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Mississippi Burning Quotes

Mississippi Burning is a TV program that was first aired in 1970 . Mississippi Burning completed its run in 1970.

It features Frederick Zollo as producer, Trevor Jones (composer) in charge of musical score, and Peter Biziou as head of cinematography.

Mississippi Burning is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of Mississippi Burning is 128 minutes long. Mississippi Burning is distributed by Orion Pictures.

The cast includes: Gene Hackman as Anderson, Willem Dafoe as Ward, Badja Djola as Agent Monk, Frances McDormand as Mrs. Pell, Gene Hackman as Agent Anderson, Frankie Faison as Eulogist, R. Lee Ermey as Mayor Tilman, Brad Dourif as Deputy Pell, Gailard Sartain as Sheriff Ray Stuckey, Kevin Dunn as Agent Bird, Michael Rooker as Frank Bailey, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Lester Cowans, Stephen Tobolowsky as Clayton Townley, Geoffrey Nauffts as Goatee, Rick Zieff as Passenger, Rick Zieff as Rear passenger, and Willem Dafoe as Agent Ward.

Mississippi Burning Quotes

Stephen Tobolowsky as Clayton Townley

  • (Television Commentator) "Your name, please."
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "Clayton Townley, local businessman."
  • (Television Commentator) "Are you, sir, a spokesman for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan?"
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "I told you, I'm a businessman. I'm also a Mississippian, and an American. And I'm getting SICK and TIRED of the way us Mississippians are getting our views distorted by you newsmen and on the TV. So let's get this straight. We do NOT accept Jews, because they REJECT Christ. And their control over the International Banking Cartels are at the root of what we call Communism today. We do not accept Papists, because they bow to a Roman dictator. We do not accept Turks, Mongrels, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes because we are here to protect Anglo-Saxon Democracy, and the American way."
  • (Television Commentator) "Thank you very much."
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "Alright, I just want to know one thing. Who the hell called this meeting?"
  • (Gailard Sartain) "We thought you did."
  • (Pruitt Taylor Vince) "You mean you didn't set this up?"
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "Of this group? Are you stupid?"
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "I love Mississippi."
  • (Unnamed) "YAY."
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "THEY. They hate Mississippi. They hate us because we present a shining example of successful segregation. These Northern students, with their atheist, Communist bosses, that have come into our community with the wish to destroy us this week, have taken a terrible blow. This week, their cause has been crippled. This week, these federal policeman you see around here prying into our lives, violating out civil liberties have learned that they are powerless against us if every single Anglo-Saxon Christian one of us stands together."
  • (Stephen Tobolowsky) "In the courts of Mississippi, they have been reminded, that they cannot, by force, turn our communities into replicas of their communities -- communities in which negroes run riot, unrestrained and unpunished, as they do this summer in the streets of Harlem, or they do in the streets of Oakland, or they do in the STREETS OF CHICAGO."

Gene Hackman as Agent Anderson

  • (Gene Hackman) "Did you make a speech like that the night you beat your wife?"
  • (Gene Hackman) "You're lucky we've been watching your ass, Lester."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "If you go on the record, Mr. Cowans, we'll give you protection. If not --"
  • (Gene Hackman) "If not, they're going to kill you anyway."
  • (Gene Hackman) "Oooh Lester, you need a toilet."
  • (Gene Hackman) "Don't you have the whole world to save?"
  • (Gene Hackman) "Down here they say rattlesnakes don't commit suicide."

R. Lee Ermey as Mayor Tilman

  • (R. Lee Ermey) "If the entire Secret Service couldn't protect the President of the United States, how the HELL are we supposed to protect a few negroes. It is nothing more than some poor white trash drinking too much cheap alcohol. More likely paint thinner and snake juice because this state's as dry as a martini, and we've got the alcoholics to prove it."
  • (R. Lee Ermey) "You know what, Anderson? You're starting to get so far up my nose, I'm beginning to feel your boots on my chin."
  • (R. Lee Ermey) "Do you like baseball, do you, Anderson?"
  • (Gene Hackman) "Yeah, I do. You know, it's the only time when a black man can wave a stick at a white man and not start a riot."
  • (R. Lee Ermey) "Fact is, we got two cultures down here: a white culture, and a colored culture. Now, that's the way it always has been, and that's the way it always will be."
  • (Gene Hackman) "Rest of America don't see it that way, Mr. Mayor."
  • (Gailard Sartain) "Rest of America don't mean jack s***. You in Mississippi now."

