www.history.com Open in urlscan Pro
2a04:4e42::680  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.history.com/search

<form class="search__form" aria-hidden="true" method="GET" accept-charset="UTF-8" action="https://www.history.com/search" role="search" id="header-search-form"><input type="text" id="q" name="q" required="" aria-label="Search" enterkeyhint="search"
    tabindex="-1"><button class="search__submit icon-button" aria-label="Submit search" tabindex="-1" type="submit"><svg viewBox="0 0 25 25" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" width="20" height="20">
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M16.9 10.45a6.45 6.45 0 10-12.9 0 6.45 6.45 0 0012.9 0zm3 0a9.45 9.45 0 10-18.9 0 9.45 9.45 0 0018.9 0z" fill="currentColor"></path>
      <path fill-rule="evenodd" clip-rule="evenodd" d="M15.69 16.214a1.5 1.5 0 012.12 0l5.25 5.25a1.5 1.5 0 01-2.12 2.122l-5.25-5.25a1.5 1.5 0 010-2.122z" fill="currentColor"></path>
    </svg></button><button class="search__close icon-button" id="search-menu-action" aria-label="Close search" aria-controls="header-search-form" tabindex="-1" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" type="button"><svg viewBox="0 0 24 24"
      fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" width="20" height="20">
      <path d="M19 6.41L17.59 5 12 10.59 6.41 5 5 6.41 10.59 12 5 17.59 6.41 19 12 13.41 17.59 19 19 17.59 13.41 12 19 6.41z" fill="currentColor"></path>
    </svg></button></form>

Text Content

ShowsThis Day In HistoryScheduleTopicsStories
 * History Classics
 * Live TV
 * Your Profile


Your Profile
History
 * Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
 * Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
 * Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
 * Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
 * Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)

Email Updates
 * Live TV
 * History Classics
 * Shows
 * This Day In History
 * Schedule
 * Topics
 * Stories
 * Videos
 * History Podcasts
 * History Vault
 * Shop
 * History Travel

 1. Home
 2. Topics
 3. 19th Century
 4. How ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Revived the Ku Klux Klan


HOW ‘THE BIRTH OF A NATION’ REVIVED THE KU KLUX KLAN

D.W. Griffith’s controversial epic 1915 film about the Civil War and
Reconstruction depicted the Ku Klux Klan as valiant saviors of a post-war South
ravaged by Northern carpetbaggers and freed Black people.

By: Alexis Clark

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: August 14, 2018

copy page linkPrint Page
Buyenlarge/Getty Images

History is usually written by the winners. But that wasn’t the case when The
Birth of a Nation was released on February 8, 1915. In just over three hours,
D.W. Griffith’s controversial epic film about the Civil War and Reconstruction
depicted the Ku Klux Klan as valiant saviors of a post-war South ravaged by
Northern carpetbaggers and immoral freed Black people. The film was an instant
blockbuster. And with innovative cinematography and a Confederate-skewed point
of view, The Birth of a Nation also helped rekindle the KKK.

Ku Klux Klan

Until the movie’s debut, the Ku Klux Klan founded in 1865 by Confederate
veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, was a regional organization in the South that
was all but obliterated due to government suppression. But The Birth of a
Nation’s racially charged Jim Crow narrative, coupled with America’s heightened
anti-immigrant climate, led the Klan to align itself with the movie’s success
and use it as a recruiting tool.

“People were primed for the message,” says Paul McEwan, film studies professor
at Muhlenberg College and author of The Birth of Nation (BFI Film Classics).
“Hard to argue this was a distortion of history when the history books at that
time said the same.”

Adapted from the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr., who was a classmate and
friend of President Woodrow Wilson, The Birth of a Nation portrayed
Reconstruction as catastrophic. It showed Radical Republicans encouraging
equality for Black people, who in the film are represented as uncouth,
intellectually inferior and predators of white women. And this racist narrative
was widely accepted as historical fact.


