What Was the Story Behind Mississippi Burning?

How did the murder of Emmett Till and the Scottsboro Trial bring to light the racial prejudice in the South and how much did it push the Civil Rights Movement?

Emmett Till, a 14 years old, African American boy from Chicago, was brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman on August 28, 1955, while he is visiting family in Money, Mississippi. In the same year, the Civil Rights Movement in America begin. Starting in 1955 to 1965, The Civil Rights Movement were characterized by countless protests and demonstrations demanding equality for black people in the United States. This movement happened in many places at United Stated: Selma, Birmingham, Albany, and Montgomery. According to the history of American, The Civil Rights Movement made a lot of progress toward the Achievement of equality between races, like the Freedom Riders, Children’s Crusade and Segregation in the schools in Birmingham.

The novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ was written by an American novelist, Harper Lee. The novel tells of a story how a single father lawyer, Atticus teaches his children, Jem and Scout important knowledge within different events that occur in Maycomb town. The film, ‘Mississippi Burning,’ was filmed by an English director, Alan Parker. The film unfolds a story of how two FBI agents are sent to investigate Mississippi town as a group of civil rights workers have mysteriously gone missing. Both creators, Harper Lee and Alan Parker demonstrate similarities as they explore the theme of prejudice in their text, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Mississippi Burning.’ This is portrayed through the discrimination against racism between the white and black individuals and sexism between women and men.

The Emmett Till murder shined a light on the horrors of segregation and racism on the United States. Emmett Till, a young Chicago teenager, was visiting family in Mississippi during the month of August in 1955, but he was entering a state that was far more different than his hometown. Dominated by segregation, Mississippi enforced a strict leash on its African American population. After apparently flirting with a white woman, which was deeply frowned upon at this time in history, young Till was brutally murdered. Emmett Till’s murder became an icon for the Civil Rights Movement, and it helped start the demand of equal rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

The civil rights movement was one of the main elements that were responsible for agitation and protest that greatly expanded in the 1960s. This social movement “originated among black Americans in the South who faced racial discrimination and segregation, or the separation of whites and blacks, in almost every aspect of their lives” (“Protests in the 1960s,” 3). There was constant racial

The death of a young African American male in 1955 haunted the south and the African American society. Images of Emmett Till hanging in a tree were plastered on television and in newspapers for Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, and David Richmond to see while attending North Carolina A & T College in 1960. These four African American men would soon become known as the Greensboro Four after instigating a sit-in at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their courage and determination ignited a movement to end segregation not only in their state but across the nation. History was being made that day as the young men sat at the counter, customers inside watching as the events unfolded, and the impact of this incident permeating across American’s eyes.

On March 31, 1931 nine boys by the names of; Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Ozie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, Andy Wright and youngest of them all, Roy Wright rode a train heading toward Alabama, they got into a fight with a group of white men that allegedly lead them to push the white men off of the train (An American Tragedy). The train stopped at a small town where an angry mob was waiting to find a group of troubled black men. As they got off the train, two young white women by the names of; Ruby Bates and Victoria Price claimed, “these boys raped us" (An American Tragedy). The public

Throughout the long fourteen year span of the Civil Rights Movement, countless monumental and historical events took place, but one stood out among the rest. That event was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and with that the death of four innocent African American girls. The bomb had the most impact to the segregation status quo and the overall success of the Civil Rights Act.

On February 8, there was a protest against a white-only bowling alley. It was the “All-Star Bowling Lane” in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and led to the death of 3 college students. One of the most significant civil rights movements would be what dealt with housing issues. Protests about fair housing led to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that allowed open housing for people of all races. The Black Panthers were also making headway in civil rights on February 17th, 1968. On April 11, 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act; This Act prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of houses. This act also reinstated and reinvigorated the African Americans' right to full citizenship.

Fire in A Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America by Laura Wexler is about the lynching of four African- Americans: Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, George Dorsey, and Mae Murray Dorsey. This occurred in Walton County on July 25, 1946 at the old Moore’s Ford Bridge. The lynching spurred a six month federal investigation in Walton and Oconee County, but eventually led to no convictions or arrest. The FBI had many prime suspects and prime witnesses, but the white community stuck together and the black community was too afraid to speak against their white counter parts. The reason for the lynching at Moore’s Ford Bridge was because the white community of Walton County wanted revenge for Barnette Hester’s stabbing, to keep interracial relationships separate, and to keep whites in control of the political power.

In the year 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a massive wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional. Five years later, Black students launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle for civil rights into a

A staff writer at History.com wrote, “In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. They then passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. “ The civil rights movement exposed black lives too harsh cruelty, unreal racism, and the inability to support themselves during the great depression.

The Scottsboro incident of 1931 was when nine teenage boys of African descent were falsely accused of attacking other teenage boys and raping a white girl while riding a freight train. At first the only accusation against the boys were that they had attacked another group of boys except they

The twentieth state of the United States had quite some history to go through, starting with what is its name, the natives that started and the slave trade that led to the unwanted war of America. Mississippi brought a lot nationalism which brought a lot of social inequality. This essay will lightly cover the background and history that Mississippi holds.

      Michael Schwerner joined forces with SNCC along with his chief aid, James Chaney, a black Mississippi native. They both had hopes that the federal government would be pushed by their numbers to increase FBI and federal protection for the students. The third man on their team was Andrew Goodman. He was a reasonably wealthy, white, 20 year old from Manhattan. Idealistic and eager to work, Andrew had no clue that his first day in Mississippi would also be his last. On the night of June 21st in Neshoba County the three young men disappeared after being stopped on a bogus traffic violation. After discovering their burned out car on the second day of the search, most everyone knew the three had been murdered. The press followed the search and brought the case to the nation’s attention. Many bodies of murdered civil rights workers and black citizens were recovered from the backwaters and swamps as federal agents and Navy seamen scoured Neshoba County. The killers in Neshoba County had made a very grave mistake. They hadn’t just murdered three local “colored boys” this time. The parents of Schwerner and Goodman had money; they had ties. So much so, that they were given an audience with