D W Griffith's The Birth of a Nation

by Melvyn Stokes

  236. Berquist and Greenwood, “Protest against Racism: ‘The Birth of a Nation’ in Ohio,” 43.

  237. Quoted in Everett, Returning the Gaze, 81.

  238. Berquist and Greenwood, “Protest against Racism: ‘The Birth of a Nation’ in Ohio,” 43; “Unwanted advertising,” Chicago Defender, November 13, 1915, 8.

  239. Brown, Adventures, 94; Schickel, Griffith, 247.

  240. Forum [Dayton, Ohio], reprinted in The Crisis 14, no. 1 (May 1917): 25–26.

  241. Maurice Yacowar, “Aspects of the Familiar: A Defense of Minority Group Stereotyping in the Popular Film,” Literature/Film Quarterly 2, no. 2 (Spring 1974): 134.

  242. Fleener. “Answering Film with Film,” 400–25.

  243. See, for example, Janice A. Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984); Ien Ang, Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination, trans. Della Couling (London: Methuen, 1985).

  244. Diawara, “Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance,” in Black American Cinema, ed. Diawara, 211.

  CHAPTER 8

  1. Elijah Hodges, “Another Protest against Picture,” Press [Atlantic City], July 26, 1915; cf. Uriah N. Murray, M.D., to editor of the Traveler and Evening Herald [Boston], April 15, 1915; both in DWGP.

  2. Marvin Fletcher, The Black Soldier and Officer in the United States Army, 1891–1917 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974), 53–59; W. E. B. Du Bois to International Committee, YMCA, September 7, 1916, NAACPP.

  3. Mark Meigs makes the point that many World War I American soldiers “first saw battle” in The Birth of a Nation. He notes that among countless references in their diaries and letters to watching movies, the only film actually mentioned by name is Birth. Meigs, Optimism at Armageddon: Voices of American Participants in the First World War (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), 20–21.

  4. NAACP Secretary [John R. Shillady] to Mayor John F. Hylan, February 21, 1918, NAACPP; “Colored People Aroused at Film,” Daily Alaska Dispatch, October 9, 1918, clipping in NAACPP.

  5. “Resolution,” signed by Houston G. Young, secretary of state and secretary of the Executive State Council of Defense, West Virginia, June 18, 1918; Chas. E. Morris, secretary to the governor, to Harry C. Smith, editor of the Gazette [Cleveland, Ohio], October 12, 1918, clipping; both in NAACPP. Also see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” 275, 257.

  6. Olie V. Gregory to James Weldon Johnson, February 23, 1918; “War Dept. Urged to Ban Vicious Film,” letter from Negro Civic League of Marshall, Texas, to Newton D. Baker, secretary of war, printed in the Age [New York], May 18, 1918; “Birth of a Nation Is Barred” and “Victory Won” in Supreme Circle News [Albany, Georgia], May 18, 1918; “‘Birth of a Nation’ May Not Appear,” the Lincoln [word missing], June 26, 1918; all in NAACPP.

  7. “Particularly at this time,” asserted the governor, “we should be careful to preserve the utmost cordiality between all classes of American citizens. The negroes are doing their share in the war and should be treated with the respect shown the whites.” The mayor stressed the “self sacrifice and devotion to the cause of the nation” demonstrated by local blacks and “the noble sacrifices which their brethren are making on the battle fronts.” Governor Thomas Riggs to U.S. Marshall J. M. Tanner, October 9, 1918; Mayor E. Valentine to W. D. Grosse, October 8, 1918; cf. “Governor Suppresses ‘Birth of a Nation,’” and “Suppression of Picture Pleases Colored People,” Daily Alaska Dispatch, October 10, 1918, clippings; Charles W. Mosby et al. to Thomas Riggs, October 11, 1918; Mrs. C. Mosby et al. to John R. Shillady, October 12, 1918; all in NAACPP.

  8. See John R. Shillady to Dear Sir, October 10, 1918; John R. Shillady to All Branches, October 10, 1918; Minutes of Meeting of the NAACP Board of Directors, October 14, 1918, Box A-8; Press Release, October 14; all in NAACPP.

  9. Governor Arthur Capper to John R. Shillady, October 17, 1918; Governor James Withycombe to John R. Shillady, October 16, 1918; H. E. Samuelson to John R. Shillady, October 14, 1918; Governor R. Livingston Beechman to John R. Shillady, October 12, 1918; governor of North Dakota to David W. Griffith Corporation, October 15, 1918; Governor Thomas W. Bickett to John R. Shillady, October 14, 1918; all in NAACPP.

