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{{short description|1915 film by D. W. Griffith}}
{{About|the 1915 silent film||The Birth of a Nation (disambiguation)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Birth of a Nation
| image = Birth of a Nation theatrical poster.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[D. W. Griffith]]
| producer = {{unbulleted list|D. W. Griffith|[[Harry Aitken]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/dwgriffith.htm |title=D. W. Griffith: Hollywood Independent |publisher=Cobbles.com |date=June 26, 1917 |access-date=July 3, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824173109/http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/dwgriffith.htm |archive-date=August 24, 2013}}</ref>}}
| screenplay = {{unbulleted list|D. W. Griffith|[[Frank E. Woods]]}}
| based_on = {{based on|''[[The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan|The Clansman]]''|[[Thomas Dixon Jr.]]}}
| starring = {{plainlist|
* [[Lillian Gish]]
* [[Mae Marsh]]
* [[Henry B. Walthall]]
* [[Miriam Cooper]]
* [[Ralph Lewis (actor)|Ralph Lewis]]
* [[George Siegmann]]
* [[Walter Long (actor)|Walter Long]]
}}
| music = [[Joseph Carl Breil]]
| cinematography = [[Billy Bitzer]]
| editing = D. W. Griffith
| studio = David W. Griffith Corp.
| distributor = Epoch Producing Co.
| released = {{Film date|1915|02|08}}
| runtime = 12 [[film reel|reels]] <br /> 133–193 minutes{{NoteTag|Runtime depends on projection speed ranging 16 to 24 frames per second}}<ref>{{cite web|title=''The Birth of a Nation'' (U)|url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/birth-nation-1970|work=Western Import Co. Ltd.|publisher=[[British Board of Film Classification]]|access-date=August 20, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305143624/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/birth-nation-1970|archive-date=March 5, 2016}}</ref>
| country = United States
| language = {{ubl|Silent film|English [[intertitles]]}}
| budget = $100,000+<ref name="Hall & Neale (2010)" />
| gross = $50–100 million<ref name="Monaco" />
}}
[[File:The Birth of a Nation (1915).webm|thumb|''The Birth of a Nation'' (full film)]]
'''''The Birth of a Nation''''' is a 1915 American [[Silent film|silent]] [[Epic film|epic]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[D. W. Griffith]] and starring [[Lillian Gish]]. The screenplay is adapted from [[Thomas Dixon Jr.]]'s 1905 novel and play ''[[The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan]]''. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with [[Frank E. Woods]] and produced the film with [[Harry Aitken]].
''The Birth of a Nation'' is a landmark of film history,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Birth of a Nation |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Birth-of-a-Nation |access-date=August 1, 2022 |archive-date=September 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240918182156/https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Birth-of-a-Nation |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html|title=The Birth of a Nation (1915)|work=filmsite.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903173349/http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html|archive-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref> lauded for its technical virtuosity.<ref name="Historynet">{{cite web |first=Eric |last=Niderost |title='The Birth of a Nation': When Hollywood Glorified the KKK |date=October 2005 |website=[[HistoryNet]] |url=https://www.historynet.com/the-birth-of-a-nation-when-hollywood-glorified-the-kkk.htm |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=January 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130233324/https://www.historynet.com/the-birth-of-a-nation-when-hollywood-glorified-the-kkk.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> It was the first [[Serial film|non-serial]] American 12-[[Film reel|reel]] film ever made.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hubbert|first=Julie|title=Celluloid Symphonies: Texts and Contexts in Film Music History|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94743-6|pages=12}}</ref> Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the [[assassination of Abraham Lincoln]] by [[John Wilkes Booth]] and the relationship of two families in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] and [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] eras over the course of several years—the pro-[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] ([[Northern United States|Northern]]) Stonemans and the pro-[[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] ([[Southern United States|Southern]]) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an [[intermission]], and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an [[orchestra]]. It helped to pioneer [[close-up|closeup]]s and [[Fade (filmmaking)|fadeouts]], and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of [[extra (acting)|extra]]s made to look like thousands.<ref name="auto" /> It came with a 13-page ''Souvenir Program''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Souvenir. The Birth of a Nation|year=1915|url=https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=birth-of-nation-program|access-date=April 5, 2019|format=PDF}}</ref> It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the [[White House]], viewed there by President [[Woodrow Wilson]], his family, and members of his cabinet.
