“I felt no obligation to bow to any 21st Century political correctness. What I did feel an obligation to do was to take the 21stCentury viewers and physically transport them back to the ante bellum South in 1858, in Mississippi, and have them look at America for what it was back then. And I wanted it to be shocking.” FeelsLooksWantedAmericaPoliticalFeltCenturySouthObligationBows21st CenturyViewersShockingPolitical CorrectnessTransportMississippiCorrectness Author:Quentin Tarantino
“There were colored and white waiting rooms everywhere, from doctor's offices to the bus stations, as people may already know. But there were actually colored windows at the post office in, for example, Pensacola, Florida. And there were white and colored telephone booths in Oklahoma. And there were separate windows where white people and black people would go to get their license plates in Indianola, Mississippi. And there were even separate tellers to make your deposits at the First National Bank in Atlanta.” PeopleKnowsFirstsMayWaitingBlackWhiteRoomsExampleOfficeWindowDoctorsPostsStationsBusBlack PeoplePlatesFloridaTelephonesLicenseMississippiAtlantaDepositsOklahomaPost OfficeWaiting RoomsLicense Plate Author:Isabel Wilkerson
“A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.” MenLongMadeFlowInstantDestinationSymphonyMississippi Author:Aaron Copland
“If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy.” IfsMenWantDoeSaidTwoWarActionWantedJobsYoungWeekIdealsRiversSlaveryShoesCampaignsYoung ManCivil WarAttachmentSouthernTrafficTwo WeeksMississippiDesertedSturdySteamboats Author:Hal Holbrook
“Living in Montgomery, I've been antagonized by the emergence of a narrative about our history that I believe is quite false and misleading, and actually dangerous. And the narrative that emerges when you spend time in the South - places likes Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana - is that we have always been a noble, wonderful, glorious region of the country, with wonderful, noble, glorious people doing wonderful, noble, glorious things. And there's great pride in the Alabamians of the nineteenth century.” PeopleBelieveCountryI BelieveWonderfulCenturyDangerousPrideSouthNobleLikesNarrativeGloriousRegionsEnd TimesSpend TimeMisleadGeorgiaNineteenth CenturyMississippiEmergenceLouisianaAlabamaMontgomery Author:Bryan Stevenson
“Usually we look at it like, "Oh, black people couldn't vote in Mississippi because they had to take a literacy test." But one of the things you learn in the film is that there were major consequences for even trying to vote. You could be killed for trying to vote. You could definitely be fired from your job and many were, which is why so few black Mississippians even attempted to register early on. They put your name in the newspaper if you tried to register to vote.” PeopleIfsTryingLooksJobsFilmNamesBlackMajorsConsequenceTestsVoteNewspapersBlack PeopleLiteracyRegisterMississippi Author:Stanley Nelson Jr.
“I'm a black writer from Mississippi. That's what I most consider myself.” BlackMississippi Author:Kiese Laymon
“My personal beliefs were shaped more by experience and by watching the news when I was young: images of angelic-looking college students in Mississippi crying like the world was ending because black people were being allowed on their campus; the slow mounting horror of Vietnam on the evening news every night; sitting with my parents in front of the TV and being appalled at the way the Chicago police were treating the protesters during the '68 Democratic convention. Being eyed with suspicion because of my age and the way I wore my hair.” PeopleWorldWayAgeYoungNightBeliefParentBlackFrontsCryStudentsCollegeTvsHairHorrorNewsSittingPoliceDemocraticEveningChicagoBlack PeopleVietnamConventionsEvery NightSuspicionMississippiCampusAngelicCollege StudentsPersonal Beliefs Author:James Vance
“For example, John Law's Mississippi Company venture printed shares, and the money had gone up in smoke when it had been inscribed objects. The inscription made it magic and changed its meaning. That's how objects become charmed in The Arabian Nights, and they are often originally ordinary objects. The carpet is an ordinary, paltry object. The lamp is a rusty old lamp, and the bottles jinns are imprisoned within are old bottles. They are changed by the magic and the jinn's presence, and the jinn's presence is often embodied in the seal or inscription.” MadeLawNightCompanyGoneMagicShareExampleObjectsChangedOrdinaryMade ItSmokeBottlesVentureLampsCarpetPrintedSealsMississippiCharmedInscriptionsArabianJinnArabian Nights Author:Marina Warner
