Censoring Racial Ridicule: Irish, Jewish, and African American Struggles Over Race and Representation, 1890-1930 by M. Alison Kibler

Author:M. Alison Kibler [Kibler, M. Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, United States, 19th Century, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781469618364
Google: n8etoAEACAAJ
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2015-11-15T23:54:42.003263+00:00

Funkhouser’s Chicago critics noted that this opinion seemed to mock the censor.147

In 1917 and 1918, new censorship controversies arose around Funkhouser’s decision to ban films that reflected poorly on Germans. He banned The Little American, starring Mary Pickford, because it showed German troops preparing to execute French prisoners and threatening to rape a young American woman. One review praised the film as pro-American, but Funkhouser saw it as an insult to German Americans in Chicago. As he had many times before, he responded to criticisms by assembling a citizen jury to decide for itself. But this time his jury got out of hand: he invited one hundred people to review the film, with a vote for each viewer. They passed the film.148 William Brady, a representative of motion picture’s interests, testified before the city council’s Committee on the Judiciary against Funkhouser’s powers and in favor of film’s “patriotic purposes.”149 Funkhouser replied to the committee that censorship did not concern his personal power but the ordinance itself: “No film which casts any reflection on any race or religion is allowed,” he said. Censorship was not a “one man institution.”150 In 1918 Funkhouser ordered cuts to D. W. Griffith’s Hearts of the World, which supported the U.S. war effort. One of the film’s promoters contacted the U.S. district attorney to investigate Funkhouser’s treasonous censorship. Griffith’s defenders questioned Funkhouser’s patriotism and derided his “German sympathies.”151

Chicago’s judiciary committee stripped Funkhouser of his power in May 1918.152 He still had some supporters: women’s clubs and the ADL backed his retention at the judiciary committee hearings.153 But the mayor suspended Funkhouser for improprieties and insubordination, charging that he had misused the vice investigation fund in “shadowing” prominent citizens.154 Funkhouser appealed the dismissal and won. Then Thompson fought back by eliminating the position of second deputy superintendent of police. Funkhouser’s days as the morals czar of Chicago were over. Thompson succeeded in getting rid of one of his political opponents and pushing back the Progressives.155

The censorship of racial insults did not end with Funkhouser and the new Thompson administration, but the scrutiny of images of Jews declined. This shift may be due to improvements in the representation of Jews on screen and the shifting city administration in Chicago. Thompson was a Republican, whereas the previous Democratic administrations had been more connected to Jewish supporters. Censorship seemed to favor African Americans more often in the Thompson administration. The Bar Sinister was banned in September 1918 because it “tended to create hatred and contempt for the African race.” An African American jury, including antilynching activist Ida B. Wells, was also assembled in 1919 to review The Homesteader for its depiction of N. L. McCraken, a Chicago clergyman and the father-in-law of the filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux. It approved the film, however.156 In 1921 at least one film, The Scar of Shame, was prohibited because of the poor representation of black people. Censors targeted only two films for the misrepresentation of Jews—Heart of Gold in 1919, and Nothingto Think About in

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