American Judicial System, Mississippi State and Civil Rights Movement

Dear Readers,

Today, I will be discussing about the true story behind the Mississippi Burning movie about the killings of three Civil Rights activists as well as the Civil Rights Movement era. Do sit back and relax as you read through this post! :)

Question 1: For minor crimes, most states have a “statute of limitations” that prohibits bringing charges when a certain period of time has elapsed since the crime. When it comes to serious crimes, is it right for the justice system to pursue criminal charges several decades after the crime is said to have occurred?

I feel that it is perfectly right for the justice system to pursue the criminal charges a few decades after the crime is committed, when it comes to serious crimes. This is because these cases are already labelled as “serious”, suggesting dire consequences due to these crimes. Should the justice system prevent the conviction of the criminals merely due to the lapse of time between the crime and the reporting time, this will definitely have adverse effects on the security and society of the city or country. This is because the criminal, who is not convicted and is able to escape from the punishment scot-free, would feel that the crime was nothing wrong. This might lead to a second occurrence of such a crime, causing a similar aftermath, which is undesirable. These might range from minor injuries to major casualties. Therefore, I conclude that it is only right for the justice system to nab these criminals, implementing no time restriction, so as for the benefit of the region’s security.

In fact, I would say that the justice system should pursue such criminal charges for minor crimes as well. Over the American crime investigation series “Law and Order”, I learnt that rapes and other cases are deemed to be minor and not very severe. Some of the rape victims were children, who were afraid to call the cops, but later had the courage to do so when they grew up. Unfortunately, for these poor folks, they were denied by the police to arrest the crooks, just because of the “statute of limitations”. Personally, I find this extremely unfair for the victims, as these rapists had caused much psychological (and physical) harm to them, just to get away unscathed. Aggravating the situation would be that the criminals, like I previously mentioned, feel that committing the crime has no repercussions and thus, are not discouraged from repeating the heinous act. Hence, I strongly believe that this statute should be reviewed and eventually scrapped.

Question 2: Reporting for The Times on the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen in 2005, Shaila Dewan wrote, “While some in Neshoba County [Mississippi] said it was too late and too painful to revisit the episode, others thought that in doing so, the county might find redemption.” What do you think: was the state’s image “rehabilitated”?

I personally think that the state’s image has been rehabilitated, but the arrests have little contribution to this. Although the nabbing of these crooks who have committed heinous offences during the twentieth century was very much delayed, the base-line is that they were caught. Personally, I think that this is the most important of all, which was that justice was done for the three innocent civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The state’s image has indeed been “restored to its former glory”, also because the racism has died down during this modern-day era. As I viewed through some blogs regarding the topic of racism in Mississippi, many have said that racism is no longer existent in the state and that they have “several friends from various ethnicities”. One even said that the school had 40% Caucasian, 40% African-American and 20% from various races like German and Russian to Asian and Hispanic. This definitely shows the diverse races residing and studying in Mississippi; it is somewhat like Singapore, a multiracial society. Therefore, it is a definite “yes” that Mississippi has regained its status as a fair state, not swayed by racism. However, I feel that the major reason is not that those formerly from the Ku Klux Klan involved in the killings of the civil rights activists were punished, but more because of the fairness, tolerance and even respect the various races treat each other nowadays.

Question 3: How much do you know about the civil rights era in general? Use the Learning Network’s Black History Month collection(http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/celebrate-black-history-month/) to find more archival Times articles from that era or finding Dulcinea’s Civil Rights Movement page(http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides/Education/US-History/Civil-Rights-Movement.html) for oral histories and both primary and secondary sources.

Many sources provide different time periods for the Civil Rights era, but according to the Public Broadcasting Service, the era covers a 17-year period commencing in 1954. The Civil Rights society aimed to promote equality amongst the different races, putting everyone on the same ground. Unfortunately, they met with much resistance, especially from their counterparts in the southern part of America. The Southerners believed that whites were in fact superior to blacks and disregarded them. As a result, racial discrimination against the blacks through means like slavery and physical abuse continued in the nation. In fact, the blacks then were only treated as three-fifths human!

The Civil Rights Movement made many attempts to achieve their goals through the Civil Rights Acts in the years 1957, 1964 and 1968 as well as the Voting Rights Act in 1965, in addition to its other acts in the previous century. These gave blacks the full right as a citizen of the country, attaining the objective of the movement. However, this was definitely not an easy path for the society.

A bigger obstacle for the Civil Rights society in comparison to the Southerners was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The “organisation” was known for its strong prejudice against blacks and its heartless, cruel acts of lynching blacks all over present-day United States of America. There were many fatalities in incidents that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement, like the Montgomery Bus Riots, as well as the aforementioned lynching of blacks by the KKK. During this period of time before the final laws were set, there were many notable and significant incidents in American history, like the two Great Migrations to help get blacks out of the racist South as well as the Scottsboro Boys Trial. The Jim Crow laws were eventually removed in 1965, in the hope of having equality amongst all races.

Overall, it can be said that the Civil Rights movement was a success, despite the many fatalities caused, as it had achieved what it had set out to do.

Best Regards,
Nathan :)