Mississippi Burnings Movie Essay

The ‘Mississippi Burnings” was produced by Robert Colesberry and Frederick Zollo; the film directed by Alan Parker; the film opened on December 9, 1988 nationally; many famous actors took part in the making of this film such as Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Dourif; the main theme of this movie is segregation and the part it played in a controversial event in history. The film started off with the disappearance of three Civil Rights workers one African American and two Caucasian who were trying to spread awareness about voter registration. While the Civil Rights were in their car traveling they realized they were being followed by a multitude of cars. Once the Civil Rights workers pulled off the road when they became suspicious of …show more content…
The bodies and the car they were driving were hidden; this sparked controversy because no one had seen or heard from the three Civil Rights workers. The FBI agents were sent to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the workers; at first only two were sent Agent Alan Ward and Agent Rupert Anderson. Once Agent Ward and Agent Anderson arrived and saw how unruly and insensitive the citizens of the town were and how they treated African Americans they called in more agents. The agents began to try and interview African Americans but nobody would talk to them because they would be targeted by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan). Many African Americans were referred to as racial slurs and their houses and churches were being burned and blown up; one particular incident was when a man was inside of the church taking care of his church duties the KKK dragged him out of the church and doused it in gasoline and set the church on fire destroying everything. After the many conflicts with the KKK the agents called in more agents to help them search the area once the car was found by the lake that they had been searching previously. Although the bodies were not in the car they were able to determine that the three Civil Rights