Protests Greet “Birth of a Nation” Opening in New York City
One of the most famous films in the history of the cinema, The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and presented a racist version of Reconstruction opened in New York City on this day. The NAACP and other groups protested the film, sparking a long controversy over freedom of speech versus offensive hateful expression.
The Birth of a Nation is important in film history because of Director D.W. Griffith’s innovative cinematic techniques to tell a dramatic story. The three-hour film was an enormous commercial success, as racist views did not bother the overwhelming majority of white Americans at the time. H1storian Linda Gordon, in her book on the history of the “Second Klan” in the 1920s argues that the film helped to revive the Klan in the decade of the Twenties.
In Chicago, Mayor William (“Big Bill”) Thompson banned the film upon its release in May 1915. Later, on December 8, 1922, New York City officials banned the showing of the film in response to civil rights protests. In March 1916 the film was banned in the state of Ohio. Read a Library of Congress timeline on early censorship efforts directed at Birth of a Nation.
Read: Melvyn Stokes, D.W. Griffith’s the Birth of a Nation: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time (2007)
Watch excerpts from “Birth of a Nation:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t-7SVbLjBw
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here