Quotes

Dialogue

Ward: Some things are worth dying for. Anderson: Down here, things are different; here, they believe that some things are worth killing for.

Dialogue

Ward: Where does it come from, all this hatred? Anderson: You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old Negro farmer lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was, uh, - well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my Daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. Now, my Daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kiddin' him about oh, they saw Monroe out plowin' with his new mule, and Monroe was gonna rent another field now they had a mule. And one morning that mule just showed up dead. They poisoned the water. And after that there was never any mention about that mule around my Daddy. It just never came up. So one time, we were drivin' down the road and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He'd just packed up and left, I guess. Gone up North, or somethin'. I looked over at my Daddy's face - and I knew he'd done it. And he saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and he said: 'If you

Dialogue

Mayor Tilman: 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. Anderson: Rest of America don't see it that way, Mr. Mayor. Sheriff Ray Stuckey: Rest of America don't mean jack shit. You in Mississippi now.

Dialogue

Anderson: You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do. Ward: If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.

Dialogue

Sheriff Ray Stuckey: Do you like baseball, do you, Anderson? Anderson: 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.

Dialogue

Anderson: Nice to be back in a dry county. When I was Sheriff, about half my take-home pay was from collectin' taxes on illegal juice like this, probably works the same here. I think you'd haul in a tidy penny here, winkin' at the bootleggers. Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell: I don't know nothin' 'bout that. Anderson: Yeah. Tidy penny. [takes a drink; holds up the beer] You got anything stronger than this, Deputy? Deputy Sheriff Pell: No. No, we ain't. Anderson: No? You know in Thornton, Mississippi there's a joint-juice still in every yard. Well, all you need is some corn and sugar, and a pot to boil it in. I tried takin' the prints on this old boy one time, and he'd had his hand in the mash barrel, all his life. Well, there's no skin at all on there, there's no prints. Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell: We ain't too interested in your good ol' Mississippi boy stories, Anderson; you ain't from here no more. Why'd you leave, anyway? Anderson: Just wanted a change of scenery. The grits started le

Dialogue

Mrs. Pell: It's not good for you to be here. Anderson: Why? Mrs. Pell: 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.

Dialogue

Television Commentator: Your name, please. Clayton Townley: Clayton Townley, local businessman. Television Commentator: Are you, sir, a spokesman for the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan? Clayton Townley: 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, Mongols, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes because we are here to protect Anglo-Saxon Democracy, and the American way! Television Commentator: Thank you very much.

Dialogue

Deputy Pell: You got no right to be here. This is a political meeting. Ward: Doesn't smell that way to me, Deputy. Deputy Pell: It's a damn political meeting, Hoover Boy. Ward: Oh, it looks like a political meeting, but smells more like Klan to me... with or without the Halloween costumes.

Dialogue

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. Ragged old razor blade, like this one. They pulled down his pants, they spread his legs, and they sliced off his scrotum. 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? 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. Mayor, we know you know who was there when those three civil rights boys was murdered. We know you know who pulled the trigger. [pauses] Is there something you wanna say to me?

Dialogue

Ward: The whole thing, huh? Bullet by bullet. I don't suppose you're interested in words like coercion, or hearsay, or duress. This is no good in court. Anderson: We're not in court, Mr. Ward. That's a state charge. These hayseeds will never prosecute. Ward: I know that! Anderson: Well, we gotta get 'em in federal court! Violation of civil rights. Ward: Just don't lose sight of whose rights you're violating! Anderson: Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward. Ward: Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson! Anderson: These people crawled out of the SEWER, MR. WARD! Maybe the gutter's where we should be!

Dialogue

Agent Bird: [the mayor has hung himself] I don't understand why he did it. He wasn't in on it. He wasn't even Klan. Ward: 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.