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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 playing at?
Oh, they ain't playing. You better believe.
- 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.
Okay, 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 call me "man," Jew-boy.
No, sir. What should I call you?
You don't call me nothing, nigger-loving Jew-boy. You just listen.
Yes, sir.
Hell, you even starting 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 seeing your face.
Oh, it 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 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 humor.
Sometimes that's all you got left.
How long you been in the bureau?
Three 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 this "boss" stuff.
They put me in charge because I've been through this before.
- Birmingham? Montgomery? - Oxford.
I was with Meredith at Ole Miss.
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.
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 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 goddamned door in, okay?
Well, hell, 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 been expecting you. - Uh-huh.
I assume you met my deputy, Mr. Pell?
Sure did.
You down here to help us solve our nigger problems?
No. It's just a missing-person case.
Hmm. Well, come on.
Say, you gonna want your boy in on this?
Sheriff, I'm Special Agent Ward.
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 3:00 p.m., Deputy Pell says he arrested the three boys for speeding.
He held them in jail until 10:00 p.m., 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's two minutes from the jail. They could have 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? The sheriff's office or the 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, Mr. Anderson.
Well, lying just don't come into it.
We were right on the border, 10 miles from Memphis,
and a million miles from the rest of the world.
Now, 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 nothing, sugar. Y'all want to look at a menu while you wait?
- Sure. - Thank you.
Well, what y'all gonna do, wait or leave?
We're gonna wait because we want to be near you.
There's some empty seats down there.
Uh, Mr. Ward.
That's the colored down there. Don't even think about it.
There's some people over here getting 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 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 setting up a voter registration clinic.
Before the locals got a chance to say yes, the Klan burned them down.
Give a man a vote, but don't let him use it.
That's the way it works.
What'd their office in Rossville have to say?
They confirmed that the boys came back here to apologize 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.
Well, you can talk to them, but they won't talk to you.
These people have to live here long after we're 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.
Then the four white men stopped you?
Yes, sir.
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.
Your brother Hollis here?
Yes, sir.
Well, wake his ass up. We want to see him.
- Why? - Just wake him up, boy.
Why? What's the matter?
There you are!
Come here, boy!
Hollis!
Get your ass 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.
I think they're sent down here in their Volkswagens and their 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.
Down here they see things a little 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, uh...
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 was 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?
No.
The whole place for $75 a month.
It's private. It's central. It's perfect.
There's room for 100 more agents. 200, maybe.
More on the balcony.
We're trying to find the boys, Mr. Anderson.
I'll take all the help I can get.
When's the show start?
Who's the big shot?
That's the Klan.
No pointy hats, but plenty of pointy heads.
Let me run a check on the plates.
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Anderson.
Say hello to our mayor, Mr. Tilman.
How do you do, Anderson?
Mr. Mayor, Mr. Barber.
This looks like the place to be.
Even for me.
Nothing like a barber shop for jawing your socks off.
Where you from, Anderson?
Thornton, Mississippi, sir.
Just a spit from Tennessee.
Then you must know how we all feel down here.
We don't take to outsiders telling us how to live.
Our nigras were happy, till those beatnik college kids
came here stirring things up. Before that, nobody complained.
Nobody dared.
We got a peaceful community, Anderson.
They're like other folks, I reckon. You push them too far...
The way I figure it, it's like three sticks of old dynamite.
You shake it up, and we'll be scraping bodies off the street.
I'm here to investigate the missing three kids, ask questions.
If this all boiled down to gravy, there's not enough for a chicken-fried steak.
Them kids you're looking for? I'll bet you a shiny new dime
they're sitting in Chicago
drinking a cold beer and having a big laugh
about all the commotion.
Sure hope so.
You tell your bosses
people got the wrong idea about the South.
You know what I'm talking about.
Everybody running around ragged, backwards, illiterate,
eating sow-belly and corn pone three times a day.
Simple fact is, Anderson, we got two cultures down here.
White culture, and the colored culture.
That's the way it always has been.
That's the way it always will be.
Rest of America don't see that.
America don't mean jack shit.
You in Mississippi now.
Oh, that's for sure.
What's the score?
St. Louis on top, five to nothing.
What inning is it?
Bottom of the seventh.
You like baseball, Anderson?
Yeah, I do. You know,
it's the only time a black man can wave a stick at a white man
and not start a riot.
