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Murder in Mississippi (film)

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Murder in Mississippi
GenreCrime
Drama
Written byStanley Weiser
Directed byRoger Young
StarringTom Hulce
Blair Underwood
Jennifer Grey
Music byMason K. Daring
Elmer Bernstein
(uncredited score
withdrawn)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersDavid L. Wolper
Bernard Sofronski
ProducerMark Wolper
CinematographyDonald M. Morgan
EditorBenjamin A. Weissman
Running time96 minutes
Production companyWarner Bros. Television
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseFebruary 5, 1990 (1990-02-05)

Murder in Mississippi is a 1990 American television film which dramatized the last weeks of civil rights activists Michael "Mickey" Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, and the events leading up to their disappearance and subsequent murder during Freedom Summer in 1964. It starred Tom Hulce as Schwerner, Jennifer Grey as his wife Rita, Blair Underwood as Chaney, and Josh Charles as Goodman. Hulce received a nomination for Best Actor in a TV Miniseries at the 1990 Golden Globes. The film premiered on February 5, 1990, on NBC.

As a historical docudrama, Murder in Mississippi precedes the storylines of both 1975's Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan and 1988's Mississippi Burning.

Murder in Mississippi is the title of a 1964 Norman Rockwell painting depicting the same events. The painting is also known as Southern Justice.

Plot

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In 1964, members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered three Civil Rights workers who had traveled to the South to encourage African-American voter registration. The film examines the last three weeks in the lives of the slain activists.

Cast

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In addition, Murder in Mississippi features an early role of Greg Kinnear, who was a television personality at the time; Kinnear appears at the end as a reporter - also named Greg Kinnear - covering the discovery of the remains of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman.

See also

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