“I can't speak for the Kathryn Stockett, but I would guess that she feels proud of the progress the South has made because, growing up, she experienced a very different Mississippi than the one that exists today.” FeelsMadeI CanDifferentTodaySpeakGrowing UpGrowingProgressProudSouthMississippi Author:Viola Davis
“Growing up in Mississippi, I realized that it was separate and unequal and all that, but it was still a safe place.” StillsGrowing UpGrowingSafeI RealizedMississippiSafe Places Author:Morgan Freeman
“Clearly we're in historic times here. We have - one of the tributaries of the Mississippi River is a river called the Merrimack. And the crest areas there - they're going to be a number of feet, 2, 3, 4, over what they were in '93 or '82. And on the Mississippi River itself, down below St. Louis, we're still projecting a couple of feet over that historic number. So the bottom line is there's a significant amount of water that's causing evacuations and challenges throughout that whole area.” StillsWholeWaterChallengesLinesNumbersFeetAmountCoupleAreasRiversBottomSignificantHistoricBottom LineMississippiMississippi RiverEvacuation Author:Jay Nixon
“I lived in a small city on the Mississippi River across from Iowa, so I didn't have a country upbringing, but in high school we would go drink kegs in cornfields.” CountrySchoolCitiesDrinkHigh SchoolRiversUpbringingMississippiIowaMississippi RiverKegs Author:Lissie
“Actually, when I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe. On the last trip, I stayed in Europe for one year with $1,000, working everywhere I could, doing everything. Those years shaped me a lot and taught me the value of exploring different things.” ThinkingWayFeelsYearsMadeTwoDifferentLastsValuesGrowing UpGrowingTaughtEuropeBoatDifferent ThingsAffectedExploringMobileMississippiAlabamaCargoRougeBatonBaton Rouge Author:Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
“There is now a patent restricting the use of an herb called philantis neruri for curing jaundice. An even more blatant example is the use of turmeric for healing wounds, which is something every mother and grandmother does in every home in India. Now the Mississippi Medical Center claims to have "invented" the capacity of turmeric to heal wounds.” DoeUseHomeMotherHealingExampleCapacityIndiaClaimsMedicalWoundsHealGrandmotherHerbsMississippiPatentsMother And GrandmotherJaundice Author:Vandana Shiva
“I was raised in New York and spent two years in Rio. My parents met at the University of Southern Mississippi, and they had me there, and then we moved to New York. I'm not very familiar with Mississippi.” YearsTwoParentNew YorkMetsMovedRaisedUniversityFamiliarTwo YearsSouthernMississippiRio Author:Fred Armisen
“I was just an infant when [Fannie Lou] Hamer spoke - barley even awake in the world. But here she was, pressing the Democratic Party to refuse to recognize the all-white Mississippi delegation, because obviously there was no way Mississippi could have an all-white delegation. Black people had been kept from registering through violence and intimidation. She had experienced that violence herself and was there to speak about it and to insist the delegation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party be recognized instead.” PeopleWorldWaySpeakBlackWhitePartyViolenceDemocraticRefuseAwakeSpokesBlack PeopleInfantDemocratic PartyMississippiIntimidationDelegationBarley Author:Leah D. Daughtry
“The literacy level at Mississippi prisons? Fifth grade. Can't read, what are you going to do? If you've got a conviction rap, what are you going to do? It's a real crisis.” IfsRealLevelsCrisisPrisonConvictionRapGradesLiteracyFifthMississippiFifth Grade Author:Marian Wright Edelman
“Her family had no such ties. She was able to forge her way into that world. And then to those people, the idea of going to Arkansas, if you're gonna stop and think about it, you don't do it. It wouldn't have made any sense. It's like going to Mississippi. Why would you go to Alabama? You wouldn't go. You wouldn't... That would be throwing your life away! [...] For some reason, Hillary Clinton wanted to latch on to this guy [Bill Clinton] - and for some reason, this guy wanted her to latch on to him.” PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWayMadeIdeasReasonWould BeAbleWantedGuyBillsClintonTiesThrowingThis GuyMississippiAlabamaArkansasLatches Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I hear people say all the time, "I'm not really religious, but I consider myself spiritual." I definitely have always been spiritual, being raised by my grandmother on that little acre in Mississippi, indoctrinated, born into the church and the ways of the church.” PeopleWayLittlesSpiritualBornChurchReligiousRaisedGrandmotherMy GrandmotherMississippiAcresSpiritual Beings Author:Oprah Winfrey
