D. W. Griffith, “Birth of a Nation”
In February 1915, David Wark Griffith released his film, “Birth of a Nation” to the United States. Originally it was called “The Clansman” because it was adapted from the book with the same title by Thomas Dixon Jr. The film depicted the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes who saved the post Civil War South and included real events from that time accompanied by fiction plot.
The film helped to restore the KKK because they used it as marketing to get new members to join as they were seen as the good guys. It also twisted the characteristics of average black men, who were depicted as less intellectual and “predators of white women.” Despite these untrue stereotypes being portrayed, President Woodrow Wilson allowed it to be screened in the White House. He even said that his only regret in showing it was that “it is all so terribly true.” It is sad that this viewing of the movie was also history as it was the first film to ever been shown in the White House, for Wilson and other members of his cabinet.
Not only are members of the KKK depicted as heroes, but the black men are just white actors in blackface, only furthering how racist and not progressive America still was. Whites were flooding the theaters, eager to watch this revival, helping to impress their negative stereotypes.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/kkk-birth-of-a-nation-filmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-unfortunate-effects-of-the-birth-of-a-nation/2017/07/21/b6fc5920-6c1e-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html
https://time.com/3699084/100-years-birth-of-a-nation/
I enjoyed how this post gave a concise background of "Birth of a Nation" and the impact that it had on America. It is really shocking that a president endorsed this kind of blatant racism and allowed the film to be shown in the White House. It was also the first movie to be screened in the White House which is even more disappointing. Woodrow Wilson did however have more conservative views of race and didn't do much during his presidency to fix the racial segregation in the country during his term. It is interesting to see how they created a new "Birth of a Nation" recently. However, this "Birth of a Nation" is about Nat Turner, and his witnessing of the many atrocities that African Americans faced on the plantations. Nat eventually gathers a group of followers as Nat believes God has chosen him to lead others to freedom.
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It is very interesting that in that time period, films like this were publicly acceptable to watch. At times of extreme racism, even after the Civil War, the KKK raged on after the release of this film. Being the first movie to ever be screened in the White House, which is shocking on its own, it represented the feelings of Washington D.C. at the time. Today, we might have gotten rid of this type of extreme racism, but some of it lives on.
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It is very shocking to see how popular "Birth of a Nation" was through receiving millions of views, the support of Woodrow Wilson by permitting its screening in the White House, and even the resurgence of the KKK to a population of three million at its peak in the 1920s. The effect this had on race relations was horrible, as the three-hour propaganda piece only increased the spread of racist attitudes and bigotry through America. It seems as though the worst aspect of this horrible moment is history is how the ideas it spread continue to reverberate through society today.
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