can get back to Washington. Please, don't let me interrupt you. It's just when you've heard a question a dozen times, it gets kinda boring. Yeah, I guess so. You don't eat together? He works funny hours. You think that's odd? No. No, I work funny hours myself. I eat when I'm hungry. He eats when he can. Can I get you somethin'? No, no. Thanks. This is a nice house. How long have you lived here? I was born here. But my father lost the house in a poker game a long time ago. We've been payin' rent ever since. It's a wicked game. Poker. Wicked. Mr Anderson? It's nice talkin' to you. Guess I gotta go. Them pork chops still any good, honey? Bring me a beer. Good night. Let you get back to your baseball. They say it's the only game where a black man can wave a stick... I know. I already heard that one. Fifty minutes of his alibi hinges on his wife. You talked to her. What's she like? She's a nice lady. Tell me, Mr Anderson. How does a woman like that end up with... With shithead in there? You know what these small towns are like. A girl spends all her time in high school lookin' for the guy she's gonna marry...and spends the rest of her life wonderin' why. Something's wrong. He's too confident. Did you see the wedding photograph? No. His three pals, the ushers, had their thumbs hooked in their belts...with their three fingers pointing down. So what is that? Some sort of Masonic thing? No! KKK. I know you ain't drunk. I'm not drunk. All right. You ain't drunk. I'm just gonna take you where you can sleep it off. All right. Hold up. Watch your head. Hi. Uh... There was a couple of things I needed to check with you. My husband's not here. Actually, it was you I wanted to talk to. Me? OK. You'd better come in, then. Just take a minute. My boss, he's kind of a pain. A college kid. He has to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. What is it you wanted to ask me about? It's a time thing we're not so clear about. Should I put your flowers in some water while you're here? Yeah. Actually they're for you. They're beautiful. They are pretty, aren't they? They don't smell so nice but they're pretty. Can I get you anything? Some tea? Yeah. Thanks. Oh, don't you look at that. It's a terrible photo. Oh, I don't know about that. Is this recent? No. I wish. Well...this here looks recent to me. We were married 14 years ago. Are you kidding me? No! Come on. You take sugar? Sure do. You know, I grew up in a town like this. You were smart enough to leave. Why didn't you? "For better or for worse." How about you? Are you married? Well, I was, as I remember. It didn't last very long. I was never home. I guess she got fed up with...phone calls from Miami, postcards from Des Moines. There was always a guy around. Any guy that could spare the time for a movie or a beer...or a quarter for the jukebox. She left. How about you? Well, you know the South, Mr Anderson. You leave high school and marry the first boy who makes you laugh. Hey, your husband's quite a guy. You know, my boss has this thing about an hour - 15 minutes, to be exact - ...that your husband says that he was with you. And I guess he was. Guess he was. Well, that's a pity. That means that I don't have an excuse for hangin' around here any more. Well... Thank you for the iced tea. Thank you for the flowers. Sure. Do you know what kind they are? I heard they're called trumpet-pitchers. Oh, that's right. My daddy used to call 'em ladies-from-hell because they're carn... Carnivorous. That's the word? Yeah. That pretty colour's the bait. Insects just home in there and wham, they're dead...even before they got their shoes off. Maybe I should've picked something else. Maybe. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus Sing his mercy and his grace In the mansions, bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place ... day of rejoicing that will be That will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory May the peace and the joy in the Holy Ghost abide with all of you... for now and for ever. Amen. When we all Get to heaven What a day of rejoicing That will be When we all See Jesus, Jesus We'll sing and shout The victory You already been told once, nigger. We don't wanna have to tell you again. You make any more trouble by flappin' them boot-lips off to them federal men...we'll sure as hell put you in the ground, boy, and that's without a pine box! You understand me? How are Negroes treated in Mississippi? They're treated about fair. About as good as they oughta be. The niggers around here have been treated awful bad for a long time. I think Martin Luther King's one of the leaders. I mean, J Edgar Hoover said that he was a communist...and they had proof to that effect. But I don't know that for sure. I hadn't seen it myself, but that's what they say. Hey, you really wanna find that nigger? They say we've got to eat together and use the same bathroom as the niggers. And that's awful hard for some Mississippi folks to do. They're not like us. They don't take baths. They stink, they... they're nasty... they're just not like white folks. What