Mississippi Burning

The Mississippi burning is the story of 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi who were reported missing. The FBI was sent into the state of Mississippi to investigate the matter because it was an interstate matter. The county officials were unhappy about this intrusion by the FBI. The FBI was asking several people questions about the incident and went around the town and found that a Baptist church was burned down. The 2 officers working on the jobs had opposing viewpoints on solving the case. One was more personable and got answers out of people while the other solved his cases by the book. In the beginning local African Americans hesitated to talk to federal agents because they thought that they were going to be beat up by Klansmen if they talked to the FBI. The FBI looked to the local sheriff’s for assistance but they didn’t give it to them. The local sheriff’s believed that the FBI was wasting their time. The Klansmen where brought to court but the charges were dismissed because the judge believed the actions by the Klansmen were provoked by outside influences. The officers kept going around the town looking for the truth and interviewed one of the Klansmen’s wives and consistently questioned her for answers. After that they got the answers they needed to convict the Klansmen of killing the civil rights workers. The African American church then has a ceremony in remembrance of the African American civil rights worker and in the pastors speech he brings up that this man will not be able to be buried with the other civil rights workers because of the differences in the color of their skin. After the ceremony in the church the congregation marches through the town and goes to the burial site.  The trial went to federal court because it became a federal issue when county officials were involved. The sentences of the Klansmen were between 7-10 years. The mayor was then found hanging in a basement after the trials. The movie is pretty good. It tells a very interesting story on civil rights and how people in the south reacted to the civil rights act of 1968. This movie is enlightening a shows the cruel racism of the late 60's