The film was controversial even before its release and it has remained so since; it has been called "the most controversial film ever made in the United States",<ref name=Slide/>{{rp|198}} as well as "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history".<ref>{{cite news |first=Ed |last=Rampell |title='The Birth of a Nation': The most racist movie ever made |date=March 3, 2015 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/03/the-birth-of-a-nation/ |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=September 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905072712/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/03/03/the-birth-of-a-nation/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The film has been denounced for its racist depiction of [[African Americans]].<ref name="Historynet" /> The film portrays its black characters (many of whom are played by white actors in [[blackface]]) as [[Race and intelligence|unintelligent]] and [[Sexual assault|sexually aggressive]] toward white women. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK), a white supremacist hate group, is portrayed as a heroic force that protects white women and maintains [[white supremacy]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.moviejustice.com/vault/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=4&item_id=27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707194449/http://www.moviejustice.com/vault/index.php?p=getitem&db_id=4&item_id=27|url-status=dead|title=MJ Movie Reviews – Birth of a Nation, The (1915) by Dan DeVore|archive-date=July 7, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://themovingarts.com/revered-and-reviled-d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation/|first=Eric M.|last=Armstrong|title=Revered and Reviled: D.W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation'|work=The Moving Arts Film Journal|date=February 26, 2010|access-date=April 13, 2010|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529224316/http://themovingarts.com/revered-and-reviled-d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation/|archive-date=May 29, 2010}}</ref>
Popular among white audiences nationwide upon its release, the film's success was both a consequence of and a contributor to racial segregation throughout the U.S.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stand Your Ground: A History of America's Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense |date=2017 |publisher=Beacon Press |page=81 |quote=The Birth of a Nation was an instant success across the nation, grossing more than any prior motion picture ... white audiences throughout the nation enjoyed the romantic depiction of the Old South.}}</ref> In response to the film's depictions of black people and Civil War history, African Americans across the U.S. organized and protested. In [[Boston]] and other localities, black leaders and the [[NAACP]] spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned on the basis that it inflamed racial tensions and could incite violence.<ref name="NAACP">{{cite news|title=The Black Activist Who Fought Against D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation"|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-black-activist-who-fought-against-d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation|access-date=March 11, 2022|magazine=The New Yorker|archive-date=March 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311191403/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-black-activist-who-fought-against-d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation|url-status=live}}</ref> It was also denied release in the state of Ohio and the cities of Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' the following year.<ref>Sonneborn, Liz (2002). ''A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts''. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 85. {{ISBN|9780816043989}}.</ref>
In spite of its divisiveness, ''The Birth of a Nation'' was a massive commercial success across the nation—grossing far more than any previous motion picture—and it profoundly influenced both the film industry and American culture. Adjusted for [[inflation]], the film remains one of the highest-grossing films ever made. It has been acknowledged as an inspiration for [[Ku Klux Klan#Second Klan: 1915–1944|the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan]], which took place only a few months after its release. In 1992, the [[Library of Congress]] deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-19|archive-date=October 31, 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20161031213743/https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title='The Birth of a Nation' Documents History|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-04-ca-864-story.html|date=1993-01-04|website=The Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-19|archive-date=August 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809043320/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-04-ca-864-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{TOC limit|3}}
