“Mississippi Burning” quotes
(1988)Plot – June, 1964. In a small village in Nashuba County in Mississippi, three young activists disappear mysteriously. The FBI sends two officers over there: Anderson, who has been a sheriff and knows perfectly the village, and Alan Ward, who respects the law but he's unaware of the serious problems of the southern US countries.
All actors – Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Gailard Sartain, Stephen Tobolowsky, Michael Rooker, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Badja Djola, Kevin Dunn, Frankie Faison
show all“Mississippi Burning” Quotes 19 quotes
“- Anderson: You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do.
- Ward: If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.”What is an unalienable right if you are a negro? What does it mean, "equal treatment" under the law? What-what does it mean, liberty and justice for all? Now I say to these people, "Look at the face of this young man, and you will see the face of a black man. But if you look at the blood shed, it is red! It is like yours! It is just... like... (continue)(continue reading)
“Down here they say rattlesnakes don't commit suicide.”
“Anyone's guilty who lets these things happens and pretends like it isn't. No, he was guilty all right. Just as guilty as the fanatics who pulled the trigger. Maybe we all are.”
“Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- Deputy Pell: You got no right to be here. This is a political meeting.
- Ward: Doesn't smell that way to me, Deputy.
- Deputy Pell: It's a damn political meeting, Hoover Boy.
- Ward: Oh, it looks like a political meeting, but smells more like Klan to me... with or without the Halloween costumes.”“I wouldn't give it no more thought than wringing a cat's neck! And there ain't a court in Mississippi that'd convict me for it.”
“We do not accept Jews, because they rejecy Christ! And their control over the International Banking Cartels are at the root of what we call Communism today. We do not accept Papists, because they bow to a Roman dictator! We do not accept Turks, Mongrels, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes because we are here to protect Anglo-Saxon Democracy, and the...” (continue)(continue reading)
“If you're ever in Des Moines, don't send me a postcard.”
“If the entire Secret Service couldn't protect the President of the United States, how the hell are we supposed to protect a few negroes! It is nothing more than some poor white trash drinking too much cheap alcohol. More likely paint thinner and snake juice because this state's as dry as a martini, and we've got the alcoholics to prove it.”
- Anderson: Did you see the wedding photograph? His three pals, the ushers, had their thumbs hooked in their belts, with their three fingers pointing down.
- Ward: So what is that? Some sort of Masonic thing?
- Anderson: No! "K-K-K".“- Mayor Tilman: Fact is, we got two cultures down here: a white culture, and a colored culture. Now, that's the way it always has been, and that's the way it always will be.
- Anderson: Rest of America don't see it that way, Mr. Mayor.
- Sheriff Ray Stuckey: Rest of America don't mean jack shit. You are in Mississippi now.”“Where does it come from? All this hatred?”
“You know what these small towns are like. A girl spends all her time in high school lookin' for the guy she's gonna marry, and spends the rest of her life wonderin' why.”
“You marry the first guy that makes you laugh.”
“- Ward: Just don't lose sight of whose rights are being violated!
- Anderson: Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward.
- Ward: Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!
- Anderson: These people are crawling out of the sewer, Mr. Ward! Maybe the gutter's where we outta be!”
Highlights