“Some people think that [it was] Martin Luther King Jr.'s idea to have a boycott. It was a black woman, a teacher, who said we should boycott the buses. You had people like Fannie Lou Hamer; Delta, Mississippi.” PeopleThinkingShouldSaidIdeasBlackTeacherKingsBusBlack WomenLutherMississippiBoycottDelta Author:John Lewis
“I remember being at the church a few hours after the church was bombed in Birmingham, the 16th Street Baptist Church. It was very hard and very difficult to stand on that corner across the street from the church. Or to go Mississippi and search for the three civil rights workers who came up missing. There is a lot of trauma.” HardRememberThreeDifficultHoursChurchRightsStreetsMissingWorkersCornersTraumaCivil RightsBaptistsMississippiBirmingham Author:John Lewis
“I hope March is a guide for today's activists. It took raw courage for young people to volunteer to go to Mississippi in the summer of 1964, and unrelenting faith in the power of democracy to organize such a massive campaign.” PeopleTodayYoungDemocracySummerGuidesCampaignsMarchMassiveActivistOrganizeVolunteerMississippiUnrelenting Author:Andrew Aydin
“Unfortunately, I saw a side of humanity I wish I'd remained blissfully ignorant of, including one driver who threw a bottle at me while I was walking my baby to the doctor on the side of the road and yelled out insults. Nurses who made nasty comments about how I should get a job (I was working two of them, in addition to being a published author). It wasn't that I didn't have a job and wasn't working. The jobs in backwoods Mississippi didn't pay enough to cover living expenses.” ShouldMadeTwoEnoughJobsHumanityWishSidesPaySawsBabyWalkingDoctorsIncludingIgnorantInsultExpensesDriversBottlesCommentNurseNastyMississippiMy BabyBackwoods Author:Sherrilyn Kenyon
“I grew up in Mississippi being told it was a great place, but not feeling that. When I finally began reading seriously, literature showed me something about where I was from which was worthwhile.” FeelingsReadingLiteratureGrewGrew UpWorthwhileMississippi Author:Richard Ford
“I believe, the NAACP began to try to organize parents of Negro children to file petitions with the boards of education regarding the integration of the school system. You had some very severe economic reprisals against people in Mississippi and in South Carolina. So, in order to try to help to meet some of the physical needs and the economic needs of people in Clarendon County [SC] who had been displaced from the land, and otherwise, and in certain sections of Mississippi, we organized in New York City something called "In Friendship".” PeopleNeedsTryingBelieveChildrenHelpingSchoolCertainOrderI BelieveParentCitiesEconomicLandNew YorkSouthBoardsOrganizedNew York CityOrganizeSevereIntegrationSectionsFilesCountyMississippiCarolinaPetitionsSchool SystemSouth CarolinaReprisalNaacpBoard Of Education Author:Ella Baker
“There was really interesting work going on, for example, in the Mississippi bayou, where there were some really exemplary health centers that also became centers with kind of political organizing.” KindPoliticalInterestingExampleReally InterestingMississippiExemplaryBayou Author:Jill Stein
“My home office and workshop are on an overlook on the only deep river gorge on the entire length of the Mississippi River.” HomeOfficeRiversLengthMississippiWorkshopsGorgesMississippi RiverHome Office Author:William Gurstelle
“[My mother] tried so hard to make life easy for us. Those are the things that forced me to try to do something different and when this Movement came to Mississippi I still feel it is one of the greatest things that ever happened because only a person living in the State of Mississippi knows what it is like to suffer; knows what it is like to be hungry; knows what it is like to have no clothing to wear.” KnowsFeelsTryingPersonsStillsDifferentHardStatesMotherSufferingEasyHappenedMovementHungryClothingsMississippi Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“These people in Mississippi State, they are not "down"; all they need is a chance. And I am determined to give my part not for what the Movement can do for me, but what I can do for the Movement to bring about a change in the State of Mississippi.” PeopleNeedsGivingI CanStatesCan DoChanceMovementDeterminedMississippiI Am DeterminedMississippi State Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“One of the things I remember as a child: There was a man named Joe Pulliam. He was a great Christian