==Plot==
===Part 1: Civil War of United States===
[[File:The Birth of a Nation war scene.jpg|left|thumb|The film's portrayal of the [[Siege of Petersburg]], led by Ben Cameron]]
Phil, the elder son of the Stonemans (a Northern family), falls in love with Margaret Cameron (the daughter of a Southern family), during a visit to the Cameron estate in [[South Carolina]]. There, Margaret's brother Ben idolizes a picture of Elsie Stoneman, Phil's sister. When the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] arrives, the young men of both families enlist in their respective armies. The younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers die in combat. Meanwhile, a black militia attacks the Cameron home and is routed by Confederate soldiers who save the Cameron women. Leading the final charge at the [[Siege of Petersburg]], Ben Cameron earns the nickname of "the Little Colonel", but is also wounded and captured. He is then taken to a Union [[military hospital]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]
During his stay at the hospital, he learns that he will be hanged. Working there as a nurse is Elsie Stoneman, whose picture he has been carrying. Elsie takes Cameron's mother who traveled there to tend her son and to see [[Abraham Lincoln]]. Mrs. Cameron persuades him to pardon Ben. After [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln's assassination]], his conciliatory postwar policy expires with him. Elsie's father and other [[Radical Republican]]s are determined to punish the South.<ref>Griffith followed the then-dominant [[Dunning School]] or "Tragic Era" view of Reconstruction presented by early 20th-century historians such as [[William Archibald Dunning]] and [[Claude G. Bowers]].{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|pp=190–191}}.</ref>
===Part 2: Reconstruction===
Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a [[psychopath]]ic [[mulatto]], head to [[South Carolina]] to observe the implementation of Reconstruction policies. During the election, in which Lynch is elected [[Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina|lieutenant governor]], black people [[Ballot box stuffing|stuff the ballot boxes]] while [[Reconstruction era#Suffrage|many white people are denied the vote]]. The newly elected members of the [[South Carolina General Assembly|South Carolina legislature]] are mostly black.
[[File:Birth-of-a-nation-klan-and-black-man.jpg|thumb|right|Hooded Klansmen catch Gus, portrayed in [[blackface]] by white actor [[Walter Long (actor)|Walter Long]]]]
Ben fights back by forming the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. As a result, Elsie breaks up with him. While going alone into the woods to fetch water, Flora Cameron is followed by Gus, a [[freedman]] who is now a captain. Gus says that he desires to marry Flora. She rejects him, but he insists. Frightened, she flees into the forest, pursued by Gus. Trapped on a precipice, Flora threatens to jump if he comes any closer. When he does, she leaps to her death.
While looking for Flora, Ben sees her jump. He holds her as she dies and carries her body to the Cameron home. Gus then hides in a saloon, which Jeff the blacksmith enters. A brawl ensues and Gus shoots Jeff then flees. In response, the Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, [[Lynching|lynches]] him and delivers his corpse to Silas Lynch's house.
After discovering Gus's murder, Lynch orders a crackdown on the Klan. He also secures the passing of legislation allowing [[interracial marriage|mixed-race marriages]]. Dr. Cameron is arrested for possessing Ben's [[Ku Klux Klan regalia and insignia|Klan regalia]], now considered a [[capital crime]]. He is rescued by Phil Stoneman and some of his black servants. Together with Margaret Cameron, they flee. When their wagon breaks down, they make their way through the woods to a small hut that is home to two former Union soldiers who agree to hide them.
Congressman Stoneman, Elsie's father, leaves to avoid being connected with Lynch's crackdown. Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, visits Lynch to plead for his release. Lynch, who lusts after Elsie, tries to force her to marry him, which causes her to faint. Stoneman returns, causing Elsie to be placed in another room. Stoneman is initially happy when Lynch says that he wants to marry a white woman, but he is then angered when Lynch says that he wishes to marry Elsie. She breaks a window and cries out for help, getting the attention of undercover Klansman spies. The Klan gathered together, with Ben leading them, ride in to gain control of the town. When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others go to her rescue. Lynch is captured while his militia attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding. However, the Klansmen, with Ben at their head, save them. The next election day, black men find a line of mounted and armed Klansmen outside their homes and are intimidated into not voting. Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron.
