Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-29T23:57:34.484Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Birth of a Nation, The (1915)

from Entries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2016

Raymond Gavins
Raymond Gavins
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Get access

Summary

p>Racist images of blacks infused silent films, The Birth of a Nation being one of the most popular. Based on Thomas F. Dixon, Jr.'s novel The Clansman (1905) and produced by D. W. Griffith, it was Hollywood's first special effects film and a pro-southern story of Reconstruction. It showed black politicians leering at white women and depicted the Ku Klux Klan's violent overthrow of Republican rule as heroic. It broke box office records.

Blacks protested. For example, Los Angeles Eagle editor Charlotta Bass condemned the film's “prejudice and vainglory.” Many NAACP chapters also organized boycotts and pickets of theaters showing it.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Guide to African American History , pp. 31 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Polgar, Paul. “Fighting Lightning with Fire: Black Boston's Battle against the ‘Birth of a Nation.’” Massachusetts Historical Review, 10 (2008): 84–113.Google Scholar
Stokes, Melvyn. D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: A History of “The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time”. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Birth of a Nation, The (1915)
  • Raymond Gavins, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Cambridge Guide to African American History
  • Online publication: 05 March 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316216453.034
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Birth of a Nation, The (1915)
  • Raymond Gavins, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Cambridge Guide to African American History
  • Online publication: 05 March 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316216453.034
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Birth of a Nation, The (1915)
  • Raymond Gavins, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book: The Cambridge Guide to African American History
  • Online publication: 05 March 2016
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316216453.034
Available formats
×