CL 10/17

Birth of a Movement

L.A. 1915, folks line up to see “Birth of a Nation” one of the “greatest films ever produced”. It’s touted so much that it is shown in the White House.

Although racist and considered propaganda, it is perhaps the most pure and real portrayal of white feelings at that time. This is post Civil War and despite the North winning and slavery being abolished, there was still an enormous social divide between former slaves and whites that did not just fix itself overnight.

Trotter met Dubois at Harvard as the first African Americans admitted to Harvard. They navigated the ivy league school together. Trotter excelled during his tenure at Harvard.

D.W. Griffith was raised in Ky and his father fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy. When Griffith is 10 his father dies and his family is poor. Griffith travels the country as a broke aspiring stage actor until he was around 30.

As film advanced past the nickelodeon, racism and cliches are used relentlessly to portray African Americans. This happened around the same time as Plessy vs. Ferguson.

Trotter marries a woman he met at Harvard and they move to Boston. Trotter realizes that at Harvard, he was not treated as unfairly at all when he became part of the “real world” in Boston. This angers him and fuels him to become an activist and start a newspaper called The Guardian.

In 1913 President Wilson segregated federal black and white workers after he campaigned for the opposite. Trotter visits Pres. Wilson in 1914 and voices the concerns and disappointments of African Americans. Wilson is insulted and tells him to leave. This obviously must have dismayed and angered Trotter.

The L.A. premier was wildly successful. The newly formed NAACP desperately tries to ban the film. Birth of a Nation was propaganda that helped recruitment for the Klan. At the time of this films release, white audiences loved it, even the President (Wilson). With this overt seal of approval, Griffith premiers his film in New York. It became the most popular silent film of the time. The Aim was to have the film play in Boston because if it played there, it could play everywhere.

While the NAACP was attempting to ban or at the least have the most offensive scenes removed, Griffith challenges the potential ban as a violation of the 1st amendment and freedom of speech.

Boston premiers the film amid massive protests in which Trotter is arrested. Trotter was angry that Mayor Curly of Boston allowed the film despite Trotters campaigning to have him elected.

This film played in Atlanta and helped inspire the rebirth of the KKK. BY 1920 it was the largest it had ever been.

A film was made in 1920 called At our Gates that is an opposing view of Birth of a Nation but it was deemed to “violent” to show.

Birth of a Nation helped fuel the origins of the Civil Rights movement. This continued and continues today in the form of segregation, jim crow laws, and systemic racism.