A scene from director D. W. Griffith’s motion picture ‘The Birth of a Nation,’
1915. (Credit: NYPL/Smith Collection/Getty Images)

“Academic histories mostly centered around the Dunning School,” McEwan says of
the historiographical school of thought conceived by scholar William Archibald
Dunning. It concluded that Reconstruction was a terrible mistake, which helped
validate the film’s message, McEwan added.

Shortly after the Los Angeles launch, Thomas Dixon Jr. convinced President
Wilson to screen the movie inside the White House, arguably the first time that
was ever done. President Wilson reportedly said of the film, “It is like writing
history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

Although the quote’s authenticity has been disputed, there is no debate where
Wilson stood on the issue of race. “He re-segregated the civil service,” says
McEwan. “It’s not unreasonable to conclude that he thought the film was
amazing.” And of course, a movie screened at the White House was going to be
perceived as an endorsement of the film; one white supremacist in Georgia
understood this implicitly.

William Joseph Simmons is considered to be the founder of the 1915 modern Ku
Klux Klan. While recovering from a car accident, the local preacher in Georgia
followed the Birth of a Nation’s nationwide success. There were KKK-inspired
aprons, costumes and regalia that glorified the defunct organization. Simmons
seized on the film’s popularity to bolster the Klan’s appeal again.

It wasn’t just the fraught racial tensions that made the timing of a rebirth
feasible. The way the film was made, with innovating editing techniques and
close-up action shots, was captivating.

“People were taken to another planet,” says Dick Lehr, author of The Birth of a
Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil
War. “The galloping Klan riding to the rescue. The pure spectacle of it all,”
says Lehr, romanticized the KKK. The film bolstered the idea that the Klan was
there to save the South from savage Black men raping white women, a racist myth
that would be propagated for years, Lehr adds.


Members of the N.A.A.C.P. picket under the marquee of the Republic Movie Theatre
in Flushing, New York, against race discrimination featured in the movie, ‘The
Birth of a Nation,’ being played at the theater in 1947. (Credit: Library of
Congress/Corbis/Getty Images)

As described in a journal article by historian Maxim Simcovitch, Simmons put a
plan in motion once he learned the film would be released on December 6, 1915 in
Atlanta. Just 10 days before the film premiered, Simmons gathered a group and
climbed Stone Mountain, outside Atlanta, to burn a large cross. He reportedly
said, “There was good reason, as I have said, for making Thanksgiving Day
(November 25, 1915) the occasion for burning the fiery cross. Something was
going to happen in town (Atlanta) the next week (the premiere of The Birth of a
Nation) that would give the new order a tremendous popular boost.”

As planned, word spread about the burning cross. Simmons also took out a
newspaper ad about the KKK‘s revival that ran right alongside an announcement
about The Birth of a Nation premiere.

On opening night, Simmons and fellow Klansmen dressed in white sheets and
Confederate uniforms paraded down Peachtree Street with hooded horses, firing
rifle salutes in front of the theater. The effect was powerful and screenings in
more cities echoed the display, including movie ushers donning white sheets.
Klansmen also handed out KKK literature before and after screenings.

The NAACP protested The Birth of a Nation but the film’s popularity was too
strong. With Black troops from WWI returning from France and the migration of
Black people to the North, there were new racial tensions in northern cities,
like Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.  “There was no will in the North to
enforce equality,” McEwan says. “It half-heartedly condemned racism.”

As the film continued to be screened and re-screened well into the 1920s, Lehr
says more Klan chapters formed and membership reportedly reached into the
millions. New Klansmen were shown The Birth of Nation and the film continued to
be a recruiting tool for decades to come.


HOW THE HISTORY OF BLACKFACE IS ROOTED IN RACISM

Blackface became popular in the U.S. after the Civil War as white performers
played characters that demeaned and dehumanized African Americans.

Read more


RECONSTRUCTION: A TIMELINE OF THE POST-CIVIL WAR ERA

For a 14-year period, the U.S. government took steps to try and integrate the
nation’s newly freed Black population into society.

