Mississippi Burning

Uh-oh.

What is it?

What do they want?

I don't know.

Just pass me. Pass me.

Is it a cop?

I can't see.

What the fuck are these jokers playin' at?

They ain't playin'. You better believe it.

What are we gonna do?

I don't know.

OK. Hold on, you guys.

There's a truck too.

Shit. It is a cop.

Better stop.

OK. Sit tight, you guys. Don't say anything. Let me talk.

All right? We'll be all right. Just relax.

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

You had us scared to death, man.

Don't you call me "man", Jew-boy.

No, sir. What should I call you?

You don't call me nothin', nigger-lovin' Jew-boy. You just listen.

Yes, sir.

Hell, you even startin' to smell like a nigger, Jew-boy.

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

He's seen your face. That ain't good. You don't want him seein' your face.

Oh, it don't make no difference no more.

Whoa, 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 Judgement will soon be nigh

As the Lord in his wisdom looks down from on high

Will his battle be lost by mixin' 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

Cos the Ku Klux Klan is here to stay.

These Ku Kluxers are better with lynchings than they are with lyrics.

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

You don't like me much, do you, boss?

Sure, I like you. I just don't share your sense of humour.

Sometimes that's all you got left. How long you been in the Bureau?

Three years.

Right outta 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 this "boss" stuff.

They put me in charge because I've been through this before.

Birmingham? Montgomery?

Oxford. I was with Meredith at Old Miss.

Oh yeah.

You got hit in the head with a brick, so they gave you a promotion, right?

No. Shot in the shoulder.

Well, at least you lived. That's important.

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

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

What?

Mississippi.

Big building for a small town.

Yeah.

Howdy.

...in a red pick-up driving crazily...

Good morning. My name's Alan Ward.

I'm with the FBl.

Federal Bureau of Integration?

In that get-up, you ain't exactly undercover, are you, now?

We're here to see Sheriff Stuckey.

Sheriff's right busy now.

You'll have to wait or come back some other time.

We'll wait.

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

You got about two seconds to get the sheriff out here

or I'm gonna kick the goddamn door in. OK?

Well, hell. Looks like we got some company.

Some Hoover boys come down to visit. How ya doin'?

Good.

I'm Sheriff Stuckey.

Rupert Anderson.

Rupert? We've been expectin' you. I assume you met my deputy, Mr Pell.

Sure did.

Are you down here to help us solve our nigger problems?

No. It's just a missing person case.

Well, come on.

Say... You gonna want your boy in on this?

Sheriff... I'm Special Agent Ward and I'm in charge of this case.

We think it might be a little more serious than missing persons.

I don't think so, boy.

In fact, you know what I think it is?

It's a publicity stunt cooked up by that Martin Luther King fella.

Come on.

At around 3.00pm, Deputy Pell says he arrested the three boys for speeding.

He held them in jail until 10.00 pm and then released them.

They drove off.

He says he followed them as far as the county line

and never saw them again.

Why didn't they make a phone call?

Why should they?

Mr Anderson, these boys were trained activists.

They're taught to check in every hour

and, if they're arrested, the moment they're released from custody.

The hotel is two minutes from the jail.

They could've phoned from the lobby. It just doesn't follow.

Maybe they went for a beer.

Not these boys. The Civil Rights Office in Rossville started making calls

as soon as they didn't check in.

The Sheriff's Office here said they had no idea where the boys were.

First lie.

By who? Sheriff's Office or Civil Rights Office?

Who would you believe?

Mr Ward, I don't know if you knew it or not,

but I was a sheriff in a little Mississippi town just like this.

- Yes, I'm aware of that. - Well, lyin' just don't come into it.

We were right on the border, ten miles from Memphis,

and a million miles from the rest of the world.

If a sheriff in a little town like this says that's what happened,

then that's what happened.

Let's go eat.

We're full up right now, honey. Y'all wanna wait a while?

Is the wait worth it?

We're not full for nothin', sugar. Y'all wanna look at a menu while you wait?

- Sure enough. - Thank you.

Well, what y'all gonna do? Wait or leave?

We're gonna wait cos we wanna be near you.

- There are some empty seats down there. - Uh, Mr Ward...

That's coloured down there. Don't even think about it.

There are some people over here gettin' ready to leave right now.

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 ain't got nothin' to say to you, sir.

Just a few questions.

I ain't got nothin' to say to you, sir.

Three Civil Rights boys came here to propose setting up a voter registration clinic.

Before the locals got a chance to say yes, the Klan burned 'em down.

You give a man a vote but don't let him use it.

Yeah, that's the way it works.

What did their office in Rossville have to say?

They confirmed that the boys came back here to apologise to the congregation.

"Sorry you folks didn't get to vote. "

"I suppose most of you never knew you even had one. "

"Now you got no place to go on Sunday. "

Apparently, after they came back here, they talked to some locals down the road.

I think that's where we should start.

You can talk to 'em but they won't talk to you.

These people have to live here long after we've packed up and gone.

They'd rather bite their tongue off than talk to us.

Bureau procedure, Mr Anderson.

The church caught fire and you ran home. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

And then the four white men stopped you?

Yes, sir.

And these four 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 what happened?

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.

- Ls your brother Hollis here, Fennis? - Yes, sir.

Well, wake his ass up. We wanna see him.

- Why? - Just wake him up, boy.

That's the man.

- There you are, nigger trash! - Come here, boy!

Come here, boy!

Hollis! Hollis!

Get your ass back here, you fuckin' nigger!

Hollis! Hollis!

We better not catch you talkin' to the FBl. Or you'll be dead, boy.

Real dead.

You admire these kids, don't you?

Don't you?

I think they're bein' used.

I think they're being sent down here in their Volkswagens and sneakers

just to get their heads cracked open.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe they believed in what they were doing?

Did it ever occur to them they were gonna end up dead?

Maybe.

In Washington they sure as hell knew, didn't they?

Some things are worth dying for.

Well, down here they see things a little differently.

People down here feel some things are worth killin' for.

Where does it come from, all this hatred?

You know, when I was a little boy...

...there was an old Negro farmer lived down the road from us, name of Monroe.