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Waistline wrote: Articles on the impact of "Birth of A Nation," when it was released in 1915, are available on line. It was used for the purpose of its production; as an organizing tool for reaction. "Birth" fed the growing war frenzy of 1915 and accelerated the conversion of ideological white chauvinism into a material force. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC28folder/PinskyRacism.html In fact, BIRTH OF A NATION has been used as a recruiting film for the Klan for years, and had a material role to play in the Klan's growth. In his book, Hollywood: The Pioneers. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), Kevin Brownlow describes this relation between film and social structures at length. Following is a lengthy quote from that book: ***** "Compared to Dixon's original, Griffith's racism was mild. The Clansman read like a tract from the Third Reich: '… for a thick-lipped, flat-nosed, spindle-shanked Negro, exuding his nauseous animal odor, to shout in derision over the hearths and homes of white men and women is an atrocity too monstrous for belief.' Griffith used none of this. Yet what remained was still alarming …" "… The mayor of New York … ordered the License Commissioner to cut some of the most offensively racist material. No one will ever know what the material contained, but Francis Hackett in New Republic supplied a clue: 'The drama winds up with a suggestion of Lincoln's solution — back to Liberia — and then, if you please, with a film representing Jesus Christ in the halls of brotherly love.' About 500 feet were lost — although many cuts were the result of Griffith's attention to audience response …" "Rev. Thomas Dixon, according to his biography, conducted his own campaign among the powerful of the land. He showed BIRTH OF A NATION to the President. 'It is like writing history with lightning,' quoted Woodrow Wilson, whose enthusiasm won Dixon a meeting with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Edward White. White was an intimidating man, and Dixon lured him to see the film by telling him of the President's reactions. 'You tell the true story of the Klan?' asked White. 'Yes — for the first time.' He leaned toward me and said in low, tense tones: 'I was a member of the Klan, sir. Through many a dark night I walked my sentinel's beat through the ugliest streets of New Orleans with a rifle on my shoulder. You've told the true story of that uprising of outraged manhood?''In a way I'm sure you'll approve.' I'll be there,' he firmly announced." "With evidence that the President and the Chief Justice approved of the film, the NAACP found suppressing it extremely difficult. However, it was banned for ten years in Kansas … and in Chicago, Newark, Atlantic City, and St. Louis … The most depressing fact to emerge from the tumult was the revival of the Ku Klux Klan. This organization, which Griffith himself admitted had spilt more blood than at Gettysburg, had disbanded in 1869. The modern Klan began its clandestine cruelty on Thanksgiving night, 1915, on Stone Mountain in Atlanta, where in June, 25,000 former Klansmen had marched down Peachtree Avenue to celebrate the opening of the film … The film provided the Klan with the finest possible publicity for its revival in 1915. The similarity between these two advertisements (reproduced here) is self-evident. The organization was to have been called the Clansmen. But whereas the film used a few hundred extras but made claims to 18,000, the membership in the Klan multiplied alarmingly. By the mid 20s it reached 4 million..." - Kevin Brownlow, pp. 65-66 ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