  10. Governor Theo G. Bilbo to John R. Shillady, October 15, 1918; Dorrice B. Cowie to John R. Shillady, October 15, 1918; Governor Walter E. Edge to John R. Shillady, October 16, 1918; Governor Sidney J. Catts to John R. Shillady, October 15, 1918; Rolph Duff to John R. Shillady, October 14, 1918; O. J. Grimes to John R. Shillady, October 16, 1918; Governor Emanuel L. Philipp to John R. Shillady, October 16, 1918; all in NAACPP.

  11. Arch M. Thurman, secretary of council of defense, to John R. Shillady, October 24, 1918; Henry M. Wriston to John R. Shillady, October 15, 1918; Director Chas. C. Moore to NAACP, October 24, 1918; all in NAACPP.

  12. Dr. A. C. McIntyre to John R. Shillady, November 17, 1918 [telegram]; Geo. Weissinger Smith to John R. Shilliday [sic], November 20, 1918; “Action against Production of ‘The Birth of a Nation,’” 1922 file, n.p.; all in NAACPP.

  13. “‘Birth of a Nation’ May Not Be Shown,” Daily Register [Richmond, Virginia], n.d. but from internal evidence late November 1918; “Great Picture Won’t Be Shown,” Daily Register [Richmond, Virginia], n.d. but from internal evidence November 29, 1918; both in NAACPP. Also see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” 218.

  14. Robert J. Nelson to Governor William C. Sproul, n.d. but from internal evidence early February 1919 [copy]; Governor William J. Sproul to Robert J. Nelson, February 5, 1919; also see Mary White Ovington to Governor William C. Sproul, January 27, 1919; S. H. Kelly and S. E. Beach to Governor William C. Sproul, January 25, 1919; Robert J. Nelson to John R. Shillady, February 11, 1919; all in NAACPP.

  15. Untitled report by J. C. Gilmer, Charleston, West Virginia, dated February 26, 1919; “The Birth of a Nation,” n.d. memorandum; both in NAACPP.

  16. See Langston Hughes, Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), 60–62; Minnie Finch, The NAACP: Its Fight for Justice (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981), 55–56.

  17. The film continued, however, to be banned in a number of places: for example, Marshall, Texas, passed a local ordinance in 1920 to prevent its screening. Cindy Patton, “White Racism/Black Signs: Censorship and Images of Race Relations,” Journal of Communication 45, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 65.

  18. Koszarski, An Evening’s Entertainment, 201–206.

  19. See Charles Musser, Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 302–303, 307, 309, 392, 530, n. 14; cf. Wade, The Fiery Cross, 114–15, 220.

  20. Scott Simmon observes that one of the possible inspirations for The Rose of Kentucky may have been the “Black Patch War” of 1904–1910 between tobacco farmers in the west of Kentucky, which featured Klan-style night riders. Simmon, The Films of D. W. Griffith, 124.

  21. See Cook, Fire from the Flint, 196–97; Slide, American Racist, 16. After the publication of The Clansman, Dixon had rejected suggestions that he lead some kind of Klan revival. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 27.

  22. Leonard Dinnerstein, The Leo Frank Case (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), 1, 11, 125–26, 136–37, 139–41; Wade, The Fiery Cross, 143–44. For a concise overview of the history of the Frank case, see Matthew Bernstein, “Oscar Micheaux and Leo Frank: Cinematic Justice across the Color Line,” Film Quarterly 57, no. 4 (Summer 2004): 8–21, especially 8–11. On the case itself and its significance, also see Steve Oney, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003); Nancy MacLean, “The Leo Frank Case Reconsidered: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Making of Reactionary Populism,” Journal of American History 78, no. 3 (December 1991): 917–48.

  23. Wade, The Fiery Cross, 144.

  24. Wade, The Fiery Cros
s, 144. At least one newspaper of the time equated the men who lynched Leo Frank with Dixon’s Klansmen. “The Clansman of 1915,” Press [Akron, Ohio], August 19, 1915, DWGP.

  25. Wade, The Fiery Cross, 140–43; Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 28–30.

  26. Although the presence of members of the Knights of Mary Phagan at the ceremonial reorganization of the Klan has generally been accepted by historians (see Dinnerstein, The Leo Frank Case, 150, for example), Nancy Maclean argues that “no one has ever documented a direct connection between the two.” Maclean, Behind the Mask of Chilvalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 12.

  27. Wade, The Fiery Cross, 144–45.

  28. Ibid., 138.

  29. Maxim Simcovitch, “The Impact of Griffith’s Birth of a Nation on the Modern Ku Klux Klan,” Journal of Popular Film 1, no. 1 (Winter 1972): 46–48; Wade, The Fiery Cross, 146–47.

