Chasse à l'homme dans le Mississipi

It's a TV docudrama about three voting registration workers set in Meridian and Neshoba County, Mississippi, from April to June 1964. James Chaney (Blair Underwood) is a local African American Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) worker who has been active since age 15. He is initially suspicious of a Northern Jewish student couple set by CORE to prepare for the Freedom Summer voter registration drive. The couple, Mickey (Tom Hulce) and Rita Schwerner (Jennifer Grey), had become Civil Rights activists in New York City and were assigned to Meridian by CORE's Bob Moses (Aferno Omilamio).

"Murder in Mississippi" follows their increasing trust and efforts to register voters and establish Freedom Schools, extending into Neshoba County. Andrew Goodman (Josh Charles) was part of CORE training in Ohio and became present in Mississippi only in mid-June when an African American church burned in Neshoba County. The three men, Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman, happened to travel together to investigate the burning and disappeared.

"Murder in Mississippi" takes some liberties with history to help make its point. Goodman was a CORE trainer, not a novice, as depicted. The three men's last trip began from the Ohio training camp, not from Meridian. Obviously, the last conversation in the car was created out of whole cloth. Also, the movie makes Mickey Schwerner much more naive than he would have been when he and Rita first arrived in Meridian. This naiveté helped the storyline but made me roll my eyes.

However, "Murder in Mississippi" portrays the tensions exacerbated by young summer-only Northern liberals trying to address a generations-old problem, the dangers faced by local African Americans who took courageous steps to assert their rights, and the violent reaction by Southern whites fearing the loss of their privilege. I also learned about the courageous Rita Schwerner, who disappeared from popular history but became a lawyer several years later.