Sir?
We checked on the plate, sir. Clayton Townley.
Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
That's him. And we have a lead on the car.
A Choctaw thinks he knows where it is.
I'm waiting for a call.
Good.
You have your appointment for next Tuesday, right?
See you then. Bye-bye.
You gonna go to...
Afternoon, ladies.
Can I help you?
Well, yes, you can. I tell you, I hate the way I look.
What do you think? A permanent wave, maybe? Or a bleach job?
That looks good. You have that done here?
Jackson.
A wig's your only hope.
You won't be able to do much with that cue ball.
Thank you.
If you wanna ask questions, here's where you'll hear it all.
Well, matter of fact, I do.
Who's that gentleman that just drove in?
I know that isn't President Johnson.
Clayton Townley.
Are you one of them FBI gentlemen?
Yes, ma'am, I am.
I think it's a shame those two kids are dead,
but I hope you find them.
Actually, it's three kids missing. A colored kid also.
You honestly think you'd be here if it weren't for the white boys?
- Maybe not, Miss... - Mrs.
Pell. Her old man's Ray Stuckey's deputy.
But I'm single.
Look out! Here they come!
Hollis?
Get back. Move out of the way.
It's a local problem.
We'll handle it! We don't need your damn help!
It ain't right having blood on Main Street. How'd that look on TV?
- Okay, easy. - Get up.
I got him.
Get out of the way, now.
He's from the diner.
Think before you talk to colored kids with an audience.
They're sending a message from Tupelo.
I know it, yes. Clayton Townley, chief pointy head.
That's right. How did you know?
Bureau procedure. Try it sometime.
We did!
We found the car the kids were driving.
Good morning.
Two beer cans, a Coca Cola bottle, green plastic bottle,
badly burned wristwatch stopped at 12:45, set of keys.
No bodies.
I want the entire area searched.
Every inch.
Yes, sir.
It's a big swamp.
Every inch, Mr. Bird.
I guess they never left Mississippi.
Yeah, they're dead. They're dead.
Mr. Bird?
Yes, sir?
There's a telephone at the truck stop.
Get to it, get on it and get me 100 more men here by morning.
- 100? - 100.
Bureau people?
It could be the goddamn army!
I want this entire swamp searched.
Yes, sir.
Don't do it, Mr. Ward. You'll just start a war.
It was a war long before we got here.
You too!
Wake up! Come on!
Get the fuck out of here, nigger! Go on!
Sir?
The sheriff's alibi is solid. He was playing poker with relatives.
The whole time?
No, for three hours. He lost $11.38.
Another thing, sir.
We're having trouble with the motel manager.
What trouble?
He wants us out.
He says we're bad for business.
Buy it.
Sorry, sir?
Buy it!
The motel.
How high can I go?
Whatever it takes.
Today in Jessup County,
amidst the violence erupting here this week,
the nation's fixed on the search
for the missing civil rights workers.
I think it's a hoax.
But if they are in that swamp, then they asked for it.
Naval reserves are in to join scores of FBI agents
in their search for the men.
They planned the whole thing. They're in New York laughing at us.
You think it's a hoax?
Yeah. They ain't gonna find nothing.
Civil rights leaders are optimistic as to the men's whereabouts,
but privately, there is concern they will ever be found alive.
They looked for trouble and found it.
This is Marek Barlbobi, Network News. Jessup County, Mississippi.
Sheriff Stuckey?
They ought to be looking up in Canada for them boys
instead of our swamps here.
Also, I think it's a publicity stunt dreamed up by these NAACP people.
NAACP?
Yeah, NAACP.
It stands for niggers, alligators, apes, coons and possums.
Tell you what you got. You got your NAACP,
you got your SNCC, your COFO...
You know what that mess is?
B-U-L-L-S-H-l-T. You got it?
Sheriff, will this be a federal case?
There'll be a time when we don't gotta say,
"Good morning, sir, Mr. Sheriff."
There'll be a time when we won't have to say, "Mr. Stuckey."
There'll be a time when we just say "Stuckey" or "Sheriff."
There'll be a time when the sheriff won't even be a white man.
Hello.
Could I ask you a few questions?
I don't suppose you know what kind of flower these are?
I been seeing them all over the place.
I never saw such a darn pretty plant.
They're trumpet pitchers.
Trumpet pitchers.