Badja Djola as Agent Monk

  • (Badja Djola) "You. I'm gonna tell you a story. A kid named Homer Wilkes lives 30 miles north of here. He'd just taken his girlfriend home and was walking along the road. A truck pulls up beside him. Four white boys took him for a ride. Now Homer, he headn't done anything, except be a Negro. They took him to a shack, a regular old shack like this one. Then they took out a razor blade."
  • (Badja Djola) "Ragged old razor blade, like this one. They pulled down his pants, they spread his legs, and they sliced off his scrotum."
  • (Badja Djola) "Then they put it in a coffee cup, like this one. Mayor, do you know how much you bleed when someone cuts off your balls?"
  • (Badja Djola) "HUH. When they found Homer, he looked like he head been dipped in blood up to his waist. He was barely alive when they got him to the hospital, and he can barely walk now."

Brad Dourif as Deputy Pell

  • (Brad Dourif) "You got no right to be here. This is a political meeting."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Doesn't smell that way to me, Deputy."
  • (Brad Dourif) "It's a damn political meeting, Hoover Boy."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Oh, it looks like a political meeting, but smells more like Klan to me -- with or without the Halloween costumes."
  • (Brad Dourif) "Funny, their kids are so cute."
  • (Brad Dourif) "It's a god**** political meeting, hoover boy."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Oh, it looks like a political meeting but it smells more like Klan to me, with or without the Halloween costumes."

Michael Rooker as Frank Bailey

  • (Michael Rooker) "I wouldn't give it no more thought than wringing a cat's neck. And there ain't a court in Mississippi that'd convict me for it."

Frankie Faison as Eulogist

  • (Frankie Faison) "They want me to say, "Let us not forget that two white boys also died helping negros help themselves." They want me to say, "We mourn with the mothers of these two white boys." But the state of Mississippi won't even allow these white boys to be buried in the same cemetary as this"
  • (Frankie Faison) "negro boy. I say, "I have no more love to give. I have only anger in my heart today, and I want you to be angry with me. That I am sick and I am tired, and I want you to be sick and tired with me. I-I-I am sick and tired of going to the funerals of black men who have been murdered by white men. And I-I am sick and tired of the people of this counrty who continue to allow these things to happen." What is an unalienable right if you are a negro? What does it mean, Equal Treatment under the law? What-what does it mean, Liberty and justice for all? Now I say to these people, "Look at the face of this young man, and you will see the face of a black man. But if you look at the blood shed, it is red. It is like yours. It is JUST -- LIKE -- YOURS.""

Kevin Dunn as Agent Bird

  • (Kevin Dunn) "I don't understand why he did it. He wasn't in on it. He wasn't even Klan."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Mr. Bird, he was guilty. Anyone's guilty who lets these things happens and pretends like it isn't. No, he was guilty all right. Just as guilty as the fanatics who pulled the trigger. Maybe we all are."

Frances McDormand as Mrs. Pell

  • (Frances McDormand) "It's not good for you to be here."
  • (Gene Hackman) "Why?"
  • (Frances McDormand) "It's ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible -- Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it -- you breathe it. You marry it."
  • (Frances McDormand) "You marry the first guy that makes you laugh."
  • (Frances McDormand) "If you're ever in Des Moines, don't send me a postcard."

Rick Zieff as Passenger

  • (Driver) "Uh, oh."
  • (Rick Zieff) "What is it?"
  • (Rick Zieff) "What do they want?"
  • (Driver) "I don't know -- just pass me -- pass me --"
  • (Driver) "Is it a cop?"
  • (Rick Zieff) "I can't see."
  • (Driver) "What the f*** are these jokers playin' at?"
  • (Rick Zieff) "Oh, they ain't playin', you better believe it."
  • (Rick Zieff) "What're we gonna do?"
  • (Driver) "I don't know -- OK, hold on, you guys."
  • (Rick Zieff) "There's a truck, too."
  • (Driver) "s***, it is a cop."
  • (Rick Zieff) "Better stop."
  • (Driver) "OK, sit tight, you guys. Don't say anything; let me talk -- All right? We'll be all right; just relax."

Pruitt Taylor Vince as Lester Cowans

  • (Pruitt Taylor Vince) "I didn't kill him, I only shot him in the ass."
  • (Gene Hackman) "We know that. He was already dead when you put your slug in him. But your buddy sees it differently. He says it like YOU killed the kid. Now either you go on the record with us right now, or it'll be YOUR ass we're talking about, not just the black kid's."

Willem Dafoe as Ward

  • (Willem Dafoe) "You wanna drive, Rupert?"
  • (Gene Hackman) "Yeah."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "What's wrong with these people?"
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Just don't lose sight of whose rights are being violated."
  • (Gene Hackman) "Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson."
  • (Gene Hackman) "These people are crawling out of the SEWER, MR. WARD. Maybe the gutter's where we outta be."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "We'll go after all of them. Together."
  • (Gene Hackman) "You wouldn't know how."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "You're going to teach me how."
  • (Gene Hackman) "You don't have the GUTS."
  • (Willem Dafoe) "Not only do I HAVE the guts I have the AUTHORITY."

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