Read more


HOW WOODROW WILSON TRIED TO REVERSE BLACK AMERICAN PROGRESS

By promoting the Ku Klux Klan and overseeing segregation of the federal
workforce, the 28th president helped erase gains African Americans had made
since Reconstruction.

Read more

By: Alexis Clark

Alexis Clark writes about race, culture and politics during major events and
eras in American history. She has written for The New York
Times, Smithsonian, Preservation and other publications. She is the author of
Enemies in Love: A German POW, A Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance, and an
adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CITATION INFORMATION

Article TitleHow ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Revived the Ku Klux Klan
AuthorAlexis Clark
Website NameHISTORY
URLhttps://www.history.com/news/kkk-birth-of-a-nation-film
Date AccessedNovember 7, 2023
PublisherA&E Television Networks
Last UpdatedAugust 10, 2023
Original Published DateAugust 14, 2018


FACT CHECK

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look
right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content
regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

Print Page


SIGN UP FOR INSIDE HISTORY

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a
week.


Sign Up


By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E
Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a
resident of the United States.

More details: Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us


SPONSORED CONTENT



EINE EINFACHE METHODE ZUR KNIEARTHROSE – PROBIEREN SIE ES AUS

Knee Osteoarthritis Treatment

DIE ZINSSÄTZE FÜR SPARKONTEN IN BETZDORF IM JAHR 2022 KÖNNTEN SIE ÜBERRASCHEN

Google-Suche | Gesponsert

DIES SIND BÄDER EINER NEUEN GENERATION. KLICKE UM ES ZU SEHEN

Badewannen | Suchanzeigen

WIR SCHÄTZEN DEIN BILDUNGSNIVEAU ANHAND VON 20 FRAGEN

HealthyGem

FAMILIE HÖRT SELTSAME GERÄUSCHE IN KÜCHENWAND UND ENTDECKT EIN GROSSES PROBLEM

Explored Planet
Load More



MORE ON THIS TOPIC | 19TH CENTURY


RECONSTRUCTION: A TIMELINE OF THE POST-CIVIL WAR ERA

For a 14-year period, the U.S. government took steps to try and integrate the
nation’s newly freed Black population into society.

Read more


HOW PROHIBITION FUELED THE RISE OF THE KU KLUX KLAN

100 years ago, the KKK began terrorizing Catholic immigrants in the name of
Prohibition.

Read more


‘KU KLUX KIDDIES’: THE KKK’S LITTLE-KNOWN YOUTH MOVEMENT

During the 1920s, hatred was a family affair.

Read more


HOW POWER GRABS IN THE SOUTH ERASED REFORMS AFTER RECONSTRUCTION

State constitutions were rewritten to suppress the votes of newly enfranchised
African Americans.

Read more


THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF THE FIRST PEOPLE KILLED DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Law enforcement knew who killed Harry and Harriette Moore on Christmas in 1951.
So why wasn’t justice served?

Read more


HOW AN EX-KKK MEMBER MADE HIS WAY ONTO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

FDR nominated the Alabama Senator as his first U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Read more
See MoreRead more about 19th Century

A+E NetworksOur Family of Brands
 * History Education
 * History Vault
 * Mobile/Apps
 * News
 * Shop
 * Share Your Opinion

Follow History
 * d
 * e
 * p
 * m
 * +

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 * Biography
 * Crime and Investigation

 * History en Espanol
 * LRW

 * Military History

 * Ad Choices
 * Advertise With Us
 * Accessibility Support
 * Copyright Policy

 * Corporate Information
 * Employment Opportunities
 * FAQ/Contact Us
 * Privacy Notice

 * Cookie Notice
 * Terms Of Use
 * TV Parental Guidelines
 * 

 * Contact Us
 * Copyright Policy
 * Privacy Policy
 * Terms of Use
 * Ad Choices
 * Accessibility Support
 * 

© 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.