This Day in History: 1915-02-08

Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith’s starkly racist silent film, is released in the US on this day in 1915. The film follows the relationship of two white families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction era over the course of several years while portraying blacks as  lazy, stupid and dangerous.   The film also depicted the terrorist American militia, the Ku Klux Klan, as heroically defending embattled Southern women from the sexual predations of black Americans. Under President Woodrow Wilson, it was the first American motion picture to be screened at the White House. Wilson, an unapologetic racist, said:  “It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” The NAACP said it would lead to violence and protested at theaters around the country.  The NAACP had originally asked that the film be banned, or at least edited, and DW Griffith fought the idea on First Amendment grounds.  But in 1919, when black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux made “Within Our Gates,”  white authorities had no problem censoring it to prevent violence.  A PBS documentary about the controversy aired in 2017.