==Cast==
[[File:The Birth of a Nation (1915) 2.jpg|thumb|George Siegmann, Ralph Lewis, Lillian Gish, and Henry B. Walthall in a scene of the film]]
<!--- per credits order --->
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
;Credited
* [[Lillian Gish]] as Elsie Stoneman
* [[Mae Marsh]] as Flora Cameron, the pet (baby) sister
* [[Henry B. Walthall]] as Colonel Benjamin Cameron ("The Little Colonel")
* [[Miriam Cooper]] as Margaret Cameron, elder sister
* [[Mary Alden]] as Lydia Brown, Stoneman's housekeeper
* [[Ralph Lewis (actor)|Ralph Lewis]] as Austin Stoneman, Leader of the House
* [[George Siegmann]] as Silas Lynch
* [[Walter Long (actor)|Walter Long]] as Gus, the renegade
* [[Wallace Reid]] as Jeff, the blacksmith
* [[Joseph Henabery]] as [[Abraham Lincoln]]
* [[Elmer Clifton]] as Phil Stoneman, elder son
* [[Robert Harron]] as Tod Stoneman
* [[Josephine Crowell]] as Mrs. Cameron
* [[Spottiswoode Aitken]] as Dr. Cameron
* [[George Beranger]] as Wade Cameron, second son
* [[Maxfield Stanley]] as Duke Cameron, youngest son
* [[Jennie Lee (American actress)|Jennie Lee]] as [[Mammy stereotype|Mammy]], the faithful servant
* [[Donald Crisp]] as General [[Ulysses S. Grant]]
* [[Howard Gaye]] as General [[Robert E. Lee]]
{{div col end}}
;Uncredited<ref>{{Citation |title=Index of Titles: 1914–15 |date=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aOXxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |work=The Griffith Project |publisher=British Film Institute |doi=10.5040/9781838710729.0007 |isbn=978-1-84457-043-0 |access-date=2022-05-08|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>
[[File:Nation walsh.jpg|thumb|[[Raoul Walsh]] as [[John Wilkes Booth]]]]
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Harry Braham]] as Cameron's faithful servant
* [[Edmund Burns]] as Klansman
* [[David Butler (director)|David Butler]] as Union soldier / Confederate soldier
* William Freeman as Jake, a mooning sentry at Federal hospital
* [[Sam De Grasse]] as Senator [[Charles Sumner]]
* [[Olga Grey]] as [[Laura Keene]]
* [[Russell Hicks]]
* [[Elmo Lincoln]] as ginmill owner / slave auctioneer
* [[Eugene Pallette]] as Union soldier
* [[Harry Braham]] as Jake / Nelse
* [[Charles Stevens (actor)|Charles Stevens]] as volunteer
* [[Madame Sul-Te-Wan]] as woman with gypsy shawl
* [[Raoul Walsh]] as [[John Wilkes Booth]]
* Lenore Cooper as Elsie's maid
* [[Violet Wilkey]] as young Flora
* [[Tom Wilson (actor)|Tom Wilson]] as Stoneman's servant
* Donna Montran as belles of 1861
* [[Alberta Lee]] as Mrs. [[Mary Todd Lincoln]]
* [[Allan Sears]] as Klansmen
* [[Dark Cloud (actor)|Dark Cloud]] as General at Appomattox Surrender
* [[Vester Pegg]]
* [[Alma Rubens]]
* [[Mary Wynn]]
* [[Jules White]]
* [[Monte Blue]]
* [[Gibson Gowland]]
* [[Fred Burns (actor)|Fred Burns]]
* [[Charles King (character actor)|Charles King]]
{{div col end}}
==Production==
===1911 version===
In 1911, the [[Kinemacolor Company of America]] produced a [[lost film]] in [[Kinemacolor]] titled ''The Clansman''. It was filmed in the southern United States and directed by [[William F. Haddock]]. According to different sources, the ten-reel film was either completed by January 1912 or left uncompleted with a little more than a reel of footage. There are several speculated reasons why the film production failed including unresolved legal issues regarding the rights to the story, financial issues, problems with the Kinemacolor process, and poor direction. [[Frank E. Woods]], the film's scriptwriter, showed his work to Griffith, who was inspired to create his own film adaptation of the novel, titled ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=McKernan |first=Luke |title=Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897–1925 |publisher=University of Exeter Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0859892964}}</ref>{{sfn|Stokes|2007}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Usai |first=P. |title=The Griffith Project, Volume 8 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2019 |isbn=9781839020155}}</ref>
=== Inspiration ===