They're beautiful. They really are.
They don't smell so good, but they're pretty.
It's nice talking to you.
Sorry about interrupting your meeting,
but nobody will talk to us.
They "zip up," like my mama used to say.
People don't want to talk for fear it'll get back to the law.
We are the law.
Not around here.
We were sent to find out what happened to those three boys.
They were here to help you.
It ain't us you should talk to.
Who should we be talking to?
Come on, Aaron.
Start with the sheriff's office.
Why ain't you afraid?
How come you ain't?
Aaron.
Aaron? Come on, son.
Here's the pitch. Swing and a line-drive base hit.
Another runner's home.
On to the next pitch by the ruffled Bob Gibson.
Ron Hunt singled to center. Hickman scored the Mets' second run.
Hunt holds on at first. Mets now lead 2 to 1.
The next one up will be Joe Christopher who struck out and popped out to Boyer.
He's 0 for 2, and hitting a mere.252...
Good evening, Mrs. Pell. I'm Agent Ward. He's Agent Anderson.
We're with the FBI. Is your husband home?
We'd like to have a word with him.
Y'all come in, then.
The FBI gentlemen want to ask you some more questions.
Want me to put your dinner in the oven?
Leave us alone?
Mind if I take a seat?
Why you gotta bother me at home?
Well, I wanted to run through, once again,
your movements on June 21 st.
June which?
June 21 st.
Now, deputy, we both know what day we're talking about.
Let's be civilized and the sooner you can get back to your game
and we can return to DC.
Please, don't let me interrupt you.
It's just when you've heard a question
asked a dozen times, it gets boring.
Yeah, I guess so.
You don't eat together?
He works funny hours.
You think that's odd?
No.
I work funny hours myself.
I eat when I'm hungry, he eats when he can.
- Can I get you something? - No, thanks.
Nice house. How long have you lived here?
I was born here.
But my father lost the house in a poker game a long time ago.
We've been paying rent ever since.
It's a wicked game.
Poker.
Wicked.
Mr. Anderson?
It was nice talking to you. Guess I gotta go.
Pork chops still any good? Bring me a beer?
Good night.
Get back to baseball. You know what they say?
The only game a black man can wave a stick...
I already heard that one.
Fifty minutes of his alibi hinges on his wife.
What's she like?
She's a nice lady.
Tell me, how does a woman like that end up...
With Shithead in there?
You know what small towns are like. A girl spends high school
looking for a guy to marry, then her whole life figuring out why.
Something's wrong. He's too confident.
Did you see the wedding photograph?
His three usher pals hooked their thumbs in their belts
with three fingers pointing down.
So, what is that? Some sort of Masonic thing?
KKK.
I know you ain't drunk. I won't argue.
I'm not drunk.
I'll take you where you can sleep it off.
All right. Hold up.
- Who's driving? - Watch your head.
Hi.
There was a couple things I need to check with you.
My husband's not here.
Actually, I wanted to talk to you.
Me?
Well, you better come in, then.
Just take a minute.
My boss, he's kind of a pain. College kid.
He has to dot all the i's, cross all the t's.
What do you want to ask me about?
It's a time thing.
A few things we're not clear about...
Should I put your flowers in water?
Actually, they're for you.
They're beautiful.
They are pretty, aren't they?
Don't smell nice, but they're pretty.
Would you like anything? Some tea?
Yeah, I would. Thanks.
Oh, don't look at that. It's a terrible photo.
Oh, I don't know about that.
Is this recent?
No. I wish.
Well, this sure looks recent to me.
We were married 14 years ago.
Are you kidding me? No, that... Come on!
You take sugar?
Sure do.
I grew up in a town like this.
You were smart enough to leave.
Why didn't you?
"For better or for worse."
How about you? Are you married?
Two.
Well, I was, as I remember.
It didn't last very long. I was never home.
I guess she got fed up with phone calls from Miami
and postcards from Des Moines.
There was always a guy around.
Any guy that could spare the time for a movie or a beer
or a quarter for the jukebox.
She left.
How about you?
Oh, you know the South, Mr. Anderson.
You graduate and marry the first boy that makes you laugh.
Your husband's quite a guy.
You know, my boss has this thing about an hour,
50 minutes to be exact, that your husband says he was with you.
And I guess he was.
Guess he was.
Well, that's a pity.
