The Message from Mississippi (1960)

Genre

propaganda film

Country

United States

How it feels

This is a film made by the Mississippi state government in 1960. It argues that Black people were content with the state's segregated schools and social systems. The governor appears in the film to make this case.

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What happens

The Message from Mississippi is a state-sponsored 1960 segregationist propaganda film produced by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state government agency established to promote and defend segregation in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision desegregating public schools. In the film, Mississippi governor Ross Barnett says that Blacks in Mississippi preferred the state's segregated way of life. The Sovereignty Commission's work included investigations of civil rights groups and propaganda to support segregation including pamphlets and funding for media programming. The commission also produced the film Oxford, U.S.A. following events at the University of Mississippi when it was integrated with federal forces. Approximately $30,000 was paid to Dobbs-Maynard Advertising Agency in Jackson, Mississippi to make the film when all approvals were finally received. Further expenditures were requested to promote the film and a special committee was established to investigate spending on the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Oxford, U.S.A.
• Dirt & Deeds in Mississippi (2016)
• Louisiana Diary (1963)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• The Intruder (1962)
• Freedom on My Mind (1994)
• Primary (1960)
• Freedom Summer (2014)