Many of the fictional characters in the film are based on real historical figures. [[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionist]] U.S. Representative Austin Stoneman is based on the [[Reconstruction (United States)|Reconstruction]]-era Representative [[Thaddeus Stevens]] of Pennsylvania.<ref>...(the) portrayal of "Austin Stoneman" (bald, clubfoot; mulatto mistress, etc.) made no mistaking that, of course, Stoneman was Thaddeus Stevens..." Robinson, Cedric J.; ''Forgeries of Memory and Meaning.'' University of North Carolina, 2007; p. 99.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Garsman |first=Ian |date=2011–2012 |title=The Tragic Era Exposed |url=http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reels/films/list/0_68_8_6106 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424015740/http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reels/films/list/0_68_8_6106 |archive-date=April 24, 2013 |access-date=January 23, 2013 |website=Reel American History |publisher=Lehigh University Digital Library}}</ref> Ben Cameron is modeled after [[Leroy McAfee]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Corkin |first=Stanley |title=Realism and the birth of the modern United States : cinema, literature, and culture |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-8203-1730-6 |___location=Athens |page=156 |oclc=31610418}}</ref> Silas Lynch was modeled after [[Alonzo J. Ransier]] and [[Richard Howell Gleaves]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leistedt |first1=Samuel J. |last2=Linkowski |first2=Paul |date=January 2014 |title=Psychopathy and the Cinema: Fact or Fiction? |journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=167–174 |doi=10.1111/1556-4029.12359 |pmid=24329037 |s2cid=14413385 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>
===Development===
After the failure of the Kinemacolor project, in which Dixon was willing to invest his own money,<ref name=Rohauer/>{{rp|330}} he began visiting other studios to see if they were interested.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|421}} In late 1913, Dixon met the film producer [[Harry Aitken]], who was interested in making a film out of ''The Clansman''. Through Aitken, Dixon met Griffith.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|421}} Like Dixon, Griffith was a [[White Southerners|Southerner]], a fact that Dixon points out;<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|295}} Griffith's father served as a [[colonel]] in the [[Confederate States Army]] and, like Dixon, viewed Reconstruction negatively. Griffith believed that a passage from ''The Clansman'' where Klansmen ride "to the rescue of persecuted white Southerners" could be adapted into a great cinematic sequence.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2015/03/the_birth_of_a_nation_how_the_fight_to_censor_d_w_griffith_s_film_shaped.html|title=Still lying about history|first=Dorian|last=Lynskey|website=[[Slate (website)|Slate]]|date=March 31, 2015|access-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref> Griffith first announced his intent to adapt Dixon's play to Gish and Walthall after filming ''[[Home, Sweet Home (1914 film)|Home, Sweet Home]]'' in 1914.<ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Stokes|2007}}</ref>
''Birth of a Nation'' "follows ''The Clansman'' [the play] nearly scene by scene."<ref name=Crowe/>{{rp|xvii}} While some sources also credit ''[[The Leopard's Spots]]'' as source material, Russell Merritt attributes this to "the original 1915 playbills and program for ''Birth'' which, eager to flaunt the film's literary pedigree, cited both ''The Clansman'' and ''The Leopard's Spots'' as sources."<ref>{{cite journal|first=Russell|last=Merritt|title=Dixon, Griffith, and the Southern Legend|journal=[[Cinema Journal]]|volume=12|pages=26–45|number=1|date=Autumn 1972|doi=10.2307/1225402|jstor=1225402}}</ref> According to Karen Crowe, "[t]here is not a single event, word, character, or circumstance taken from ''The Leopard's Spots''.... Any likenesses between the film and ''The Leopard's Spots'' occur because some similar scenes, circumstances, and characters appear in both books."<ref name=Crowe>{{cite book|title=Southern horizons : the autobiography of Thomas Dixon|contribution=Preface|first=Karen|last=Crowe|___location=[[Alexandria, Virginia]]|publisher=IWV Publishing|year=1984|editor-first=Karen|editor-last=Crowe|oclc=11398740|pages=xv–xxxiv}}</ref>{{rp|xvii–xviii}}
