- Digital Grinnell Repository
- Scholarship at Grinnell
- Student Scholarship
- Birth of a Nation as an ‘Educational’ Tool for Racialized Violence
Birth of a Nation as an ‘Educational’ Tool for Racialized Violence
Primary tabs
Examines the attempt by the film Birth of a Nation to shape one's perception of American history and culture.
| creator | Frerick, Abbigail A. (Class of 2021) |
| Title | Birth of a Nation as an ‘Educational’ Tool for Racialized Violence |
| advisor | Purcell, Sarah J. (Class of 1992) (Faculty/Staff) |
| supporting host | Grinnell College. History. |
| Index Date | 2021 |
| Date (Other) | 2021-05-17 |
| Publisher | Grinnell College |
| Type of Resource | text |
| Genre | essay |
| Digital Origin | reformated digital |
| Digital Extent | 18 Pages |
| Media Type | application/pdf |
| description | D.W. Griffith's 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation, is seen as a milestone for filmmaking due to its technical qualities and massive release. However, white supremacists, along a wide spectrum of American society, utilized the film as a tool to promote racialized violence while cloaking the movie as educational material. This partially effectual obscuration by white supremacists highlights the power of film to shape perceptions and identity in American culture in the Twentieth Century. By analyzing numerous interviews with white Southerners, pictures, and newspaper articles it becomes apparent those participating in the second emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, from the 1910s and 20s, drew significant inspiration from the romanticized Klan depicted in the film, as evidenced by cross burnings and KKK supported community events showing the film for free. The Klan and the producers of the film entered into a symbiotic relationship. The film's heroic depiction of the group granted the re-emerged Klan legitimacy, and the Klan itself participated in ride arounds to promote the release of the film. The film also revealed how cinema, a relatively new form of mass entertainment at the time, could function as a mass moralizing tool. Additional interviews and newspaper articles recount educators showing the film in a classroom setting and using it as an educational source for academic contests. Children interviewed reported having been personally impacted and emotionally moved following their view of the movie. Acts of violence and a cultivation of hatred, by a spectrum of American society, inspired by The Birth of a Nation show the power of film, and mass media generally, to shape one's perception of American history and culture. |
| note | Seminar Paper for HIS-314 US Civil War: Hist & Memory |
| Language | English |
| Topic | Birth of a nation (Motion picture : 1915) |
| Topic | Racism |
| Topic | History |
| Geographic | United States |
| Temporal | 20th century |
| Classification | E184.7 |
| Related Item | Digital Grinnell |
| Related Item | Student Scholarship |
| Identifier (u2) | HIS |
| Identifier (local) | grinnell:29700 |
| Access Condition | Copyright to this work is held by the author(s), in accordance with United States copyright law (USC 17). Readers of this work have certain rights as defined by the law, including but not limited to fair use (17 USC 107 et seq.). |
| Identifier (hdl) | http://hdl.handle.net/11084/29700 |
| Identifier (u2) | HIS |