Mississippi Burning

What is it?

- What do they want? - I don't know.

Come on, guys, pass me.

Pass me.

- Is it a cop? - I can't see.

- What the fuck are they playing at? - They ain't playing, believe it.

- What are we gonna do? - I don't know.

Okay. Hold on, you guys.

There's a truck too.

Shit, it is a cop.

You better stop.

Sit tight. Don't say anything. Let me talk.

All right. We'll be all right.

Just relax.

Y'all think you can drive any speed around here?

- You had us scared to death, man. - Don't call me "man," Jew-boy.

What should I call you?

Don't call me nothing, nigger-loving Jew-boy. Just listen.

Yes, sir.

Hell, you starting to smell like a nigger, Jew-boy.

- We'll be all right. - Sure you will, nigger-lover.

He's seen your face. You don't want him seeing your face.

Oh, don't make no difference no more.

Oh, shit! We into it now, boys!

You only left me a nigger, but at least I shot me a nigger.

Yes, indeed.

Now listen, you Communists And niggers and Jews.

Tell all your buddies To spread the news.

Your day of judgment Will soon be nigh.

As the Lord in his wisdom Looks down from on high.

Will his battle be lost By mixing the races?

We want beautiful babies Not ones with brown faces.

Never, never Never I say.

For the Ku Klux Klan Is here to stay.

Never, never Never I say.

'Cause the Ku Klux Klan Is here to stay...

These Ku Kluxers are better with lynchings than lyrics.

Just read the file, Mr. Anderson. I can do without the cabaret.

- You don't like me, do you, boss? - Sure I do.

I don't share your sense of humor.

Sometimes that's all that's left.

- How long you been in the bureau? - 3 years.

- Right out of college, huh? - No. From the Justice Department.

Kennedy boy. Now I see.

No, I don't think you do see.

Let's get this thing straight.

I haven't had a pimple in years. I shave every morning.

I even go to the bathroom by myself. So you can quit the "boss" stuff.

I'm in charge because I've done this before.

- Birmingham? Montgomery? - Oxford.

I was with Meredith at Ole Miss.

Got hit in the head, so they promoted you?

No. Shot in the shoulder.

You lived. That's important.

No, Meredith lived. That's what's important.

What's got four eyes and can't see?

- What? - Mississippi.

Never, never Never I say.

'Cause the Ku Klux Klan Is here to...

Big building for a small town.

Howdy.

Good morning.

My name's Alan Ward. I'm with the FBI.

Federal Bureau of Integration?

In that get-up, you ain't undercover.

- We're here to see Sheriff Stuckey. - Sheriff's right busy now.

You'll have to wait or come back another time.

We'll wait.

Listen to me, you backwoods shit-ass, you.

You got about two seconds to get the sheriff,

or I'm gonna kick the goddamned door in.

Looks like we got some company. Some Hoover boys come down to visit.

- How you doing? - Good.

- I'm Sheriff Stuckey. - Rupert Anderson.

Rupert? We expected you.

I assume you met my deputy, Mr. Pell?

Sure did.

You here to help solve our nigger problems?

- No. It's just a missing-person case. - Well, come on.

- Say, you gonna want your boy on this? - Sheriff, I'm special agent Ward.

I'm in charge of this case.

We think it might be more serious than missing persons.

I don't think so, boy.

In fact, I think it's a publicity stunt

cooked up by that Martin Luther King fella.

Come on.

At 3:00 p.m., Pell says he arrested three boys for speeding.

He jailed them until 10:00 p.m., then released them.

They drove off.

He says he followed them to the county line and never saw them again.

- Why didn't they make a phone call? - Why should they?

These boys were trained activists.

They check in every hour, and if arrested, at their release.

The hotel's two minutes away. They can call from the lobby.

It doesn't follow.

- Maybe they had a beer. - Not these boys.

The civil rights office called when they didn't check in.

The sheriff's office said they didn't know where the boys were.

First lie.

Who? The sheriff or the civil rights office?

Who would you believe?

Mr. Ward, I was a sheriff in a town just like this.

- Yes, I'm aware of that. - Lying don't come into it.

We were 10 miles from Memphis, a million from the world.

If a sheriff says that's what happened,

then that's what happened.

Let's go eat.

- We're full, honey. Y'all wanna wait? - Is it worth it?

We're not full for nothing. Y'all want a menu?

- Sure. - Thank you.

Y'all gonna wait?

We're gonna wait because we want to be near you.

There's some empty seats down there.

Mr. Ward.

That's the colored. Don't even think about it.

- There's some people ready to leave. - Aren't you hungry, Mr. Anderson?

Good afternoon. Looks good.

Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?

I'm looking for some information.

- I got nothing to say to you, sir. - Just a few questions.

I ain't got nothing to say to you, sir.

Three civil rights boys came here to propose a voter registration clinic.

Before the locals said yes, the Klan burned them down.

Man has a vote, but he can't use it.

- That's the way it works. - What'd their office have to say?

They confirmed that the boys came back to apologize to the congregation.

Sorry you didn't get to vote. You never knew you even had one.

Now you got no place to go on Sunday.

After they came back, they talked to some locals down the road.

- That's where we should start. - They won't talk to you.

These people have to live here. They'd rather bite their tongue off.

Bureau procedure, Mr. Anderson.

The church caught fire and you ran home, correct?

Yes, sir.

- Then the four white men stopped you? - Yes, sir.

These white men attacked your husband?

Yes, sir.

But you can't identify them?

No, sir.

- Did you report this to the police? - No, sir.

- But you told the civil rights boys? - Yes, sir.

Ma'am, did they tell you where they were going after that?

No, sir.

- Nothing? - No, sir.

All right. Thank you, ma'am.

You're welcome.

Come on, boy.

Open up.

- Your brother Hollis here? - Yes, sir.

Wake his ass up. We want to see him.

- Why? - Wake him up, boy.

- Why? What's the matter? - There you are!

Come here, boy!

Hollis!

Get back here, you fucking nigger!

Hollis! Hollis!

Shit!

We better not catch you talking to the FBI.

You'll be dead, boy.

- You admire these kids, don't you? - Don't you?

I think they're being used.

They're sent here in their Volkswagens and sneakers,

to get their heads cracked open.

Did it occur to you they believed in their work?

- Did it occur to them they'd die? - Maybe.

In Washington they knew, didn't they?

Some things are worth dying for.

Down here they see things a bit differently.

People down here feel some things are worth killing for.

Where does it come from, all this hatred?

You know, when I was a little boy,

an old Negro farmer lived down the road, name of Monroe.

And he was...

I guess he was luckier than my daddy was.

He bought himself a mule.

That was a big deal around that town.

My daddy hated that mule.

His friends always kidded him about Monroe plowing with his new mule.

And Monroe was gonna rent another field now that he had a mule.

One morning that mule just showed up dead.

They poisoned the water.

After that, the mule wasn't mentioned to my daddy.

Just never came up.

Once, driving along, we passed Monroe's place and it was empty.

He packed and left. Gone up north or something.

I looked over at my daddy's face

and I knew he'd done it.

He saw that I knew. He ashamed.

I guess he was ashamed.

He looked at me and he said,

"If you ain't better than a nigger, who are you better than?"

- You think that's an excuse? - No. It's just a story about my daddy.

- Where's that leave you? - With an old man so full of hate

that he didn't know being poor was what was killing him.

Get the light! Get the light!

You all right?

I guess they know we're here.

Now you know what you're getting into.

I'll call Washington. I need more agents.

Make any difference if I say it's the wrong thing to do?