Yes, it was "just the way things were". As a child in MS I knew no different. Whites and blacks did not mix except in work and commerce. I picked cotten and cucumbers and corn alongside blacks who were just as poor as I and my family. We ate the same foods and we talked about the same music singers. We had the same sweat and worn out clothes. Never did I or anyone I know ever think that we were better than they were. It was only a few southern hotheads who carried the whole region into civil rights warfare. Hollywood has exploited that image for 50 years. It's not the real way it was.......
Hollywood exploits whatever they can make money off of. If that means making movies at the expense of Mississippi, they will but I don't see such movies so popular anymore. Having said that, I couldn't live in Mississippi years ago with my family and lifestyle. The place today sounds like a better place to live than where I live right now.