man; but one time, he was living with a white family and this white family robbed him of what he earned. They didn't pay him anything. This white man gave him $150 to go to the hill, (you see, I lived in the Black Belt of Mississippi)... to get another Negro family. Joe Pulliam knew what this white man had been doing to him so he kept the $150 and didn't go.” MenChildrenChristianRememberBlackWhitePayHillsOne TimeWhite ManBeltsMississippiBlack BeltGreat Christian Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“The only thing I really feel is necessary is that the black people, not only in Mississippi, will have to actually upset this applecart. What I mean by that is, so many things are under the cover that will have to be swept out and shown to this whole world, not just to America. This thing they say of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" is all on paper.” PeopleWorldFeelsMeanWholeHomeAmericaBlackLandPaperBraveWhole WorldUpsetBlack PeopleMississippiLand Of The Free Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“This problem is not only in Mississippi. During the time I was in the Convention in Atlantic City, I didn't get any threats from Mississippi. The threatening letters were from Philadelphia, Chicago and other big cities.” ProblemBigsCitiesLettersThreatChicagoConventionsThreateningMississippiPhiladelphiaBig CitiesAtlantic City Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“I used to question this for years - what did our kids actually fight for? They would go in the service and go through all of that and come right out to be drowned in a river in Mississippi. I found this hypocrisy is all over America.” YearsKidsAmericaUsedFightingFoundRiversHypocrisyMississippi Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“The 20th of March in 1964, I went before the Secretary of State to qualify to run as an official candidate for Congress from the 2nd Congressional District, and it was easier for me to qualify to run than it was for me to pass the literacy test to be a registered voter. And we had four people to qualify and run in the June primary election be we didn't have enough Negroes registered in Mississippi.” PeopleStatesEnoughRunningFourEasierTestsElectionCongressPrimariesOfficialsCandidatesMarchVotersSecretaryLiteracyJuneMississippi Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“The only thing we took out was the Constitution of the State of Mississippi and the interpretation of the Constitution. We had 63,000 people registered on the Freedom Registration form. And we tried from every level to go into the regular Democratic Party medium. We tried from the precinct level. The 16th of June when they were holding precinct meetings all across the state, I was there and there was eight of us there to attend the meeting, and they had the door locked at 10 o'clock in the morning. This is what's happening in the State of Mississippi.” PeopleStatesFormLevelsPartyMorningDoorsHappeningsConstitutionDemocraticMeetingsEightMediumsClockInterpretationLockedJuneDemocratic PartyMississippiRegistration Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“You can tell this by the program the federal government had to train 2,400 tractor drivers. They would have trained Negro and white together, but this man, Congressman Jamie Whitten, voted against it and everything that was decent. So, we've got to have somebody in Washington who is concerned about the people of Mississippi.” PeopleMenGovernmentTogetherWhiteConcernedProgramTrainDecentDriversFederal GovernmentMississippiCongressmanJamieTractors Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“After we testified before the Credentials Committee in Atlantic City, their Mississippi representative testified also. He said I got 600 votes but when they made the count in Mississippi, I was told I had 388 votes. So actually it is no telling how many votes I actually got.” MadeSaidCitiesVoteRepresentativesCommitteesMississippiCredentialsAtlantic City Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“The Mississippi is not the only river. There's the Tallahatchie and the Big Black. People have been put in the river year after year, these things been happening.” PeopleYearsHas BeensBigsBlackHappeningsRiversBlack PeopleMississippi Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“I do remember, one time, a man came to me after the students began to work in Mississippi and he said the white people were getting tired and they were getting tense and anything might happen. Well, I asked him "how long he thinks we had been getting tired"? I have been tired for 46 years and my parents was tired