Library Video of the Week, February 4, 2013.

 

Murder in Mississippi, starring Tom Hulce, Jennifer Grey, Blair Underwood, CCH Pounder. Directed by Roger Young.  1990.  Library Call Number: PN1995.9M835M87 2008.

        In 1964, three civil rights workers who were registering people to vote in the county of Neosho Mississippi, were arrested and thrown into jail in Philadelphia Mississippi, then released in the early hours of the morning.  Shortly thereafter, they were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and their bodies buried in a levee.  There have been at least three movies made of the incident, but this one may be the most compelling, with its emphasis on the trio’s last days of working for the rights of southern African-Americans.  The dark days of the struggle for equal rights have been artfully scripted by Ben Stein and well-acted by all the primary players in this movie.  The film gives the audience a real sense of the tension and danger hovering over the northern volunteers who dared to follow their conscience and come south.