Birth of a Nation, The

D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), the first feature-length studio production in the United States and the first feature film to be screened at the White House, is considered by many to be an original text of cinematic aesthetics as well as the foundation of a broad range of racist stereotypes about African Americans. The film has been mistaken as an accurate history of race relations in the aftermath of the Civil War. However, it is more accurate to claim that the film has created history from racist fantasies and that it persists in doing so. Critic Manthia Diawara has called the film the “grammar book” and “master text” of racism in the United States, which fixes the wide range of secondary and servile roles for African Americans that support White dominance. The Birth of a Nation intensified racial phobias and has been used as a recruitment film for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), while inspiring a contemporaneous critical response to its representational repertoire in the form of protests by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the production of alternative images of African Americans. This entry describes the film and its impact.

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Scene from The Birth of a Nation. D. W. Griffith's 1915 film is one of the most influential and controversial films in the history of cinema. In the film, Griffith presents an inaccurate view of the devastation wrought by the Civil War (especially in the South) and the alleged social disruptions caused by Reconstruction. The motion picture sends the message that the only recourse left to the South was to develop organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. Even contemporary filmmakers who seek to represent African Americans in a nuanced and nonstereotypical manner must deal in some way with the long shadow of The Birth of a Nation.

Source: Roger-Viollet/The Image Works.