That means I don't have an excuse for hanging around here anymore.
Well...
Thank you for the iced tea.
Thank you for the flowers.
Sure.
Do you know what kind they are?
They're called trumpet pitchers.
Oh, that's right.
My daddy called them ladies from hell because they're car...
Carnivorous.
That's the word?
See, that pretty color's the bait.
Insects home in, and they're dead
even before they got their shoes off.
Should've picked something fitting.
Maybe.
May the peace and the joy in the Holy Ghost
abide with you for now and forever. Amen.
He sure did preach a good sermon today.
You already been told once, nigger!
We don't want to tell you again!
You flap them bootlips off to any of them federal men,
we'll put you in the ground, boy.
And that's without a pine box!
You understand me?
How are Negroes treated in Mississippi?
They're treated about fair. About as good as they ought to be.
If you ask me, niggers here have been treated bad for a long time.
I think Martin Luther King's one of the leaders.
J. Edgar Hoover said he was a Communist.
They had proof to that effect, but I don't know for sure.
But that's what they say.
You wanna find that nigger?
They say we've got to eat together and use the same bathrooms as the niggers.
That's hard for some Mississippi folks to do.
They're not like us. They don't take baths. They stink.
They... They're nasty.
They just not like white folks.
What do you think happened to them?
Dead.
Just as dead as they can be.
Feels so good.
Is she asleep? Is she?
I'm sorry I woke you up.
Bye, hon. I'll be a couple hours.
All right.
Well, Mary, is that your Betsy's kid?
Yeah, she's growing up real quick, isn't she?
Come on.
Tuesday will be just fine on those.
Funny.
Their kids are so cute.
- Here we go. - That back on me again?
If the Secret Service couldn't protect the president,
how the hell are we supposed to protect a few nigras?
It ain't nothing but low-life white trash drinking too much alcohol.
More like paint thinner, because this state's as dry as a martini.
We got the drunks to prove it.
Give me a little room here. Excuse me. Excuse me, Bob.
- Is this okay? - Your name, please?
Clayton Townley, local businessman.
Are you a spokesman for the White Knights of the KKK?
I told you. I'm a businessman.
I'm also a Mississippian and an American.
I'm sick and tired of the way Mississippians
are having our views distorted by you media people.
So let's get this straight.
We do not accept Jews because they reject Christ.
Their control of international banking cartels are at the root of Communism.
We do not accept papists who bow to a Roman dictator.
We don't accept Turks, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals or Negroes.
We're here to protect Anglo-Saxon democracy and the American way.
Thank you, sir.
Lester, you are living proof that cousins shouldn't fuck.
There's this colored boy.
He wants to play football for Bear Bryant.
Bear says, "I'll give you a tryout."
What color was he?
What's he gonna run with? A watermelon?
And he'll keep on running too.
He says, "Get down there on one goal line."
The other team's on the other goal line.
He throws the boy the ball...
Are you open?
You gotta be a member to drink here.
Member?
A member of what?
Member of the social club.
Thought you'd buy me a beer.
Give him a beer, Frank.
Nice to be back in a dry county again.
When I was sheriff, half my take-home pay
was from collecting taxes on illegal jukes. Works the same here.
You haul in a tidy penny here, winking at the bootleggers.
I wouldn't know nothing about that.
Yeah.
A tidy penny.
Got anything stronger, deputy?
No, we ain't.
Oh. In Thornton, Mississippi, there's a joy juice still in every yard.
All you need is corn, sugar, and a pot to boil it in.
I tried to take this boy's fingerprints.
He had his hands in a mash barrel.
There was no skin. He had no prints.
We ain't interested in your Mississippi stories.
You ain't from here no more.
Why'd you leave, anyway?
Well, I just wanted a change of scenery.
Grits started leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
If that's how you feel, Mr. FBI Man, why don't you get the hell out?
Go back to your Commie, nigger-loving boss.
You must not know my boss, Mr. Hoover.
He's not too fond of Commies. He'd be on your side.
I don't give two shits whose side he's on.
We got 5,000 niggers in this county who ain't registered to vote yet.
And they never will.
Tell your stiff suits in Washington, D.C, that they ain't gonna change us
unless it's over my dead body. Or a lot of dead niggers.
You'd kill? Is that what you're saying?
I wouldn't think twice about it.
No court in Mississippi would convict me for it.
