State Of Siege: Mississippi Whites and the Civil Rights Movement

Mississippi occupies a distinct and dramatic place in the history of America's civil rights movement. No state in the South was more resistant to the struggle for black equality. No place was more violent. As historian David Oshinsky writes: "The codes of honor and vengeance, the effects of poverty, ignorance, and isolation had all left their bloody mark. Mississippians earned less, killed more, and died younger than other Americans."

Drawing on archival audio and groundbreaking research on the civil rights era, this special from American RadioWorks brings to light the extraordinary tactics whites in Mississippi used to battle integration and the lasting impact of that battle in American politics today.