Spies of Mississippi: New Film on the State-Sponsored Campaign to Defeat the Civil Rights Movement

[Coyotl]

Spies of Mississippi: New Film on the State-Sponsored Campaign to Defeat the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/25/spies_of_mississippi_new_film_on

A new documentary reveals how the Mississippi state government spied on civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s. A little-known state agency called the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission hired spies to infiltrate the civil rights movement and squash attempts to desegregate the state and register African Americans to vote. Some of the spies were themselves African-American. The Commission generated more than 160,000 pages of reports, many of which were shared with local police departments whose officers belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. The film, "Spies of Mississippi," also looks at how some of those reports contributed to the 1964 deaths of Freedom Summer activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner 50 years ago. For more, we speak with Jerry Mitchell, an investigative journalist for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. He won the release of more than 2,400 pages of Commission records in 1989, and used those to reopen many cold cases from the civil rights era. His work helped lead to the 1994 conviction of the killer of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers and paved the way for 23 more convictions. We are also joined by Dawn Porter, the award-winning producer and director of "Spies of Mississippi," which is now streaming online at PBS Independent Lens.

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VIEW FILM HERE: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365163372/
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INDEPENDENT LENS
Spies of Mississippi
Aired: 02/11/2014
55:17
Expires: 03/12/2014

The story of a secret spy agency formed by the state of Mississippi to preserve segregation during the 1950s and ‘60s. Granted broad powers, this commission investigated citizens and organizations in attempts to derail the civil rights movement.

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http://www.spiesofmississippithefilm.com/

It is the spring of 1964 and a long, hot Mississippi summer is about to explode. The civil rights community is gearing up for a major operation nicknamed Mississippi Freedom Summer. Hundreds — if not thousands — of mostly white student activists from the North are preparing to link up with dozens of mostly black freedom workers in the Magnolia State to accomplish what the Mississippi power structure fears the most: registering black people to vote.


The state’s entrenched white power structure has a different name for Freedom Summer — they call it an “invasion” and they are ready to fight back. For the segregationists Freedom Summer is nothing less than a declaration of war on the Mississippi way of life. The state responds by fortifying its Highway Patrol and 82 county sheriff offices with hundreds of newly sworn-in deputies, stockpiling tear gas and riot gear in larger cities and preparing prison wardens and county jailers to expect an influx of summer guests. This tinderbox needs very little to ignite.


But the most powerful men in the state have another even more powerful weapon in their arsenal — a secret so well kept it is known to only a small circle of insiders: The state of Mississippi has entered the spy business. A no-nonsense group called the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission has quietly created a secret, state-funded spy agency answering directly to the Governor. The Commission has infiltrated the civil rights coalition, eavesdropping on its most private meetings, and pilfering its most sensitive documents. The spies’ method of obtaining such sensitive information can be traced to an even more explosive secret known only to a handful of state officials that oversee the Commission and its anti-civil rights spy apparatus. The Commission’s most potent weapon is a cadre of black operatives code who have infiltrated the movement, rooting out its future plans, identifying its leaders and tripping up its foot soldiers. Along with a cadre of confederates, the black operatives are gaining the trust of civil rights crusaders to gain intelligence for the segregationist state.

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I'm so glad I didn't live through that shit.

I was born 5 years after Freedom Summer. Of course, I have plenty of memories of hearing ignorant, racist talk from some people, but nothing about lynching or anything like that. I don't remember segregation at all, either. There's still plenty of people around who remember it, but no one really talks about it, at least not in earshot of me. It somehow seems unreal to me that this shit was going on right where I live today, but it was very real. I get a weird feeling every time I think about it.

[Coyotl]

2. I remember it all too well, but I'm such an oldster

I used to work on Bob Kennedy's campaign staff.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I really wish he had lived and been President. I know you do too.

Everything I've seen and read about Bobby Kennedy gives me the impression that he would have been a great President. I think his assassination is one of the greatest tragedies in our history. A lot of progress was made in the 1960's, but we paid an awful price for it, and so much was left hanging. It's no wonder that so many people spent the 70's getting fucked up.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Thanks

Will read/review later. I think we are all aware of the Federal governments intrusion on the personal lives of the activists in the black civil rights movement - but the ones at the state level - not so much?