Birth of an Intolerant Nation
D.W. Griffiths ' Birth of a Nation is billed as the first full-length narrative motion picture. The story line depicts the Klu Klux Klan as a sympathetic misunderstood organization and African Americans as, at the very least, ignorant, while southern whites were victims. A big part of the problem (at least for Griffith's) was that during Reconstruction African Americans came into political power. Nowhere else in the South did blacks become the dominant force in gaining equality through self-governance than in South Carolina, the only state to have a black majority in the legislature during Reconstruction. Here's how D.W. Griffiths depicts that august body: Today we wouldn't put up with this kind of overt racism and in 1915 when this movie came out many people didn't put up with it either. The NAACP protested against the film’s fabrications and inaccuracies. Riots broke out in Boston, Philadelphia and other major cities. And Griffith’s legacy ...