Birth of a Nation
D. W. Griffith’s epic tale told in Birth of a Nation was a shocking one. The movie set box office records, taking in over eighteen million dollars. When it was released, it was one of the longest films ever made, over three hours in length. Some film scholars say that it is the most important film ever released. But despite all of these records and achievements, the story and the way that blacks of the South were depicted haunted blacks for decades to come. Showing the black man as a sexual predator to white females was inviting the South commence with wide-scale lynchings of innocent black men. If a black man looked the wrong way at a white woman, then he could be lynched without a thought of justice. This film advanced the suspicion and contributed to the practice of “Jim Crow” in the South. Most shockingly, I discovered that the film is still used by the Ku Klux Klan today for recruitment purposes. The portrayal of the KKK in Birth of a Nation was one of heroes, instead of marauding racists. This appealed to white Americans’ views of the mythic South, and helped to boost membership in the KKK.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Birth Nation, KKK Griffith, Klux Klan, Civil War, Jim Crow, Crow South, , birth nation, People KKK, jim crow, crow system, ku klux, klux klan, black sexual, ku klux klan, Ku Klux, jim crow system,
Approximate Word count = 761
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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