1988 Mysterious Deaths of 3 Civil Rights Workers in 'Mississippi Burning'

MISSISSIPPI BURNING from ORION PICTURES (1988). This was loosely based on the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers. The production budget climbed to $15 million. It grossed $34.6 million at the US box office. The movie recieved 7 Oscar nominations and won for best "Cinematography." Upon the film's release. Activists in the civil rights movement criticized the film for its' fictionalized story. 

Two FBI agents are sent to Jessup County, Mississippi to investigate three missing civil right workers. Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Alan Ward (Willem Defoe) are faced with oppostion when they first step into the county. Everyone in town has gone silent on the whereabouts of those workers. The sheriff's department even goes out of their way - not to cooperate.

Both FBI agents witness the open hatred against the black community. They even run into a Klu-Klux-Klan group who might consist of the town's most prominent white citizens. Three dead bodies are discovered who turn out to be those workers. The actual killers hide in plain sight and the FBI works hard to discover who they are.

I won't give anything away.... I saw this in a movie theater back in 1988. The controversy over the fictional storyline had pushed people into theaters... The real truth about the killings would take more years to unearth. The filmmakers brought us back to 1964 and the brutal racism that existed. A very powerful movie.

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(1988. Orion Pictures.).