Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Mississippi Burning :: Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry Essays

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Mississippi Burning Prejudice is just a word until a book or movie puts pictures in your mind. In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Mississippi Burning, there are several scenes that have an impact on me. Both stories tell how badly the black families of Mississippi were treated, and they show how they suffered through it and came out the other end with courage and honor. It also tells how unfair the white men were to the blacks, inside and outside of the courtroom. Prejudice is an ugly subject, and is still taught today. The horrible things that the white man did to the colored man make me realize how ignorance certainly is bliss. In both Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Mississippi Burning, the black people were tortured and tormented for no reason other than that they were black. The black families in the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry live in constant fear of the nightriders. The nightriders would kill a man for looking at them the wrong way in those days. It is for this reason that the black people tried to have as little to do with the white men as possible. In the book, Papa tries to explain to Stacey why it's not such a good idea to get involved with Jeremy. "We Logans don't have much to do with the white folks. You know why?" Papa says, " `Cause white folks mean trouble" p. 158. In Mississippi Burning, the FBI agent Mr. Anderson tries to explain to his partner how prejudice the white men of Mississippi are. In this movie, the members of the Ku Klux Klan kill black men because they stepped out of line. When trying to explain this to his partner, Mr. Anderson tells him " Down here, things are different; here, they believe that some things are worth killing for." He also tells how thirty years ago, a black man could be hung for stealing a watermelon. After all the bad things that the white man did to the black man, I wouldn't be surprised if they still didn't forgive us. When comparing the book and the movie, I can't help but notice the honor and confidence that the black people possess.