How about you, deputy? How are you with wringing necks?
Keep pushing me, Hoover boy.
You get this straight, you fucker!
Tell your queer nigger bosses they ain't gonna find civil righters here.
Pack your bags and head back up north where you belong.
You get this straight, shitkicker, don't you mistake me for somebody else.
You got brains in your dick.
We'll be here till it's finished.
How about you, Deputy?
Is that gun just for show?
Or do you get to shoot people once in a while?
Thanks for the beer.
Ask them if they wanna help save this country
from the onslaught of integration.
They want to throw white children and colored children
into the melting pot of integration
out of which will come a conglomerated
mulato, mongrel class of people!
Both races will be destroyed.
I, for one, under God will die before I'll yield one inch
to that kind of a movement in America.
Do you know how much trouble you've caused.
They've been on the radio all day, talking about FBI intimidation.
We're not thugs, Mr. Anderson. We'll do this my way!
I know, bureau procedure.
What the hell were you doing at the beauty parlor?
If that's Bureau business, I want to know.
Do you understand me?
Get in here!
Know what your problem is?
You don't know when to speak and when to shut up!
Mrs. Pell ain't gonna say anything!
I'm not gonna choke it out!
This can of worms only opens from the inside.
I know that.
Freedom! Freedom!
White nigger!
Hurry up!
- Hi. - Hey, now.
Just passing by and saying hello.
You're not out watching the parade?
How come you didn't ask me any questions?
Everybody's been asked except me.
Why don't you send some cute FBI boys to talk to me?
Sorry about the intrusion.
Pecan?
I'm sick of pecans.
Freedom! Freedom!
You willing to stand up and fight?
Yes! Yes!
Freedom! Freedom!
Equality! Equality!
How'd you find out about this?
Bureau procedure, Mr. Ward.
Sheriff Stuckey.
He got his phone call.
Wonder who else was called.
Where're you going, boy?
Go on. Go on, get out of here.
Here they come.
Come on. Let's go.
We'll wait until they go inside.
Get him!
Get him in the truck now!
Get inside, you sons of bitches.
Let's go!
Wait until they're inside!
Come on! Let's go! Come on!
- Turn left. - How come?
Don't know, just turn left.
There's the truck.
Go up that little road.
Stop. Stop right here.
What's wrong with these people?
Mrs. Walker, I know this is difficult, but I need your help.
If you could persuade your son to press charges
then we could pick up the deputy right away.
He won't talk to no one.
It won't do no good anyway.
I promise it will.
Leave him alone.
Maybe then, they'll let us alone.
If this is a pattern,
at least we know what happened on June 21 st.
Pell stopped the boys for speeding at 3:00.
He held them while the Klan got organized.
He released them at 10:30.
By then, his buddies were ready.
I think he went with them.
You think he'll crack?
Down here, rattlesnakes don't commit suicide.
Did you release the three civil rights workers to the Klan
on the night of June 21 st?
No.
- Are you a member of the Klan? - No.
Were you ever a member?
No.
Do you know the term Grand Cyclops?
I've heard of it.
Were you the Grand Cyclops of the Mississippi Klavern
of the White Knights for the past three years?
Objection. He said he's not a member of the Klan.
Objection? This is just an interview. No need to be so formal.
Then I don't have to stay here, do I?
I got work to do.
You do, too.
Yes, sir. And you can be sure we'll do it.
Good luck.
You get enough to indict me, you know where I am.
- How'd it go? - Fine.
Don't you worry about a thing.
Are you gonna be indicted?
Does the FBI have evidence?
Are you cooperating in this investigation?
Yes, just like we've done all along.
Sir, could you not do that, please? Do not do that, please!
Get the fuck out of here!
We have to tell you again? Go back where you belong!
Get out of my face!
Get out and leave us alone!
Go home! You're gonna get hurt now.
This is getting to be more than we can take!
I can't take this.
Not now, sir.
Just a minute.
I resent your pursuit of my department!
You keep implicating them in these disappearances
but there's no evidence that they were involved with any crime!
We want the truth! It's frustrating!
Anyone can point a finger. That ain't evidence!
Us old cotton-choppers still believe in democracy!
And we know our rights!
You do. I'll bet a cotton-chopping dollar on it.
Anderson, you're so far up my nose I can feel your boots on my chin.
