"Mississippi Burning" by Anim8dtoon
Contains violence
Content Advisory!
This artwork contains mature content: violence.
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Description
This is my personal interpretation of a particularly searing period during the 1960's civil rights movement in Nebosha County, Mississippi, when three civil rights workers were brutally executed by the Ku Klux Klan in an effort to thwart efforts in that state to get black Americans registered to vote: Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney--an incident which ultimately led to the excellent, if historically inaccurate, Alan Parker movie starring Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman.
It is exactly 57 years ago today, on June 21, 1964, that Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner died at the hands of the KKK on a secluded dirt road. Their deaths were memorialized in a haunting painting by none other than Norman Rockwell, and it is from that painting that I drew the inspiration for this piece. I chose to depict the murders in a deserted alley rather than on a secluded dirt road, as I did not have the 3D scene files I needed in order to do that. Hence, the alley prop, created by Stonemason, which suited my needs perfectly and which conveyed the desolation and predicament of the victims, who had nowhere to escape to away from their killers, who I purposely chose not to depict, except for their hands holding the handguns.
The three young civil rights workers did not die in vain, as African-Americans ultimately won the right to vote with the assistance of many dedicated white citizens and the leadership of determined civil rights icons, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Congressman John Lewis, both of who participated in the marches between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. The Voting Rights Act became law in 1965, giving all black Americans the right to participate in our country's democratic process. To learn more about the events leading up to the deaths of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, go to this link:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mississippi-justice/ and watch the documentary film there.
Postworked in Photoshop and Lightroom. Please be sure to click on the image to see the details!
Comments (3)
contedesfees
A gripping, respectful, and extremely well-composed tribute to three unusually brave young men. All five stars.
Anim8dtoon
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment--you just made my day! It was a real pleasure to work on.
radioham
Very nice render Yes the KKK has done much that they need to answer for. I know that money was made by making slaves and taking them away from their family home to work them in to the ground Now that they are no longer slaves the people don't want them... your country was made by the hands and backs of these people like it or lump it ... the world made this we have to live with what we done we can not push it under the floor
Anim8dtoon
Radioham, thank you so much for your comments on "Mississippi Burning"! Although you obviously don't live in the U.S., you have a firm grasp on American history and know that slavery was a long-time and deep-seated institution until after the Civil War. Even though black Americans have the same rights as the rest of us, there's still a long ways to go to root out racism and bigotry. I hope to see it become a thing of the past during my lifetime. It can't happen soon enough!
RodS
I remember when this happened - we have a close friend names Andrew Goodman, so it gave us quite a fright, although we knew he wasn't in Mississippi at the time.
Sadly, it seems with certain power-mad political entities we are returning to these savage times. I hope not.
You really brought out the tragedy and shame of that incident here. We must never forget.
Anim8dtoon
Wow, RodS. Thank god your friend Andrew Goodman wasn't the one in Mississippi. I don't blame you one bit for having feared for his life then. I was too young to be aware of that incident as I was born in '58, but I learned about it through the movie of the same name with Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe starring in it. Recent events, including the death of Congressman John Lewis (bless his fine and mighty heart) and his march with Dr. King into Selma, have ignited an interest in me in the civil rights movement back then and the struggles of our fellow black Americans to achieve equality in this country.
You are right; we must never forget those tragic events in the history of our country, and work to prevent a return to the past! Thank you so much for your compliments on my image!