Mississippi Burning

This is a powerful engaging drama about two FBI agents who come to Mississippi to find out what happened to three missing young civil rights workers. It's based on an actual case. However, as strong as the film is, something about it has always disturbed me: it portrays the FBI as heroes in the civil rights struggle when, in fact, the bureau seldom deserved such praise. Historian Howard Zinn describes the historic reality this way, after admitting to the dramatic power of the film:

clipped from www.mindsay.com But after it does that, it does something which I think is very harmful: In the apprehension of the murderers, it portrays two FBI operatives and a whole flotilla-if FBI men float-of FBI people as the heroes of this episode. Anybody who knows anything about the history of the civil rights movement, or certainly people who were in the movement at that time in the South, would have to be horrified by that portrayal. I was involved with SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Anybody who was involved in the Southern movement at that time knew with absolute certainty: The FBI could not be counted on and it was not the friend of the civil rights movement. The FBI stood by with their suits and ties-I’m sorry I’m dressed this way today, but I was just trying to throw them off the track-and took notes while people were being beaten in front of them. This happened again, and again, and again.