Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story (2012)

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Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story was released on April 26, 2012, in the USA. The American documentary film was produced by EyePatch Productions. The movie storyline was directed by Raymond DeFelitta. The movie was based on the true story of Booker Wright who works as a waiter in the late 1960s at the Lusco ("whites only") restaurant, Greenwood, Mississippi[1].

Booker Wright[2]

Plot

In the late 1960s, Frank DeFellita filmed a documentary about race relations in southern America for NBC. He documented how the white race treated African Americans and how African Americans felt at the time. One of the interviewees that went viral was Booker Wright. Booker Wright who was a waiter at Locus, ("white only restaurant") explained his feelings and how he dealt with racism. His answer was ingenious "smiles on the outside, but cries on the inside", but the answer impacted the American society at the time as fighting racism sayings were only lip service. 40 years later, Raymond DeFelitta, son of Frank DeFelitta, and Yvette Johnson, the granddaughter of Booker Wright, investigated how the documentary impacted Booker Wright's life and the society at the time. They did interviews with Booker Wrights's family including his daughters and granddaughter's lives. They also interviewed the residents of Greenwood in the late 1960s even a few people who knew Booker Wright[3]. In the end, it was discovered that Booker Wright did not die for being the "Accidental Activist", but he knew exactly what dangers would come for saying that yet he embraced what would come for telling the real truth about how African Americans treated and expressed vividly[4].

Leroy Jones (Yvette's father) and Yvette Johnson (Booker's Wright granddaughter)[5]

Black Empowerment

Booker Wright has his own way to fight racism. He believes that fighting racism should be done with peace. It can be seen as Wright says "The meaner the man be, the more you smile. Although you are crying on the inside. Or you are wondering: 'What else can I do?'". He says that he takes this violation so that the children would have a better education and career so they could change the racism perception in the future. The film also shows how Frank DeFelitta exposed the ugly truth of how African Americans were treated, and the USA country goes crazy as racism should not be tolerated. We can also see that there were several customers who would defend the African American waiters. Still, the star in the film was Booker Wright, as he is the one who told Frank to run the footage even though Wright knows exactly what future would come for him for exposing the truth of African Americans get treated in southern America[6].

Controversy

It is portrayed throughout the film how harsh African Americans treated at the time. Yet, several people in Mississippi would say that they love African Americans. But it was only lip service paid by the members of the Citizen's Counsel (a racist counsel in Mississippi). Moreover, we can see that the White Citizens tried to keep African Americans from any achievement. The film also shows how Lusco restaurant worked at the time. If there were African American visitors, Lusco would either not serve them or price them with almost 20x more expensive than the usual price for white citizens. Some visitors would treat the African American waiters as "nigger" and scold them without any reason. After the film aired in the theater, Wright lost his job, his own restaurant business, trashed and burned, and murdered with no charges filed[7].

References