  30. A rival Klan briefly appeared in San Francisco. Wade, The Fiery Cross, 146.

  31. Simcovitch, “The Impact of Griffith’s Birth of a Nation on the Modern Ku Klux Klan,” 48–51.

  32. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 3; Simcovitch, “The Impact of Griffith’s Birth of a Nation on the Modern Ku Klux Klan,” 49, 51. Also see Robert Alan Goldberg, Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), 52, 153–54.

  33. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 3–4, 31–33; Simcovitch, “The Impact of Griffith’s Birth of a Nation on the Modern Ku Klux Klan,” 52.

  34. Mrs. S. E. F. Rose, “The Ku Klux Klan and The Birth of a Nation,” Confederate Veteran 24, no. 4 (April 1916): 157; Maclean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry, 13; William G. Shepherd, “How I Put Over the Klan,” Collier’s Magazine, July 14, 1928, quoted in Simcovitch, “The Impact of Griffith’s Birth of a Nation on the Modern Ku Klux Klan,” 46.

  35. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 31–33, 35–38; Maclean, Behind the Mask of Chivalry, 5, 10.

  36. L. D. Reddick, “Educational Programs for the Improvement of Race Relations: Motion Pictures, Radio, the Press, and Libraries,” Journal of Negro Education 13, no. 3 (Summer, 1944): 372.

  37. Walter F. White to S. L. Rothafel [sic], April 26, 1921; S. F. Rothapfel to Walter F. White, April 29, 1921; JWJ [James Weldon Johnson] to Richard E. Enright, Commissioner of Police, May 4, 1921; all in NAACPP. The principal argument used by the NAACP to these officials, it was later claimed, was that The Birth of a Nation “was returning to New York, first, to offset the expose of conditions in Jasper County, Georgia, and second, to aid the Ku Klux Klan in its propaganda in New York.” James W. Johnson to Lester A. Walton, May 20, 1921, NAACPP.

  38. James W. Johnson to Governor Nathan L. Miller, April 30, 1921 [telegram]; James W. Johnson to Lester A. Walton, May 20, 1921; both in NAACPP.

  39. “N.A.A.C.P. Issues Statement on ‘Birth of a Nation’ Protest,” NAACP Press Release, May 7, 1921; “Negroes Oppose Film,” Times [New York], May 7, 1921; “Negroes Picket ‘Birth of a Nation,’” World [New York], May 7, 1921; “Negroes Protest Film Play,” Tribune [New York], May 7, 1921; “Arrest Negroes at ‘Birth of a Nation,’” Herald [New York], May 7, 1921; all in NAACPP.

  40. “Stop the Ku Klux Propaganda in New York,” n.d., leaflet in NAACPP. Also see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” 188–89.

  41. “Arrest Negroes at ‘Birth of a Nation,’” Herald [New York], May 7, 1921; “Film Protestants Arraigned in Court,” Globe [New York], May 9, 1921; “Defends Film Production,” Times [New York], May 9, 1921; “Negro Pickets in Court,” Times [New York], May 10, 1921; “Negro Pickets Found Guilty by City Court,” Call [New York], May 13, 1921; “N.A.A.C.P. Makes Test Case of Protest against ‘Birth of a Nation’—Several Pickets Arrested,” Michigan State News [Grand Rapids], May 19, 1921; Opinion, State of New York against Kathryn Johnson, Helen Curtis, Laura Pollock, Edward Frasier and Llewellyn Pollock, Court of General Sessions of the Peace in and for the County of New York, November 3, 1921, 3, copy in James Weldon Johnson to National Urban League, November 9, 1921; all in NAACPP. Also see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” 189–92.

  42. “‘Birth of a Nation’ Pickets Freed by Higher Court,” Call [New York], November 5, 1921; “Convicted N.A.A.C.P. Pickets Freed,” NAACP Press Release, n.d. but early November 1921; James Weldon Johnson to National Urban League, November 9, 1921; HJS [H. J. Seligman], director of publicity, NAACP to Fred R. Moore, May 14, 1921; Lester A. Walton to James W. Johnson, May 25, 1921; all in NAACPP.

  43. Butler R. Wilson to James W. Johnson, May 16, 1921; “Boston Closes Theater to Stop ‘Birth of a Nation,’” Tribune [New York], May 17, 1921; “‘Birth of a Nation’ Closes Boston House,” Herald [New York], May 17, 1921; all in NAACPP. Also see Fleener-Marzec, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” 243–44.

  44. Fox, Guardian of Boston, 261. Catholics fought back by making anti-Klan movies. In 1922, Creston Pictures, a Catholic production company, released Knight of the Eucharist and Hopp Hadley’s The Mask of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in 1923. I am indebted to Tom Rice for information on these pictures.

  45. Butler R. Wilson to James W. Johnson, May 17, 1921, NAACPP.

  46. “‘Birth of a Nation’ Film Stopped in Boston,” NAACP Press Release, May 20, 1921; Emery T. Morris and Albert G. Wolff to NAACP, May 21, 1921; both in NAACPP.