do you think has happened to the three boys? Dead. Just as dead as they can be. It feels so good. Is she asleep? Is she? Yeah. Oh, my Lord. I'm sorry I woke you up. Bye, hon. I'll be a couple of hours. All right. Well, Mary, is that your Betsy's kid? Yeah. She's growin' up real quick, ain't she? Tuesday'll be just fine on those, Mary. Funny. Their kids are so cute. Is that thing back on me again? If the entire Secret Service couldn't protect the president...how in hell are we supposed to protect a few nigras? It ain't nothin' but a bunch of lowlife white trash drinkin' too much cheap alcohol. More like paint thinner and snake juice, because this state's as dry as a martini...and we got the alcoholics to prove it. Give me a little room here. Excuse me, Bob. Is this OK? Your name, please? Clayton Townley. Local businessman. Are you, sir, a spokesman for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan? I told you. I'm a businessman. I'm also a Mississippian. And an American. And I am sick and tired of the way many of us Mississippians...are havin' our views distorted by your newspapers and on TV. So let's get this straight. We do not accept Jews because they reject Christ. Their control of the international banking cartels are at the root of communism. We do not accept Papists because they bow to a Roman dictator. We do not accept Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes... because we're here to protect Anglo-Saxon democracy...and the American way. Thank you, sir. Lefty, you are livin' proof that cousins shouldn't fuck. What I was tryin' to say...there's this coloured boy. He wants to play football for Bear Bryant over at Alabama. So Bear says "I'm gonna give you a tryout." What's he gonna run with? A watermelon? He's gonna keep on runnin' too. "OK, boy" he says. "You get down there on one goal line." He puts a whole team on the other goal line. He throws the boy the ball and says... Are you open? You got to be a member to drink here. A member? A member of what? A member of the social club. I thought you'd just buy me a beer. Give him a beer, Frank. Nice to be back in a dry county again. When I was sheriff, half of my take-home pay...was from collectin' taxes on illegal jukes like this. Probably works the same here. I would think you'd haul in a tidy penny here, winkin' at the bootleggers. I wouldn't know nothin' about that. Yeah... A tidy penny. Got anything stronger than this, Deputy? No. No, we ain't. Oh? You know, in Thornton, Mississippi, there's a joy-juice still in every yard. All you need is just some corn and sugar and a pot to boil it in. I was tryin' to fingerprint this old boy once. He'd had his hand in the mash barrel all his life. There was no skin at all on there. No prints. We ain't interested in your good ol' Mississippi boy stories. You ain't from here no more. Why'd you leave, anyway? I just wanted a change of scenery. The grits started leavin' a bad taste in my mouth. Well, if that's how you feel about it, Mr FBI Man...why don't you get back to your commie, nigger-lovin' bosses up North? You must not know my boss - Mr Hoover. He's not too fond of commies. He'd be on your side there. I don't give two shits whose side your Mr Hoover's on, boy. All I know is we got 5000 niggers in this county who ain't registered to vote yet. And, as far as I'm concerned, they never will. So tell your stiff suits up in Washington, DC, they ain't gonna change us one bit. Unless it's over my dead body. Or a lot of dead niggers. You'd kill, Frank? Is that what you're sayin'? I wouldn't give it no more thought than wringin' a cat's neck. And there ain't a court in Mississippi that'd convict me for it. How about you, Deputy? How are you with wringin' necks, huh? Just keep pushin' me, Hoover boy. You get this straight, you cornhole fucker. Tell your queer-ass bosses they'll never find them civil rightsters down here. So you might as well pack your bags and head up North where you belong. You get this straight, shitkicker. Don't you go mistakin' me for some whole other body. Your brain's in your dick if you think we'll just fade away. We're gonna be here till this thing's finished. How about you, Deputy? Is that gun just for show? Or do you get to shoot people once in a while? Thanks for the beer. Ask them if they want to help save this country from the onslaught of integration. You know the system: They want to throw white children and coloured children... into the melting pot of integration... out of which will come a conglomerated, mulatto, mongrel class of people! Both races will be destroyed in such a movement. I, for one, under God will die before I'll yield one inch... to that kind of a movement in America. Do you know the trouble you've caused? They've been on the radio all day, talkin' about FBI intimidation. We're not thugs, Mr Anderson. We're gonna do this thing my way. I know. Bureau procedure. Why were you at the beauty parlour? If that was Bureau business, I wanna know about it. If not, I won't allow it. Do you understand me?! Get in here! You know your problem? You don't know when to speak and when to shut up! That makes you a fool! Mrs Pell won't say anything her husband doesn't want her to. And I'm not gonna choke it out of her! This can of worms only opens from the inside. I know that. Freedom! Freedom! White nigger! White niggers! Hurry up! Hurry up! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! cents? Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Bring him Your burdens Seek not his favour Tell... tell him your sorrows Hi. Hey, now! Just passin' by. Just sayin' hello. You're not out watchin' the parade? How come you don't ask me questions? Everybody's been talked to 'cept me. Why don't you send some of them good-Iookin' FBI boys to talk to me? Sorry about the intrusión. I was at the hardware store and... Pecan? I'm sick of pecans. Freedom! Freedom! Are you willing to stand and fight? Yes! How'd you find out about this? Bureau procedure, Mr Ward. Sheriff Stuckey. He got his phone call. Wonder who else was called. Where you goin', boy? Go on. Get outta here. Here they come. Come on. Let's go. We'll wait until they go back inside. Get him! Get him into the goddamn truck! Get inside, you sons of bitches. Let's go! Wait until they go back inside! Come on, Ward. Let's go. Come on! Go on! Turn left! How do you know? I don't. Just turn left. There's the truck. Go up that little road there. Stop, stop. What's wrong with these people? Mrs Walker, I know this is difficult for you, but I really need your help. If you could just persuade your son to press charges... then we could pick up the deputy at least, right away. He won't talk to no one. And it won't do no good anyway. I promise you, it will. Leave him alone. Maybe then they'll let us alone. If this is a pattern, I guess at least we know what happened on June 21 st. Pell stopped the three boys for speeding at three o'clock. He held them in jail until the Klan could get organised. Then he released 'em at 22:30. By that time, his buddies were ready and waiting. No. Pell went with 'em that night. I'm sure of it. Do you think he'll crack? Down here they say rattlesnakes don't commit suicide. Did you release the three civil rights workers... into the hands of the Klan on the night of June 21st? No. Are you a member of the Ku Klux Klan? No. Have you ever been a member? No. Are you familiar with the term Grand Cyclops? I've heard of it. Were you in fact the Grand Cyclops of the East Mississippi Klavern... of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for the past three years? Objection. My client's already told you, he's not even a member of the Klan. Objection? This is just an interview, sir. There's really no need to be so formal. Well, if this is just an interview, I guess I don't have to stay here. I got work to do. I guess you do too, don't you? Yes, sir. You can be sure that we'll do it. Good luck. Y'all get enough to indict me, you know where to find me. How'd it go? Fine. Just fine. Don't you worry about a goddamn thing. Are you about to be indicted? Does the FBI have evidence against the sheriff's office? Are you cooperating with them? We're cooperatin'. We have all along. There's not one iota of proof. Could you not do that, please? Sir, do not do that, please. You've already been told once! Get the fuck outta here! Do we have to tell you times? Go back where you belong! Get outta my face! Get on outta here and leave us alone! Leave us alone! Go on home where you belong, boy! You're gonna get hurt! Mr Ward, this is gettin' to be about as much as we can take. I cannot register a stronger complaint. Not now, sir. Now, just a minute. I resent your public pursuit of my sheriff's department. You have made every effort to implicate them in these disappearances. Your slimy innuendoes are not evidence that they were connected with any crime. We're trying to get to the truth. We're frustrated too. Any jackass can point a finger, but that ain't evidence. Us old cotton-choppers are still stupid enough to believe in democracy. We know our rights under the law! You know somethin', all right. I'd bet a cotton-choppin' dollar on that. You're gettin' so far up my nose... I'm beginnin' to feel your boots on my chin. And I'm tellin' you one more time, Mr Apple Red. A couple of crazies in bedsheets dancin' round the countryside scarin' Negroes... is not the fault of the entire state of Mississippi! There are three dead kids and a lot of scared people because of your sheriff. So get used to havin' us around. Get used to my boots on your chin too. And you people better back off. Goddamn FBI. Who do they think they are, comin' to my part of the country... Do you have a statement, Mr Mayor? Goddamn right I have. For a moment there, Mr Anderson... it sounded like we were both on the same side. Are you all right, honey? Yeah, I'm fine. Let me know if you need anything. Thanks. I will. Momma! Come quick! There's no sign of him, sir. He's long gone. His mother lives across the street. She won't even answer the door. I want the whole area covered. Someone must have seen something. They won't talk to us. Get going, Mr Bird. If