Griffith agreed to pay Thomas Dixon $10,000 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|10000|1914}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}) for the rights to his play ''The Clansman''. Since he ran out of money and could afford only $2,500 of the original option, Griffith offered Dixon 25 percent interest in the picture. Dixon reluctantly agreed, and the unprecedented success of the film made him rich. As of 2007, Dixon's proceeds were the largest sum any author had received for a motion picture story and amounted to several million dollars.<ref name=":0" /> The American historian [[John Hope Franklin]] suggested that many aspects of the script for ''The Birth of a Nation'' appeared to reflect Dixon's concerns more than Griffith's, as Dixon had an obsession in his novels of describing in loving detail the lynchings of black men which did not reflect Griffith's interests.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|422–423}}
===Filming===
[[File:Walthall with DW Griiffith2.jpg|left|thumb|Griffith (left) on the set of ''The Birth of a Nation'' with actor [[Henry B. Walthall|Henry Walthall]] (center) and others]]
Griffith began [[Principal photography|filming]] on July 4, 1914<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=America's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the National Film Registry|last=Eagan|first=Daniel|date=2010|publisher=Continuum|others=National Film Preservation Board (U.S.)|isbn=9781441116475|___location=New York|pages=42–44|oclc=676697377|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=deq3xI8OmCkC}}</ref> and was finished by October 1914.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|421}} Some filming took place in [[Big Bear Lake, California]].{{sfn|Stokes|2007|p=93}} Griffith took over the Hollywood studio of Kinemacolor. [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] engineers provided technical advice on the [[American Civil War]] battle scenes providing Griffith with the artillery used in the film. Much of the filming was done on the [[Griffith Ranch]] in [[San Fernando Valley]], with the Petersburg scenes being shot at what is today [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park]] and other scenes being shot in [[Whittier, California|Whittier]] and [[Ojai Valley]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|title=When Hollywood's Big Guns Come Right From the Source|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/us/when-hollywood-s-big-guns-come-right-from-the-source.html|work=The New York Times|date=June 10, 2002|access-date=June 24, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240507230313/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/us/when-hollywood-s-big-guns-come-right-from-the-source.html|archive-date=May 7, 2024}}</ref><ref>[http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/716 Cal Parks, Griffith Ranch]</ref> The film's war scenes were influenced by [[Robert Underwood Johnson]]'s book ''Battles and Leaders of the Civil War'', ''Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War'', ''The Soldier in Our Civil War'', and [[Mathew Brady]]'s photography.<ref name=":2" />
Many of the African Americans in the film were portrayed by white actors in blackface. Griffith initially claimed this was deliberate, stating "on careful weighing of every detail concerned, the decision was to have no black blood among the principals; it was only in the legislative scene that Negroes were used, and then only as 'extra people'." However black extras who had been housed in segregated quarters, including Griffith's acquaintance and frequent collaborator [[Madame Sul-Te-Wan]], can be seen in many other shots of the film.<ref name=":2" />
Griffith's budget started at US$40,000<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation: A History of "the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time"|last=Stokes|first=Melvyn|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-533678-8|___location=Oxford, UK|pages=105, 122, 124, 178|ref=none}}</ref> (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|40000|1915|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) but rose to over $100,000<ref name="Hall & Neale (2010)">{{Cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Sheldon |last2=Neale |first2=Stephen |title=Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: a Hollywood history |series=Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television |year=2010 |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8143-3697-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ro0hASPfC68C&pg=PA270 270] (note 2.78)|quote=In common with most film historians, he estimates that ''The Birth of Nation'' cost "just a little more than $100,000" to produce...}}</ref> (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|100000|1915|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}).