I'm telling you again, a couple of crazies dressed in bed sheets
dancing around scaring Negroes is not the fault
of the entire state!
There are three dead kids
because of your department.
So get used to having us around.
Get used to my boots on your chin too.
You people better back off!
Goddamn FBI! Who do they think they are?
Coming here...
Do you have a statement?
Goddamn right I do!
For a moment there, Mr. Anderson,
it sounded like we were both on the same side.
Are you all right?
I'm fine.
Let me know if you need anything.
I will.
Mama! Mama, come quick!
No sign of him, sir. He's long gone.
His mother lives across the street. She won't talk.
I want the whole area covered. Someone saw it.
They won't talk to us.
Get going, Mr. Bird. If they won't talk to us, shake it out of them.
Let's go. Every house. Come on.
What?
Sending these white guys around with their notebooks
is gonna get you nowhere.
Okay. What would you do?
It's okay to be afraid.
Go on, Willie,
tell them what you saw.
The defendants will rise.
In this country, a man's home is his castle.
That is one of the principles by which this community survives.
You men have done violence to that principle,
but the court understands that your crimes
have been, to some extent,
brought about by outside influences.
Outsiders have come into Jessup County and they've been people of low morality
and unhygienic.
Their presence has provoked a lot of people.
So the court understands, without condoning them, mind you,
that the crimes to which you men have pled guilty were
provoked by these outside influences.
So I'm gonna make your punishment light.
I'm gonna sentence you each to five years.
But I'm gonna suspend these sentences.
You can't go in there, sir.
FBI. Let us through.
Sorry, sir. You can't go in there.
Sheriff?
You started something this time.
I want to talk to them.
No.
This ain't nothing we can't handle.
Just crazy coloreds tearing up shit.
Local problem.
Look at those flames, Mr. Ward.
That's why they sent you here?
It would've happened anyway.
If I was a Negro, I'd think the same way they do.
If you were a Negro,
nobody would give a damn what you thought.
Aaron, Aaron, get up!
Take everyone out the back door.
When you hit the road, keep going. You understand?
Nathan! Come on! Get up, Nathan!
Get out the bed!
What's happening?
Come on, Mama! Let's go! Come on, Mama!
Come on, y'all!
Get up, child.
Come on, Grandma!
Let's go!
Who's there?
If you're in there, come on out. You hear?
I ain't taking this shit no more!
You'll be okay, Papa.
Mama and the girls are fine.
They cracked your head.
Just keep on breathing. Don't you go dying on me.
You hear me?
You're gonna be just fine.
Cows won't run away.
No one knows why. They're stupid.
They just stand there until their bellies swell up and they pop.
They have relatives in Detroit.
Are they gonna go?
I didn't give them any choice.
We know who did this.
We did.
It's progress.
Twenty years ago, they'd be strung up for stealing watermelons.
I don't understand you, Mr. Anderson. Not at all.
Let's get something straight.
This was fucked up when we turned it into a news show.
When the three kids vanished, it was news.
When the three civil rights workers vanished, it was news.
They're just kids. They're still missing.
What's missing is the 50 minutes Pell said he was with his wife.
Okay.
I love Mississippi.
They hate Mississippi.
They hate us because we present
a shining example of successful segregation.
These northern students, with their atheist, Communist bosses,
that have come into our community
this week, have taken a terrible blow.
This week, their cause has been crippled.
These federal policemen you see prying into our lives
have learned that they are powerless against us
if every single Anglo-Saxon Christian one of us
stands together!
This week...
We have company, sir.
This is a political meeting.
Doesn't smell that way to me.
It's a political meeting!
Oh, it looks like a political meeting, but smells more like Klan to me
with or without the Halloween costumes.
Gentlemen.
In the courts of Mississippi, they've been reminded
that they cannot turn our communities into their communities.
Communities in which Negroes run riot, unrestrained
as they do in Harlem
or they do in Oakland
or they do in the streets of Chicago!
Can I come in?
It's not good for you to be here.
Why?
It's ugly.
This whole thing is so ugly.
Do you know what it's like to live with all this?
People look at us and only see bigots and racists.
Hatred isn't something you're born with.
It gets taught.
At school, they said segregation was in the Bible.
Genesis 9, verse 27.
At seven years of age,
you get told it enough, you believe it.
You believe the hatred.
You live it, you breathe it.
