Mississippi Burning

The 1988 film Mississippi Burning depicts the total infestation of Mississippi government and civic society by racist rednecks. The Ku Klux Klan serves as a quasi-governmental and paramilitary authority that defies federal law. Their total infiltration into local governments makes the KKK an incredibly dangerous and powerful organization.

Civil Rights legislation presents real threats to Klan authority. The KKK have no respect for the mandate of the federal government and are more than willing to use tactics like murder, assault, kidnapping, and terrorism in order to consolidate and maintain power. Their murdering of three civil rights activists transcends the gamut of ordinary crime and places the act squarely under the rubric of domestic terrorism. The KKK finds any dissenting opinions to be threatening, which is why Clinton Pell and the other Klansmen kill the civil rights activists.

Given the extraneous circumstances under which the KKK operates in the...
[ View Full Essay]