The film 'By Any Means,' directed by Elegance Bratton and starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is loosely inspired by the 1966 murder of civil rights activist and NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer by Ku Klux Klan members in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. ^[1] In the film, FBI agent Wayne Strider (played by Abdul-Mateen) is paired with Brooklyn mobster Gregory Scarpa (played by Wahlberg) in an off-the-books effort to identify those responsible for Dahmer's murder; Scarpa was a real-life mobster while Strider is a composite character inspired by FBI agents who reportedly worked with him. ^[2] Vernon Dahmer had publicly offered to help black residents pay poll taxes that prevented many poor citizens from voting, declaring that their participation at the ballot box was a statement that 'we here, that we matter.' ^[3] Yahya Abdul-Mateen II said his character Wayne Strider faces a moral dilemma between pursuing justice by the book and resorting to vengeance, and he quoted Scripture: 'Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.' ^[4] The film is set against the racial and political violence of the American South in the late 1960s. ^[5] The plot involves the FBI turning to Scarpa to solve the 1966 firebombing murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer Sr. ^[6]