they won't talk to us, shake it out of 'em. Let's go. Every house. Come on. What? All these white guys chasin' around with their notebooks will get you nowhere. OK. What would you do? It's OK to be afraid. Go on, Willie. Tell 'em what you saw. The defendants will rise. In this country a man's home is his castle. That is one of the principles by which this community survives. You men have done violence to that principle. But I want you to know that the court understands... that the crimes you have committed have been, to some extent at least... brought about by... outside influences. Outsiders have come into Jessup County... and they've been people of low morality... and unhygienic. And their presence here has provoked a lot of people. So the court understands... without condoning them, mind you... that the crimes to which you men have pled guilty... were, to some extent at least, provoked by these outside influences. So, with all this, I'm gonna make your punishment light. I'm gonna sentence you each to five years' imprisonment. But I'm gonna suspend these sentences. You can't go in there, sir. FBI. Let us through. I'm sorry, sir. You can't go in there. Sheriff? Y'all really started somethin' this time. Move these cars. I wanna go in and talk to them. You've gone as far as you're gonna go. We can handle this. Just some crazy coloureds tearin' up their own assholes. Local problem. Look at those flames, Mr Ward. That's why they sent you down here, wasn't it? It would've happened anyway and you know it. If I was a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do. If you were a Negro, nobody'd give a damn what you thought. Aaron! Take your momma, grandmomma and the children out the back door. When you hit the road, keep goin'. You understand? Keep goin', son. Nathan! Come on, Nathan. Get up! Get up, Nathan, now! Come on! Get out of the bed! What's happening? Momma! Come on, Momma. Come on, y'all. Come on, Grandma. Let's go! All ye who labour Who's there? If you're in there, come on out! You hear? I ain't takin' this shit no more! Bring him your burdens Seek not his favour Tell... tell him your sorrows In... him... confide He satisfies He satisfies Everything's OK, Papa. Momma and the giris are fine. They just cracked your head some. You just keep on breathin'. Don't you go dyin' on me now. You hear me? You gonna be just fine. You know, cows won't run away. No one knows why. They're just stupid, I guess. They just stand there until their bellies swell up and they pop. They have relatives in Detroit. Are they gonna go? I didn't give 'em any choice. At least we know who did this. We did. Well, don't fret. It's progress. years ago they'd have strung 'em up for stealin' a watermelon. I don't understand you, Mr Anderson. Not at all. Let's get somethin' straight, all right? This thing was fucked up the moment we turned it into a show for the newsmen. The moment those three kids disappeared, it was news. The moment the three civil rights workers disappeared, it was news. To me they're just kids. They're still missin'. What's missing... is the 15 minutes Pell said he was with his wife. OK. I love Mississippi. They... They hate Mississippi. They hate us because we present a shining example... of successful segregation. These Northern students, with their atheist, communist bosses... that have come into our community this summer with the wish to destroy it... this week have taken a terrible blow. This week their cause has been crippled. This week all of these federal policemen you see out here pryin' into our lives... violatin' our civil liberties... have learned that they are powerless against us... if every single Anglo-Saxon Christian one of us stands together! This week... Ward? We have company, sir. Why are you here? This is a political meeting. Doesn't smell that way to me, Deputy. It's a political meeting, Hoover boy. Oh, it looks like a political meeting but smells more like Klan to me... with or without the Halloween costumes. Gentlemen. In the courts of Mississippi, they have been reminded... that they cannot by force turn our communities... into replicas of their communities. Communities in which Negroes run riot, unrestrained and unpunished... as they do this summer in the streets of Harlem, or in the streets of Oakland... or in the streets of Chicago! Can I come in? It's not good for you to be here. Why? It's ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us... and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school they said segregation is what it said in the Bible. Genesis 9 verse 27. At seven years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it. You breathe it. You marry it. My husband drove one of the cars that night. Shh. That's what you wanna hear, isn't it? The bodies are buried on the Roberts farm, in an earthen dam. Sir! Take a break, Mr Bird. Put some handkerchiefs around your face. Bring that here. The bodies of the three civil rights workers were found today... at an undisclosed grave. Neither the FBI nor the sheriff's department will comment on the case. The bodies