The problems in the movie “Ghosts of Mississippi” are the racial killings, discriminative treatments, and injustice targeting the colored people so as to advance White supremacy. The African Americans are specifically killed without probable cause. Worse of all, even after they have been killed for not having committed any wrong, the colored people are further denied justice in the courts. In the movie, a good scenario that depict these problems is the murder of Medgar Evers, known as James Pickens Jr., in 1963. The problems of racial killings, discrimination, injustice in courts, and advancement of White supremacy acted as the barriers that serve to propagate the horrors of racism bringing the vice to national attention (Charlery 12-13). Following the killing of Emmett Till in 1955 with other civil right activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. being prime targets by the segregationists in the 1960s, the killing of Medgar Evers was orchestrated with the primary aim of being barrier to prevent the realization for equal justice for all Americans. Adding to the wound was the subsequent killing of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The question that is imperative, therefore to ask is, “how are these occurrences either linked to or contributing to the problems witnessed in the Ghosts of Mississippi
movie as barriers to the fight for equal justice and liberation of the colored people from discrimination?”
The answer to this question is important in helping understand how the problems witnessed in the movie act as barriers in the efforts civil rights movements to champion for the treatment of the colored people with respect and dignity, in this regard, it is mandatory to first understand both the occurrence before and after the murder of Medgar Evers in 1963 so as to put the occurrence into perspective. Therefore, it critical to understand that the killing of Medgar Evers was not something unique. Rather, such killings had become the usual norm during the period of 1960s where numerous Black civil right activists who stood to fight for the justice were murdered and assassinated with no justifiable reason. In this context, these situations are crucial in helping talk about the problems in the movie in terms of barrier. Thus, the murder of Medgar Evers, who was by then the Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People (NAACP), is a barrier. The murder was preplanned and sought to impede the attempts to advocate for social and political reforms in America. There was the commitment from the existing administration and White-dominated political class to ensure that Whites remain superior to the colored people (Billings 80).
The problem of racial discrimination was intended to increase in prevalence. Unfortunately, any attempt to address it was met with a barrier including killings so that it is not to be resolved for the sake of advancing White Supremacy. The goal was to continue imposing the barriers denying the colored people equal justice, social services such as education, and freedom to exercise their rights such as the right to vote. The colored people were not only intended to be denied their “naturally deserving” rights but also to ensure that they feel and regard themselves as inferior. In spite of them being just as equal citizens as the Whites who were also naturally born and raised in the America, this was not seen as the case. Instead, Lynch laws such as the “Jim Crow” law were established to act as barriers in ensuring that the colored people are treated with contempt and disregard. The barriers created were chiefly tailored towards bestowing the colored people with legally inferior status. These barriers would prevent them from attaining justice in the courts even when they are innocent for the convicted crimes. Besides, should they be killed in the fight for freedom and equality, their case could not be considered, just as in the case of Medgar Evers (Hoerl 64). In the movie, Medgar Evers’ death case was ignored only for his suspect, Byron De La Beckwith, to be acquitted by the jury of Whites in two occasions during the trial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvxHjPWVwKk).
Miscommunication that arose in the movie and how they were solved
Miscommunications arise from an ineffective illustration of a given point or data thus resulting to unclear information on the message communicated. Various questions raised in the movie, “Ghost of Mississippi” for instance the question on whether the issue of racism contributed to the shoot-out of the African American soldiers in 1943 has created many controversies thus leading to miscommunication on the real motive behind the shooting (Dossey 169). Similarly, the element of miscommunication is presented by the arguments that the motivation of the killing of the Negro at the Mississippi Camp Van Dorn was aimed at silencing their relentless efforts in fighting for equality in the Army (Dossey 171). However, the subject of miscommunication is broadly illustrated by the murder of a civil right activist Medgar Evers in 1963 during the court trials behind the killing of the activist. A lot of miscommunications arose between the time of his murder in 1963 and the time when justice was found in 1999 as a result of the loss of some vital information.
According to Burris (26), the miscommunications arose from the deceased’s wife, Myrlie in 1989, 25 years after the death of her husband in her efforts to bring the assassinator of Medgar Evers, De La Beckwith to book. The miscommunication arose based on the fact that most of the information provided in the previous evidence to the court had disappeared and could not be retrieved. This, therefore, led to a clash on the present evidence and the past evidence provided to the court in pursuit of justice hence contributing to a miscommunication (Burris 28). However, miscommunication based on the evidences provided to the court were solved by an assistant District Attorney, Bobby DeLaughter who decided to give the widow a hand in the entire court hearing irrespective of the warning he received about the risk of losing his political ambition. Through his help, Byron De La Beckwith was charged guilty and was sentenced for his entire life thus providing justice to Medgar Evers family (Byron 17).
Works Cited
Billings, Andrew. "Achieving authenticity in the film Ghosts of Mississippi: Identity, authorship, and racial discrimination problems in historical narratives." Western Journal of Black Studies 24.2 (2015): 80.
Burris, Greg. "Prometheus in Mississippi: Film portrayals of the murder of Medgar Evers and the" real-ization" of civil resistance." Cinema Journal 54.4 (2015): 26-28.
Byron, Lord. The vision of judgement. Charles River Editors via Publish-Drive, 2018.
Charlery, Hélène. "Burning Mississippi: Race, Injustice, White Supremacy, and the South in A Time to Kill (1996)."
Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal on the English-speaking world 5 (2016).
Dossey, Larry. "Colored people - Racism and Injustice." Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing 11.3 (2015): 169-172.
“Ghosts of Mississippi.” Produced by Rob Reiner. Distributed by Castle Rock Entertainment. Jackson, Mississippi. (1996). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvxHjPWVwKk
Hodgen, Wendi Ann. "An examination of the unlikely success of Whoopi Goldberg as a new kind of movie icon." (2001).
Hoerl, Kristen. "Mississippi's social and political transformation in public memories of the trial against Byron de la Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers." Western Journal of Communication72.1 (2008): 62-82.
