SEE WHAT SOCIAL, POLITICAL & ACADEMIC LEADERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE SAYING ABOUT
FREE STATE OF JONES
,
June 24. Written & directed by Gary Ross and starring Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw & Maherashala Ali, the film tells the incredible true story about an extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy by a group of small southern farmers and local slaves in Jones County, Mississippi.
Below see what social, political and academic leaders across the country are saying about this film.
“Free State of Jones is an honest and beautifully executed reminder of the price many honorable men and women paid for the right to be free from slavery and economic oppression – a place that America should never return to as we all are united in one nation under God.”
-Marc Morial, President, National Urban League
“A powerful and poignant film about war, race, freedom and love–set in the past and present.”
-Cornell Brooks, President, NAACP
“A thrilling film rises from our Civil War buried in myth. Free State of Jones answers Gone With the Wind with truth, guts, and freedom.”
-Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize in History: Parting the Waters
“In Free State of Jones, these blacks and whites who were small farmers and slaves did not believe in slavery and did not want to own slaves or be slaves. It is critical that we view this film and honor the lessons learned: that we achieve more if we learn to work together amicably.”
-Andrew Young, UN Ambassador, Mayor of Atlanta, US House of Representatives
“This film is one for this moment. A forgotten history and reminder of the common cause between blacks and working class whites.”
-Sherrilyn Iffil, President, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
“Free State of Jones challenges our many misconceptions of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It can promote a dialogue about what may have been possible more than a century ago – and what is very much possible in our own day. Free State of Jones suggests that there is a way forward in any society with deep divisions of class and race: that commitment, understanding, shared goals, and collective struggle can overcome prejudice, parochialism, and reaction. A new look at Reconstruction can help us see how the past can and must inform the present, and Free State of Jones is a rich, dramatic, and valuable lens into that past.”
-Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize in History: A Nation Under Our Feet
Discover the sources behind the true events depicted in the film. Go on to
FreeStateOfJones.info
for the facts behind the story.