were brought to Jessup County Hospital. Officials here also refused comment. There is speculation that an autopsy will be performed later tonight. OK, keep it open. We're comin' through. Come on, open it up. Hold it back. Clinton, you got problems at home to tend to. What do you mean? I mean pull your head out of your ass and get home! "I, Vincent Thompson, am the cheddar-cheese champion of the worid." "In international competition with other entries, my cheddar won first prize...... based on flavour, texture, appearance and colour." Hey, Clinton. I didn't expect you home so early. Hi, Frank. No, don't. I'm sorry. Sir. Say again? I'll be right there. Mr Bird. Yes, sir? Get five men and meet me outside. Where's Anderson? He's at the motel, sir. You two take the front door. If anyone tries to get past you, break 'em down. You two take the door on the corridor. Mr Bird? OK. Go get Anderson. Bring him here. Don't tell him why. Don't tell him anything. Just get him here. Mr Anderson. Stop! Mr Anderson! Go to hell. I'm telling you to stop and I mean it. We're not killers. It's the difference between them and us. No, between them and you! You're no more like them than I am. Wrong. What do you care what I do to a bastard hidin' behind a sheriff's badge? You have the whole worid to change! And I'm changin' it. You're as arrogant as you are stupid! You're changin' it too. I'll make some changes right now! Don't mess this up just because you like foolin' around with witnesses. A gun don't mean shit unless you use it. I'll kill you now if you don't listen to me. Fuck you. Let me go. Let me go. We'll go after all of 'em, together. You wouldn't know how! You'll teach me. You don't have the guts. Not only do I have the guts, I have the authority. What is that supposed to mean? New rules. We nail 'em any way we can. Even your way. Is this you talkin' or some guy pullin' your strings? Both. We do it my way. Your way. With my people! Whatever it takes. OK. Gimme a minute. You think he would've shot me? Oh, yes, sir. He's a ballsy little bastard, isn't he? They want me to say "Let us not forget... that two white boys also died helping Negroes help themselves." They want me to say "We mourn with the mothers of these two white boys." But the state of Mississippi won't even allow these white boys... to be buried in the same cemetery as this Negro boy. I say I have no more love to give. I have only anger in my heart today... and I want you to be angry with me! Now, I am sick and I am tired... and I want you to be sick and tired with me! I... I... I am sick and tired of going to the funerals... of black men who have been murdered by white men! I... I am sick and tired of the people of this country... who continue to allow these things to happen! What is an "inalienable right" if you are a Negro? What does it mean, "equal treatment under the law"? What does it mean, "liberty and justice for all"? Now I say to these people: Look at the face of this young man and you will see the face of a black man. But, if you look at the bloodshed, it is red. It is like yours! It is just like yours! You... You. I'm gonna tell you a story. A young kid named Homer Wilkes lives about 30 miles north of here. He'd just taken his girlfriend home and was walkin' back along the road... when a car pulled up. Three white boys took him for a ride. Now... he hadn't done anything... except... be a Negro. And they took him to a shack. A shack like... like this one. And they took out a razor blade... a regular old razor blade, like this one... and they pulled down his pants... and they spread his legs... and they sliced off his scrotum. Put it in a coffee cup. And do you know how much you bleed when somebody cuts off your balls? Huh?! When they found Homer, he looked like he'd been dipped in blood up to his waist. He was barely alive when they got him to the hospital. He can hardly walk now. Mayor, we know you know... who was there when those three civil rights boys was murdered. We know you know who pulled the trigger. Is there somethin' you wanna say to me? OK! Is he with the Bureau? Yeah. He's kind of a specialist. You're sure the mayor won't talk? No, they'd kill him! All right. What do you have? There were three cars and seven men. Pell and Bailey did the killing. Sheriff Stuckey? He was too smart to be there. So Pell pulled the trigger for him. And Townley? It was his idea. Grand Dragons, they don't get their hands dirty. The whole thing, huh? Bullet by bullet. I don't suppose you're interested in words like "coerción" or "hearsay" or "duress". This is no good in court. We're not in court, Mr Ward. We'll never get 'em on murder anyway. That's a state charge. These hayseeds will never prosecute. I know that! We've got to get 'em in federal court! Violation of civil rights! Remember whose rights you're violatin'! Don't put me on your perch, Mr Ward! Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson! These people crawled out of a sewer, Mr Ward! And maybe the gutter's where we should be! Thank you. This better be important. Who the hell called this meeting? We thought you did. Of this group? Are you stupid? You didn't call this? Shit. If you didn't call this, who the fuck did? Shut up. Is this some kind of bullshit setup? Ray, are you sure you didn't call this? Cos I got a note from my wife and it said it was from you and Clinton. Lester, shut up! Now, we're all gonna walk straight outta here... and say nothing. That means nothin', Lester. First one who opens his mouth is dead. Shut up. Hey, Clinton. Clinton. Looks like the rattlesnakes are startin' to commit suicide. Hi, Lester. We'll give you that ride home. What? Well, I know you said. but we're runnin' a little late, so... I'll meet you in the car. You're cracked. Do you have change of a 20? Sure. Get in the car, Lester. Or you'll have a hard time pickin' your nose once I've closed this drawer. Lester, you could make it a lot easier on yourself by goin' on the record right now. I ain't got nothin' to say. You barkin' up the wrong tree, mister. Lester, I gotta tell you somethin'. We got you cold. Your buddies have already talked. You're lyin'. You're in a lot of trouble. We know you drove the second vehicle, the green truck. And your buddy says... Refresh my memory here, Mr Bird. "Lester Cowens kicked the Negro twice in the face and then shot him." That's a goddamn lie. No, it's true. What else, Mr Bird? "Lester Cowens said 'They only left me a nigger, but at least I shot me a nigger."' I didn't kill him. I shot him in the ass. We know that. He was already dead by the time you shot him. But your buddy sees it differently. Your buddy tells it that you killed the kid. You either go on the record right now... or it's gonna be your ass we're talkin' about, not just a black kid's! Think about it, Lester. Come on out of there. Come on out. This is tricky. They make it look so easy, don't they? I got a question for you, Clinton. You don't mind if I call you Clinton, do you? I feel like I know you so well. The way we have it, on the night of the murders... you made a short speech as the bulldozer buried the kids in the dam. How does Lester tell it? "Mississippi will be proud of you. You've struck a blow for the white man." Is that what you said, Clinton? Hm? Is that what you said? It must've been you... because Clayton Townley and Ray Stuckey were too smart to be there. And you was too stupid to think anybody'd remember what you said. But old Lester, he got a good memory. I'm sorry. I haven't done this for a long time. Did you make a speech the night that you beat up your wife, Clinton? Huh? Did ya? Did you strike a blow for the white man that night? You got a stupid smile. You know that, Pell? Can you see it? Huh? Good! Did you smile when the bulldozer ran over the black kid's body? Did ya?! Did you smile when the bodies were covered over? Did ya?! Get up here. Come on. Get up! Did you smile that same stupid smile, huh?! Did ya?! You... Did ya smile, Pell? Did ya smile?! Huh?! Did ya?! Make no mistake about it, Deputy. I'll cut your fuckin' head off and not give a shit how it reads in the report sheet. One more bite. One more bite. One more bite, darlin'. One more bite. Shit, Lester! What the fuck is goin' on?! Shut up! Get in the bedroom and lock the door! And stay away from the windows! Shit. Please. Please! I didn't say a thing! I swear! It's a setup! I didn't say nothin'! I didn't say nothin'! Nothin'! I didn't say nothin'! I didn't say nothin'! I didn't say nothin'! You're lucky we've been watchin' your ass, Lester. If you go on the record, Mr Cowens, we'll give you protection. If not... If not, they're gonna kill you anyway. Oh. You need a toilet, Lester. We really had him goin', huh? We'll take care of the check, Mr Swilley. Well, I suppose I'II... be back for supper. Button up, Wesley. Why did he do it? He wasn't even in on it. Wasn't even Klan. Mr Bird, he was guilty. Anyone's guilty who watches this happen and pretends it isn't. No. He was guilty all right. Just as guilty as the fanatics who pulled the trigger. Maybe we all are. Hello! Yeah. I just missed you at the hospital. They said you'd gone home. What's left of it. I'm real sorry. So am I. What are you gonna do? I don't know. Where will you go? I'm not goin' anywhere. I'm stayin'. This is my home. Born here. Probably die here. If I wanted to leave, I would've done it a long time ago. Things'll work out. There's enough good people around here know what I did was right. And enough ladies like the way I fix their hair. Hey. If you're ever in Des Moines... don't send me a postcard. OK. We cannot see In the future No, no, no, no, no And it's hard To smile Through trials No, we cannot see Every pitfall But we must walk on By faith Each day Oh, Lord Whoa, on Monday Walk on And on Tuesday Walk on Whoa, let Jesus Let Jesus be Let him be your Your guide Whoo-oo-oo He's able He could carry your load And he could see way down the road Walk on You wanna drive, Rupert? Yeah. On Monday Walk on And on Tuesday Walk on Let Jesus be Let him be your Your guide He's able To carry your load To carry your load And he can see way down the road Walk on...