You marry it.
My husband drove one of the cars that night.
That's what you wanted to hear, isn't it?
The bodies are buried on the Roberts' Farm
in an earthen dam.
Sir.
Take a break, Mr. Bird.
Put some handkerchiefs on your faces.
Make way, folks.
The missing civil rights workers were found
at an undisclosed grave.
Neither the FBI nor Sheriff's Department will comment.
The bodies are at Jessup County Hospital
where officials refuse to comment.
There is speculation that an autopsy will be performed.
Keep it open.
Coming through. Open it up.
Hold it back.
Clinton, you got some problems at home.
What do you mean?
Pull your head out your ass and get home!
I, Vincent Thompson,
am the cheddar cheese champion of the world.
In international competition,
my cheddar won first prize based on flavor,
texture, appearance, and color.
I've been a cheesemaker since I was 17.
I didn't expect you home so early.
Hi, Frank.
I'm sorry! I'm sorry!
Sir.
Say again.
I'll be right there.
- Mr. Bird. - Yes, sir?
Get five men and meet me outside.
Where's Anderson?
He's at the motel.
Take the front door.
If anyone comes in, break them down.
Take the corridor.
- Mr. Bird. - Sir?
Okay. Go get Anderson. Bring him here.
Don't tell him anything. Get him here.
Mr. Anderson, stop!
- Mr. Anderson! - Go to hell!
I'm telling you to stop.
We're not killers.
The difference between them and us.
Them and you.
You're not like them.
What do you care what I do to someone hiding behind a badge?
Aren't you changing the world?
Yes.
You're arrogant and stupid!
You're changing it, too.
I am right now.
Don't mess this up because you're fooling around with witnesses.
You!
That don't mean shit.
I'll kill you if you don't listen.
Fuck you.
Let me go.
We'll go after them together.
You wouldn't know how.
You'll teach me.
You don't have the guts.
I have the guts and the authority.
What does that mean?
New rules.
We nail them any way. Even your way.
Is this you or someone else?
Both.
We do it my way with my people!
Whatever it takes.
Okay.
Give me a minute.
Would he have shot me?
Yes, sir.
He's a ballsy bastard, isn't he?
They want me to say that two white boys also died
helping Negroes help themselves.
They want me to say
we mourn with the mothers of these two white boys.
But the State of Mississippi
won't allow these boys to be buried in the same cemetery as this Negro boy.
I say, I have no more love to give.
I have only anger in my heart today, and I want you to be angry with me!
I am sick, and I am tired, and I want you to be sick and tired!
I am sick and tired of going to funerals of black men
who've been murdered by white men.
I am sick and tired of the people of this country
who continue to allow these things to happen.
What is an "unalienable right" if you are a Negro?
What does "equal treatment under the law" mean?
What does it mean "liberty and justice for all"?
Now I say to these people, look at this young man
and you'll see the face of a black man,
but if you look at the blood, it's red!
It is like yours! It is just like yours!
You.
I'm going to tell you a story.
A kid named Homer Wilkes, lives about 30 miles north of here.
He'd taken his girl home and was walking back along the road
when a car pulled up.
Three white boys took him for a ride.
Now,
he hadn't done anything
except
be a Negro.
They took him to a shack.
A shack like this one.
They took out a razor blade.
Regular razor blade like this one.
They pulled down his pants,
they spread his legs
and they sliced off his scrotum.
Put it in a coffee cup.
Do you know how you bleed when somebody cuts off your balls?
Homer looked like
he'd been dipped in blood up to his waist.
He was barely alive when he got to the hospital.
He can hardly walk now.
Mayor, we know you know who was there
when those civil rights boys was killed.
You know who pulled the trigger.
You want to say something to me?
Okay.
Is he with the Bureau?
He's a specialist.
The mayor won't talk?
They'd kill him.
What do you have?
Three cars, seven men involved.
Pell and Bailey killed them.
Stuckey?
He's too smart to be there. Pell did it.
And Townley?
It was his idea.
Grand Dragons don't get dirty.
The whole thing? Bullet by bullet.
Are you interested
in words like coercion or hearsay or duress?
This is no good in court.
We're not in court.
We won't get them on murder. That's a state charge.
They won't prosecute.
We've got to get them in Federal Court.
Violation of civil rights!
You're violating rights!
Don't put me on your perch!
