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Mississippi Burning
The 1988 film Mississippi Burning depicts the total infestation of Mississippi government and civic society by racist rednecks. The Ku Klux Klan serves as a quasi-governmental and paramilitary authority that defies federal law. Their total infiltration into local governments makes the KKK an incredibly dangerous and powerful organization.
Civil Rights legislation presents real threats to Klan authority. The KKK have no respect for the mandate of the federal government and are more than willing to use tactics like murder, assault, kidnapping, and terrorism in order to consolidate and maintain power. Their murdering of three civil rights activists transcends the gamut of ordinary crime and places the act squarely under the rubric of domestic terrorism. The KKK finds any dissenting opinions to be threatening, which is why Clinton Pell and the other Klansmen kill the civil rights activists.
Given the extraneous circumstances under which the KKK operates in the United States, the FBI has no choice but to use unconventional and trans-legal tactics in order to protect the public. While their actions can be construed as an abuse of power, agents Anderson and Ward do the right thing. They could not...
Most obviously, the Ku Klux Klan kills civil rights activists in order to (a) prevent civil rights from usurping Klan authority in the South; (b) maintain white hegemony by forbidding the end result of civil rights, which is black empowerment; and (c) to send a message to other would-be pesky civil rights activists. The ideological basis of the murders highlights the difference between terrorist killings and standard criminal homicides. Moreover, the entire group condones the murders and other Klan-sponsored acts of terrorism. Each and every member of the Ku Klux Klan understands that the organization's sole mission is to use acts of terror to maintain political, economic, and social control. This fact makes every member of the Klan personally responsible for every act committed by the Klan. It would be impossible to join the Klan and not be aware of its fundamentally racist platform.
The only way to enforce rule of law in the South is, unfortunately and ironically, by circumventing the law. Anderson understands this, which is why he is willing to use the backhanded tactics that he does in the film. Anderson tricks the major and assaults Sherriff Pell: acts that are completely unethical but which are minor sacrifices in the greater cause of preserving the rights and freedoms of all Americans. Anderson basically shows that he is more than willing to come across as the bad guy if it means enforcing the laws of the land and preventing future Klan acts of terror. The Klan's stronghold in the South is so formidable that local law enforcement authorities are themselves redneck…
References
King, W. (1988). Mississippi Burning. The New York Times. Movie Review. Retrieved online: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE2DA1F30F937A35751C1A96E948260
Parker, A. (1988). Mississippi Burning. Feature film.
Membership in the KKK implies a support for hate crime; membership in the KKK is equivalent to membership in a domestic terrorist group. No Klan member can plead ignorance about the motives and tactics used by the organization. The organization exists to perpetuate a culture of white supremacy, by whatever means possible. Using violence, intimidation, infiltration of law enforcement, and conspiracy all point to terrorist acts. The KKK is
Mississippi Burning is an evocative movie that arouses horror over racial hatred. In fact, Director Alan Parker, in an interview, stated that the film's objective was precisely to "...cause them to react...because of the racism that's around them now..." (King, 1988, para.7). Parker does this by questioning the origins of the hatred through the characters in the film. Ward, the by the book FBI agent, expresses it eloquently when he
The fact that the local police authorities and local governing officials (like the mayor) were all of the same mindset as the perpetrators and that a deputy sheriff was involved first-hand in the murders virtually ensured that the crimes would remain unsolved unless the investigating authorities deviated from the normal guidelines for criminal investigations. Nevertheless, the specific tactics used by the FBI agents were themselves criminal actions that, in other
The efforts of the FBI to solve this case were certainly in the greater good, and they did solve the case, even though the trial was a mockery. It seems the FBI could have done more to have the case moved to a more neutral location to help ensure a fair trial, which certainly did not happen. Indeed, the FBI gave high priority to the case, and even opened an
A film that does not have this power, be it narrative or documentary will either simply not get made, or not get supported in such as way that anyone of import will view it or know its title and plot. Conclusion Both narrative and documentary films, in order to be viewed and understood must have a compelling social interest to the viewer, be it emotional, political or both, which it usually
" The Aftermath Uncle Tom characters were common in both white and black productions of the time, yet no director before Micheaux had so much as dared to shine a light on the psychology that ravages such characters. By essentially bowing to the two white men, Micheaux implied that Old Ned was less than a man; an individual whittled down to nothing more than yes-man and wholly deprived of self-worth. At this