Griffin Speaks

D. W. Griffith’s controversial film “The Birth of a Nation” premiered in Los Angeles, California on February 8, 1915. In my opinion it is the most racist film to ever be released. It fueled the flame of white superiority. 

The film depicted the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It depicted blacks as lazy, idling and brutish. It shaped public attitudes about race in America. The film was too long, lasting a full three hours. 

In the film the South falls during the Civil War and white political power rises over the Reconstruction governments. In its early months it became a blockbuster. On Thanksgiving night in 1915, 25000 Klansmen gathered in the streets of Atlanta to bring attention to its opening.

 President Woodrow Wilson is reported to have declared that the film is like writing history with lightning. He went further to say: “And my only regret is that it is all terribly true.” The NAACP vigorously protested the film. It was successful in getting some of the movie’s worst moments stricken from the film, including a scene proposing that blacks be sent back to Africa as a remedy for the ills of America. 

If anything positive came from this incredibly racist film it would be that blacks were forced to rally around a common cause. It gave publicity to the newly created NAACP and other black groups. 

I highly recommend anyone interested in seeing how popular media can affect public opinion and its view of blacks, rent this movie at the local video store. Eighty-eight years later blacks are still stereotyped and degraded in the media. If it were not for Oprah Wynfrey, Spike Lee, Bill Cosby, Michael Bridell, a local WSFA Journalist and a few others there would be very little positive portrayals of blacks in the media. My suggestion is that blacks turn away from television and movies that do not adequately portray blacks.

 Turn the idiot box off and grab a good book! That’s how I see it!

 Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to www.greggriffin.com