Don't drag me in your gutter!
These people crawled out of the sewer!
Maybe the gutter's where we should be!
Thank you.
This better be important.
Who called this meeting?
We thought you did.
Of this group? Are you stupid?
You didn't call this?
Who the fuck did?
Shut up!
Wait!
Is this a bullshit setup?
Ray, you didn't call this?
I got a note from you and Clinton.
Lester, shut up!
Now, we're all gonna walk straight out of here
and say nothing.
That means nothing, Lester.
You speak, you're dead.
Shut up.
Hey, Clinton.
Clinton?
The rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide.
Hi, Lester.
We'll give you that ride home.
What?
I know you said 4:30.
We're running late.
I'll meet you in the car.
You're cracked.
You have change for a $20?
Sure.
Get in the car, Lester.
Or it'll be hard picking your nose once I shut this drawer.
You could make it easier on yourself by going on the record.
I ain't got nothing to say.
You're barking up the wrong tree, mister.
I've got to tell you something.
We've got you cold. Your buddies talked.
You're lying.
You're in a lot of trouble.
You drove the second vehicle, the green truck.
Your buddy... Refresh my memory.
"Lester dragged the Negro from the car
"and shot him."
That's a lie!
It's true. What else, Mr. Bird?
He said, "They only left me a nigger, but at least I shot one."
I didn't kill him. I shot him in the ass.
He was already dead when you put a slug in him.
Your buddy tells it that you killed the kid.
Go on the record for us
or it's your ass, not just a black kid's!
Think about it, Lester.
Come on out of there.
Come on out.
This is tricky.
They make it look so easy, don't they?
I got a question for you, Clinton.
You don't mind if I call you Clinton?
I feel like I know you so well.
The way we have it, on the night of the murders,
you made a speech as you buried the kids in the dam.
How does Lester tell it? "Mississippi would be proud.
"You've struck a blow for the white man."
Is that what you said?
It must have been you.
Clayton Townley and Ray Stuckey were too smart to be there.
You didn't think anyone would remember.
But old Lester, he got a good memory.
I'm sorry. I haven't done this for a long time.
Did you make a speech
the night you beat up your wife?
Did you?
Did you strike a blow for the white man that night?
You got a stupid smile. You know that?
Can you see it?
Did you smile when the bulldozer ran over the body? Did you?
Did you smile when the bodies were covered over?
Get up here. Come on!
Did you smile that same stupid smile? Did you?
Did you smile, Pell? Did you smile?
Make no mistake, Deputy.
I'll cut your head off
and not give a shit how it reads in the report.
One more bite. One more bite.
One more bite, darling. One more bite.
Shit, Lester! What is going on?
Get in the bedroom and lock the door!
Stay away from the windows!
Please! Please! I didn't say a thing!
It's a setup! I didn't say nothing!
Nothing! I didn't say nothing!
I didn't say nothing!
You're lucky we been watching your ass.
If you go on the record, we'll give you protection.
If not...
If not, they're gonna kill you anyway.
Oh! You need a toilet, Lester.
Really had him going.
We'll take care of the check.
Well, I suppose I'll be back for supper.
Why did he do it?
He wasn't even in on it.
He wasn't even Klan.
Mr. Bird, he was guilty.
Anyone's guilty who watches this happen and pretends it isn't.
No, he was guilty, all right.
As guilty as the ones who pulled the trigger.
Maybe we all are.
Hello?
Yeah.
I just missed you at the hospital. They said you'd gone home.
What's left of it.
I'm real sorry.
So am I.
What are you gonna do?
I don't know.
Where will you go?
I'm not going anywhere.
This is my home. Born here.
Probably die here.
If I wanted to leave I would've done it a long time ago.
Things will work out.
There's enough people here know what I did was right.
Ladies like the way I fix their hair.
Hey.
If you're ever in Des Moines, don't send me a postcard.
We cannot see
In the future
No, no, no, no, no
And it's hard
To smile
Through trials
No we
cannot see
Every pitfall
But we must walk on
By faith
Each day oh, Lord!
Woah, on Monday
Walk on
And on Tuesday
Walk on
Woah, let Jesus be
Let me him be your
Your guide
Whoo!
He's able to
He can carry your load
And he can see way down the road
Ooh!
Walk on by faith...
You want to drive, Rupert?
Yeah.
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