Mississippi Burning (1988)

Stephen Tobolowsky: Clayton Townley

Photos 

Quotes 

• Clayton Townley : Alright, I just want to know one thing. Who the hell called this meeting?

  Sheriff Ray Stuckey : We thought you did.

  Lester Cowans : You mean you didn't set this up?

  Clayton Townley : Of this group? Are you stupid?

• 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, Mongrels, Tartars, Orientals nor Negroes because we are here to protect Anglo-Saxon Democracy, and the American way!

  Television Commentator : Thank you very much.

• Clayton Townley : In the courts of Mississippi, they have been reminded, that they cannot, by force, turn our communities into replicas of their communities... communities in which negroes run riot, unrestrained and unpunished, as they do this summer in the streets of Harlem, or they do in the streets of Oakland, or they do in the STREETS OF CHICAGO!

• [Clayton Townley is addressing a large audience at a night-time pro-white rally] 

  Clayton Townley : I love Mississippi.

  Audience : YAY!

  Clayton Townley : THEY! They hate Mississippi! They hate us because we present a shining example of *successful* segregation. These Northern students, with their atheist, Communist bosses, that have come into our community with the wish to destroy us *this week*, have taken a terrible blow. *This week*, their cause has been crippled. *This week*, these federal policeman you see around here prying into our lives, violating out civil liberties have learned that they are powerless against us if every single Anglo-Saxon Christian one of us stands together!