  47. Walter F. White, George W. Harris, and Henri W. Shields to Motion Picture Commission of the State of New York, November 27, 1922; “The Birth of a Nation,” n.d. memorandum; both in NAACPP.

  48. Charles Alexander to James W. Johnson, June 26, 1921 [telegram]; “Birth of a Nation Film Barred in California,” NAACP Press Release, July 8, 1921; both in NAACPP. Whatever Clune’s assurances, The Birth of a Nation did not disappear from the State of California. In 1922, the City Council of Sacramento passed an ordinance to prohibit its showing there. “The Birth of a Nation,” n.d. memorandum, NAACPP.

  49. Walter F. White to James Hallinan, state director, Knights of Columbus, November 27, 1922, NAACPP.

  50. Walter F. White to the Reverend John Roach Straton, December 18, 1922, NAACPP.

  51. Hays’s efforts proved successful. As Richard Koszarski notes: “After 1922 no more states established censorship boards, and the MPPDA successfully lobbied against all bills for federal regulation.” An Evening’s Entertainment, 206.

  52. Will Hays, The Memoirs of Will H. Hays (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 467.

  53. Walter F. White, George W. Harris, and Henri W. Shields to Motion Picture Commission of the State of New York, November 27, 1922; “The Birth of a Nation,” memorandum dated 1922, 1–3; Walter F. White to the Reverend John Roach Straton, December 18, 1922; “Statements made at conference on Birth of a Nation before New York State Censorship Commission,” n.d.; all in NAACPP.

  54. Opinion of Commissioner Joseph Levenson on protest filed by the NAACP against the picture entitled “The Birth of a Nation,” December 8, 1922, NAACPP. The letter from the state censorship board outlining the required cuts (dated December 20, 1922) was reprinted in Aitken, The Birth of a Nation Story, 84–85.

  55. See George H. Cobb to Walter F. White, January 3, 1923; H. M. Smith to Walter F. White, January 11, 1923; George H. Cobb to Walter White, January 18, 1923 (including a list of the cuts ordered by the commission with White’s handwritten assessment of whether the cuts had been made); all in NAACPP.

  56. “Klansmen on Screen Cheered by Audiences,” World [New York], December 5, 1922, clipping in NAACPP. One press agent informed several reviewers in the lobby of the theater that the Klan itself had caused this revival of the film. Ibid.

  57. Walter F. White to the Reverend H. M. Smith, January 8, 1923; “Theatre Owners Condemn ‘Birth of a Nation’ as Klan Aid,” World [New York], n.d. but from internal evidence December 23, 1922; both in NAACPP. The New York World itself was a committed opponent of the Klan, and in October 1921 had published a series of articles exposing the hooded order.

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p; 58. “Topeka, Kansas White Newspaper Endorses N.A.A.C.P. Protest,” Press Release, dated June 29, 1923, NAACPP.

  59. Walter White to the Honorable Jonathan M. Davis, December 4, 1923 [telegram]; Arthur Capper to Walter White, December 4, 1923; both in NAACPP.

  60. “To His Excellency, Jonathan M. Davis, Governor of the State of Kansas, Greetings,” n.d.; C. W. Comagor to Walter F. White, December 14, 1923 [misdated 1924 in original]; Walter F. White to C. W. Comagor, December 17, 1923; all in NAACPP.

  61. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 143–48.

  62. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism, 4–5; Wade, The Fiery Cross, 257.

  63. Aitken, The Birth of a Nation Story, 84–86.

  64. “The Birth of a Nation,” n.d. memorandum, NAACPP.

  65. “Virginia Amusement Company vs. W. W. Wertz, Mayor, and John Britton, Chief of Police of Charleston,” n.d. memorandum; “The Birth of a Nation,” n.d. memorandum; “Ohio Bars ‘Birth of a Nation,’” NAACP Press Release, June 12, 1925; “‘Birth of a Nation’ Refused License by Supreme Court,” Herald [Cleveland], June 6, 1925; all in NAACPP.

  66. Aitken, The Birth of a Nation Story, 88–89.

  67. Ibid., 90–92.

  68. Will W. Alexander to Will Hays, July 23, 1930, NAACPP.

  69. Carl E. Milliken to Will W. Alexander, August 9, 1930, NAACPP.

  70. Walter F. White to John H. Butler, September 2, 1930, NAACPP. The NAACP branch in San Francisco, where the new version of the film was advertised to be shown for the first time, was similarly split over what tactics to use. See John H. Butler to Walter White, September 5, 1930, NAACPP.

  71. “To the Branches: Re Revival of ‘The Birth of a Nation,’” circular signed by Walter White, September 9, 1930, NAACPP.