before me and their parents were tired, and I have always wanted to do something that would help some of the things I would see going on among Negroes that I didn't like and I don't like now.” PeopleThinkingMenYearsWellsLongHas BeensSaidHelpingMightHappensWantedRememberParentWhiteStudentsTiredOne TimeTenseMississippiGetting Tired Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“In coming to Atlantic City, we believed strongly that we were right. In fact, it was just right for us to come to challenge the seating of the regular Democratic Party from Mississippi. But we didn't think when we got there that we would meet people, that actually the other leaders of the Movement would differ with what we felt was right.” PeopleThinkingFactsFeltChallengesPartyCitiesLeaderMovementDemocraticDemocratic PartyMississippiAtlantic City Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“I think there will be great leaders emerging from the State of Mississippi. The people that have the experience to know and the people not interested in letting somebody pat you on the back and tell us "I think it is right." And it is very important for us not to accept a compromise and after I got back to Mississippi, people there said it was the most important step that had been taken.” PeopleThinkingKnowsSaidImportantStatesLeaderAcceptingStepsTakenCompromiseNot InterestedGreat LeaderEmergingMississippi Author:Fannie Lou Hamer
“It took the United States Army to get one Negro into the University of Mississippi; it took troops to get a few Negroes in the white schools at Little Rock and another dozen places in the South.” LittlesStatesSchoolWhiteUnitedUnited StatesRocksArmySouthUniversityDozenTroopsMississippiUnited States ArmyLittle Rock Author:Malcolm X
“I looked on the television the other night and saw them beating a Negro unmercifully in Mississippi. And this is the result of a brainwashing technique, a certain power structure in the American government has paid these Negro integrationist leaders to perpetuate among our people. But it's not a good thing, and it will never solve our problem.” PeopleProblemGovernmentNightCertainResultsLeaderSawsTelevisionPaidStructureGood ThingsSolveTechniqueMississippiBrainwashingAmerican Government Author:Malcolm X
“To watch your home change in front of you is surprising. But at the same time, going someplace like Mississippi, makes me appreciate even this.” HomeWatchesFrontsAppreciateSurprisingMississippi Author:Jacqueline Woodson
“I never will let anyone make, maneuver me into making a distinction between the Mississippi form of discrimination and the New York City form of discrimination. It's, it's both discrimination; it's all discrimination.” FormCitiesNew YorkDiscriminationDistinctionNew York CityMississippi Author:Malcolm X
“I mean a real police state just to get a token recognition of a law. It take, it took, I think, 15,000 troops and 6 million dollars to put one negro in the University of Mississippi. That's a police action, police state action.” ThinkingMeanRealStatesActionLawMillionsPoliceDollarsUniversityRecognitionTroopsMillion DollarsMississippiTokensPolice State Author:Malcolm X
“My passion comes from the things that have historically happened to black people in Mississippi. I can honestly say that most of the things that I've accomplished in my life have come from my spirituality and my belief in God.” PeopleI CanSpiritualityPassionBeliefBlackHappenedHonestlyAccomplishedBlack PeopleMy PassionMississippiBelief In God Author:David Banner
“My concern was first, for the black people of Mississippi, then I became concerned for black people nationwide, now my concern is for black people all over the world. I began to realize that it's not as much about race as we think it is. It's about the rich vs. the poor. I feel as if the different races are pitted against one another so we won't see the bigger (financial disparity) problem.” PeopleIfsThinkingWorldFeelsFirstsDifferentProblemBlackRealizingPoorRaceRichConcernConcernedBiggerFinancialBlack PeopleMississippiDisparityDifferent Races Author:David Banner
“I get letters every week from people who live in rural Texas or rural Mississippi and who feel totally alone. They feel like they must be the strangest person in the world. They don't fit in to the religious milieu of their communities. It doesn't make any sense to them. They read some of my columns and they know that there's somebody in the world at least as crazy as they are, and so they write and say is there anybody else?” PeopleKnowsWorldFeelsWritingPersonsCommunityReligiousWeekCrazyFitLettersTexasColumnsMississippiMilieu Author:John Shelby Spong