Essay On Mississippi Burning

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Picture a group of three men driving to the state of Mississippi to investigate the burning of a church. Immediately as they enter though, the white Sherriff arrests them even though they hadn’t broken the law. After spending seven and a half hours in a jail cell, they return to their car and start driving. Only to be ambushed by a group of men from the Ku Klux Klan. The leader grabs the first white guy and after asking if he loved blacks, shoots him in the heart. Then he goes for the second and puts a bullet through his chest. The black man accompanying the others tries to make a run for it and get out alive, but the group opens fire and he is shot dead by at least five bullets. The bodies are hid, the group returns home, and nobody knows …show more content…
The KKK murdered them, not because they broke the law or hurt someone, but because the men were trying to help blacks gain the right to vote, and the Klan did not support that. Mississippi in 1964 was behind the nation in terms of racial progress, the natives had taken the law unto themselves to force black people to never have a voice. This had bred hatred and the state was never safe for nonwhite people. It wasn’t uncommon to be beaten, shot at, or have property burned because one was black and tried to register to vote. It was a dangerous place, and the rest of the nation was finally realizing that something needed to change. When the three men disappeared, the rest of America finally was disturbed by Mississippi and sent the FBI to investigate and find out what happened. It took over a month to find the remains of the men, and in the process at least nine other black men were found strung up in trees, in ditches on the side of the road, or buried in shallow graves. But finally the nation realized that the civil rights movement needed to end, and there had to be equality for all races in the United States of America. One year after the three bodies were found, the Voting Rights Act was passed and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This new law forbade racial discrimination in voting. The African Americans were finally getting a voice in

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