A Long Dark Night by J. Michael Martinez

Author:J. Michael Martinez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442259966
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Later in the film, in the climactic scene when the vicious carpetbaggers and crazed freedmen are poised to conquer the noble white family, the Klan arrives to save the day. The villains are vanquished, the Camerons are triumphant, and the illegitimate Reconstruction government of the corrupt Silas Lynch is driven into exile. As the film draws to a conclusion, Jesus Christ gazes down from heaven, smiling, satisfied that thanks to the Klan, justice has been served.51

It was powerful, dramatic storytelling, the most effective pro-KKK propaganda imaginable. White southerners sitting inside a movie theater watching the heroic group onscreen rescue friends and neighbors from evil blacks and insidious white northerners felt proud. The South had lost the war, but with the help of the Klan, it could win the peace. The historical record could be shaped into a pro-southern polemic.52

In addition to glorifying the Ku Klux Klan, The Birth of a Nation capitalized on the stereotype of Negroes as animalistic, brutal, and essentially beasts of burden. It was a popular image in the 1920s. From gator bait to Rastus to Aunt Jemima to Stepin Fetchit, blacks were characterized either as barbarians or simpletons. In a final insult to persons of color, white actors wearing blackface played Gus and other black characters in the film. Except in scenes where blacks appeared as extras in the background, Griffith refused to allow Negroes to appear as Negroes, presumably because he did not trust them to portray members of their race in a convincing manner.53

Griffith was anxious to garner as many positive testimonials as he could arrange before the film’s release. Tom Dixon’s contacts proved to be invaluable in this effort. In January 1915, Dixon wrote to his old friend from his youth at Johns Hopkins, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson had experienced a meteoric rise in the years since he and Dixon had studied together. As Dixon prepared his new film for widespread distribution, Wilson was entering his third year as president of the United States. Wilson received the letter from his former classmate, but he initially expressed reservations, fearing yet another job seeker was intent on cashing in on old ties. Despite his misgivings, the president warily welcomed Dixon to the Executive Mansion on February 3, 1915. As their conversation began, President Wilson was relieved to learn that his old college friend only wished to show a motion picture to the president and a small group of intimates. Wilson happily assented. On February 18, 1915, Dixon, D. W. Griffith, and members of the crew arrived in the East Room of the White House and set up a projector. President Wilson, his daughters, and several cabinet officers sat quietly as the story unfolded. It was the first time a motion picture had been screened in the White House.

After the film ended and the lights came up, the filmmakers anxiously awaited the verdict. Obviously moved, the president vigorously shook hands with the author, director, and members of the crew. In a possibly apocryphal comment that would become famous, Wilson gushed that the film’s impact was monumental.

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