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

www.democracynow.org - 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.
This is just an excerpt. Click here to watch the full 20-minute segment: DN LINK HERE
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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[@jonlesliehaynes]

"...the lengths state government would go to subvert democracy." As I hear those words, I wonder what lengths the state is going to subvert democracy today.

[@imortalones]

Honestly it's annoying and true.

[@peterburkey3740]

@@imortalones actually that is not true. Democracy is not being subverted. The fact that COVID-19 was used as an excuse to expand voting privileges beyond state laws it’s sad. States did not stand up, the legislatures, and the election went on in 2020 with expensive voting practices that are unconstitutional. I am one who recognizes facts of which some of the most important or that of President trumps ridiculous exaggerations about election fraud. Yeah that does not mean it didn’t happen as the media insists. Trumps bogus and exaggerated claims discredit the fact That it actually was happening.
It is also important to remember that the United States is not a democracy. We are a republic, it’s important to know the difference. Any true republic is democratic in nature, but that does not make it a democracy where the popular vote makes the decisions.

[@0MVR_0]

@@peterburkey3740 So you would argue that governments should embed espionage agents into peaceful organizations for the sake of maintaining a republic.

[@dereckvon]

The legacy of ignorance and hate, just sad.

[@willia3r]

I am more interested in the identities of the black employees of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission.
If there was one major failure of the elders in the Civil Rights Movement, it’s that they never properly dealt with the traitors and turncoats in the community.

[@andrebredell3293]

Candace Owens would ignore this.

[@troykeeling4490]

Put them down!

[@oohweeoohwee9222]

The klan and law enforcement is one of same.

[@peterburkey3740]

I would really like to see this movie, documentary. But the conversation in the United States today is so one-sided. Laws created recently in many states to protect the integrity of elections are called voter suppression laws. That is so in accurate, it’s such A lie. As a student of history is so sad to see political activists bend the truth of history into lies they can use to promote their political cause-In other words their political party.

[@0MVR_0]

Just watch the film.

[@sethcooper3307]

Watch the film 💀

[@waltonsmith7210]

They are voter suppression laws

[@beachlover9705]

It is not voter suppression? What would you call it Peter?