Frank Bailey: sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for violation of Civil Rights laws. Lester Cowens: sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. Floyd Swilley: sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. Clinton Pell: sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Sherrif Ray Stuckey: acquitted. Wesley Cooke: sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. Clayton Townley: sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

CAST OF CHARACTERS Anderson – GENE HACKMAN Ward – WILLEM DAFOE Mrs. Pell – FRANCES MCDORMAND Deputy Pell – BRAD DOURIF Mayor Tilman – R. LEE ERMEY Sheriff Stuckey – GAILARD SARTAIN Clayton Townley (Samuel Bowers)– STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY Frank Bailey (Alton Wayne Roberts)– MICHAEL ROOKER Lester Cowens (Edgar Ray Killen) – PRUITT TAYLOR VINCE Agent – MONK BADJA DJOLA Agent Bird – KEVIN DUNN Eulogist – FRANKIE FAISON Judge – TOM MASON Goatee (Michael Schwerner) – GEOFRREY NAUFFTS Passenger (Andrew Goodman)– RICK ZIEFF Black Passenger (James Chaney) – CHRISTOPHER WHITE Hattie – GLADYS GREER Mose – JAKE GIPSON Waitress – DIANNE LANCASTER Hollis – STANLEY W. COLLINS Fennis – DANIEL WINFORD Floyd Swilley – MARC CLEMENT Earl Cooke – LARRY SHULER Wesley Cooke – STEPHEN WESLEY BRIDGWATER Curtis Foy – BOB PENNY

This film was inspired by actual events which took place in the South during the 1960’s. The characters, however, are fictitious and do not depict real people either living or dead.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books: Blaut, James M. “Diffusionism: A Uniformitarian Critique,” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1977, p. 33. Blaut, James M. Fourteen Ninety-Two, in Political Geography Quarterly, 1992, vol. 11, no. 3. Blaut, James M. “The Theory of Cultural Racism,” in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Volume 23 (1992), pp. 289.

Brownstone, David M and Irene, M. Frank, Facts about America Immigration. (New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2001), p. 321. Cazenave, Noel A. and Maddern, Darlene Alvarez, “Defending the White Race: White Male Faculty Opposition to a White Racism Course,” in Race and Society 2, 1999, pp. 25-50.

Dyer, Everett D. The American Family: Variety and Change, (New York: McGraw– Hill Book Company, 1979), p. 60. Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations (New York: Routledge, 2000). Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression (New York” Routledge, 2006).

Ford, Richard T. Racial Culture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 169. Lewis, Anthony Portrait of a Decade: The Second American Revolution (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 135. Kasher, Steven The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), pp. 132-135. Wellman, David T. Portraits of White Racism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. x. Williams, Juan Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987), p. 208.

Wynter Leon E. American Skin, Pop Culture, Big Business & the End of White America, (New York: Crown Publisher, 2002), p. 72.

Websites: http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/racism accessed on December, 25, 2008. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Burning+mississippi+burning accessed on December, 25, 2008. http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/missippi.html, accessed on November, 25, 2008 http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/rrpbcrbook.html, http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/history-of-mississippi.htm accessed on November 25, 2008. W.E.B. DuBois, The Conservation of Races (1897), p. 21. quoted from http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/racism, accessed on December 25, 2008