Mississippi Burning Essay

Prentiss Austin
I decided on watching Mississippi Burning to write my final paper on. This movie came out in 1988, and stared Gene Hackman (Anderson) and William Dafoe (Ward) as F.B.I agents. Mississippi Burning was loosely based on the real life events of the search for three Civil Rights Activists who were kidnapped and murdered in summer of 1964 during the Freedom rides. This film interested me because I wanted to see how my acquired knowledge of the CRM influenced my feelings about the movie. I remember hearing about the movie when it came out in 1988, but I was only 10 at the time and had little education on the CRM. I will say overall I thought the film excellent. I think they captured both segregation and racial tension that
Anderson, played by Hackman was the older southern F.B.I agent who was well aware of the practices of the south. He used his southern style and charm to gather crucial evidence throughout the investigation. Ward, played by Dafoe was the younger F.B.I agent who didn’t care about how the south was run and its practices. Ward was determined to bring equality and fairness into changing the racial divide in the south. Anderson called Ward a “Kennedy boy” as a reference to the fact John F Kennedy was set on fixing the racial problem in America. Civil rights was the main issue at hand as blacks in the south feared for their lives on a daily
Many blacks were being arrested, and upon their release were followed by K.K.K members who were tipped up by the police. This pattern shows at what lengths some whites went to keep power in the south. This particular case cracks when the wife of the man in charge of murdering the guys gives up vital information to Anderson during a protest rally taking place in the town. The agents arrange a meeting which was a “setup” and it became clear the partnership between the K.K.K and the police. All involved were arrested and it became an even bigger media spectacle. The agents were made out as heroes as they solved the