The Message from Mississippi is a state-sponsored 1960 segregationist propaganda film produced by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission,[1] 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.[2][3]

The Sovereignty Commission's work included investigations of civil rights groups and propaganda to support segregation including pamphlets and funding for media programming.[4] The commission also produced the film Oxford, U.S.A. following events at the University of Mississippi when it was integrated with federal forces.[5][6]

Approximately $30,000 was paid to Dobbs-Maynard Advertising Agency in Jackson, Mississippi to make the film when all approvals were finally received.[4] Further expenditures were requested to promote the film and a special committee was established to investigate spending on the film.[7]

Reception

A review in the Los Angeles Times of Dawn Porter's documentary film Spies of Mississippi, which was adapted from a book by Rick Bowers, describes Message from Mississippi as "an astonishing work of delusional contemporary propaganda." The article quotes the film's claim that: “Out of the statewide pattern of segregation, mutual respect and cooperation among the races has arisen a productive, law-abiding way of life.”[8]

Legacy

PBS aired a snippet from the film as part of its American Experience programming on the Jim Crow era.[9] The Message also may have been the name of a project of the Commission according to some personal records that have been archived.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Lyman, Brian (2019-02-10). "'State of Alabama:' The racist anti-Selma film, and the secret state commission that funded it". The Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  2. ↑ Eubanks, W. Ralph (2007-10-11). Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past A Memoir. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00980-0.
  3. ↑ Eubanks, W. Ralph (2018). "What Makes Me Black? What Makes You White?". The Hedgehog Review. 20 – via Gale.
  4. 1 2 Katagiri, Yasuhiro (2009-09-18). The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0125-8.
  5. ↑ "MS Digital Archives". MS Digital Archives.
  6. ↑ "Director's report -- September 1963".
  7. ↑ Luckett, Robert E. Jr. (2015-08-24). Joe T. Patterson and the White South's Dilemma: Evolving Resistance to Black Advancement. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0270-5.
  8. ↑ "Review: 'Spies of Mississippi': Espionage in the heart of Dixie". Los Angeles Times. February 10, 2014.
  9. ↑ "American Experience | Jim Crow in Mississippi | Season 15" – via www.pbs.org.
  10. ↑ Tusa, Bobs M. (1999). "State Sovereignty Commission Materials in the Paul B. Johnson Family Papers in the Archives of the University of Southern Mississippi". Retrieved 2022-04-05.
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