D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" to be Shown in Rome, NY, Theater Will it Help Race Relations?

D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" to be shown in Rome, NY, theater. Will it help race relations or is it a symptom of the problem?

The racist movie, "Birth of a Nation," by D. W. Griffith, will be shown at The Capitol Theatre in Rome, NY, Saturday. I recall watching the movie during my undergraduate years at Ohio University and I was appalled then and now. The leaders from the local Utica branches of the NAACP, the Historical Black Ministerial Alliance and black churches met Thursday for a discussion about the film and how it could benefit the community. According to the Utica Observer-Dispatch, they said they hope a showing of the film can inspire healing, growth and understanding in the community.

The movie was controversial and explicitly racist. It portrayed Southern blacks as villains and vicious rapist, took a pro-Ku Klux Klan stance and endorsed slavery.It proclaimed blacks were a threat to the social order in America. The film originally premiered with the title The Clansman in February 1915 in Los Angeles, but three months later it was retitled with the present title at its world premiere in New York, with the intent of emphasizing the birthing process of the United States. It was based on former North Carolina Baptist minister Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-black and bigoted stage play, The Clansman, which was the second volume in a trilogy: "The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden, 1865-1900" and "The Traitor." Of course, D. W. Griffith, though he depicted blacks in such a controversial way, claims he wasn't a racist, though the film was used back then and today, as a recruitment tool for Ku Klux Klan membership.  The film also explored two American issues that continue to be discussed today -- inter-racial sex and marriage, and the empowerment of blacks.

Riots broke out over the showing of the film in major cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. It was denied released in many other cities such as Denver, Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Minneapolis. There were several lawsuits and picketing of the film when it was re-released in 1924, 1931 and 1938. As always, controversy helped fuel its box office appeal and the film became a major hit. President Woodrow Wilson went to a private screening in which he reportedly proclaimed: "It's like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all terribly true." Wow, even the denigration of blacks too! In 1921, Griffith waved the white flag of sorts and released a shortened, re-edited version of the film without references to the Ku Klux Klan.

"Birth of a Nation" was voted into National Film Registry in 1993, and was voted one of the "Top 100 American Films" (at # 44) by the American Film Institute in 1998.


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