By the time he finished filming, Griffith had shot approximately 150,000 feet of footage (approximately 36 hours of film), which he edited down to 13,000 feet (just over 3 hours).<ref name=":1" /> The film was edited after early screenings in reaction to audience reception, and existing prints of the film are missing footage from the standard version of the film. Evidence exists that the film originally included scenes of white [[Atlantic slave trade|slave traders]] seizing blacks from [[West Africa]] and detaining them aboard a [[slave ship]], Southern congressmen in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]], Northerners reacting to the results of the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]], the passage of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]], a [[Union League]] meeting, depictions of [[Martial law in the United States|martial law]] in South Carolina, and a battle sequence. In addition, several scenes were cut at the insistence of [[Mayor of New York City|New York Mayor]] [[John Purroy Mitchel]] due to their highly racist content before its release in New York City including a female [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] activist recoiling from the [[body odor]] of a black boy, black men seizing white women on the streets of Piedmont, and deportations of blacks with the title "Lincoln's Solution". It was also long rumored, including by Griffith's biographer Seymour Stern, that the original film included a [[rape]] scene between Gus and Flora before her suicide, but in 1974 the cinematographer [[Karl Brown (cinematographer)|Karl Brown]] denied that such a scene had been filmed.<ref name=":2" />
===Score===
[[File:Sheet music for "The Perfect Song" from The Birth of a Nation.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Sheet music for "The Perfect Song", one of the themes Breil composed for the film]]
Although ''The Birth of a Nation'' is commonly regarded as a landmark for its dramatic and visual innovations, its use of music was arguably no less revolutionary.<ref name="hickman77">{{harvnb|Hickman|2006|p=77}}</ref> Though film was still silent at the time, it was common practice to distribute musical [[Cue (theatrical)|cue sheets]], or less commonly, [[full score]]s (usually for [[Theatre organ|organ]] or [[piano]] accompaniment) along with each print of a film.{{sfn|Hickman|2006|pp=68–69}}
For ''The Birth of a Nation'', composer [[Joseph Carl Breil]] created a three-hour-long musical score that combined all three types of music in use at the time: adaptations of existing works by classical composers, new arrangements of well-known melodies, and original composed music.<ref name="hickman77" /> Though it had been specifically composed for the film, Breil's score was not used for the February 8, 1915, [[Los Angeles]] première of the film at [[Hazard's Pavilion|Clune's Auditorium]]; rather, a score compiled by Carli Elinor was performed in its stead, and this score was used exclusively in [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]] showings. Breil's score was not used until the film debuted in New York at the [[Liberty Theatre]], but it was the score featured in all showings save those on the West Coast.<ref name="hickman78" /><ref name="marks-1997" />
Outside of original compositions, Breil adapted classical music for use in the film, including passages from ''[[Der Freischütz]]'' by [[Carl Maria von Weber]], ''[[Leichte Kavallerie]]'' by [[Franz von Suppé]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 6]] by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]], and "[[Ride of the Valkyries]]" by [[Richard Wagner]], the latter used as a [[leitmotif]] during the ride of the KKK.<ref name="hickman77" /> Breil also arranged several traditional and popular tunes that would have been recognizable to audiences at the time, including many Southern melodies; among these songs were "[[Maryland, My Maryland]]", "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]",<ref name="NPR_Dixie_2018">{{cite news |last1=Qureshi |first1=Bilal |title=The Anthemic Allure Of 'Dixie,' An Enduring Confederate Monument |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/649954248/the-anthemic-allure-of-dixie-an-enduring-confederate-monument |date=September 20, 2018}}</ref> "[[Old Folks at Home]]," "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]," "[[America the Beautiful]]," "[[The Battle Hymn of the Republic]]," "[[Auld Lang Syne]]," and "[[Where Did You Get That Hat?]]"<ref name="hickman77" /><ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000649893 |title=Birth of a Nation [Original Soundtrack] |first=Bruce |last=Eder |access-date=February 6, 2014 |website=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=All Media Network, LLC |archive-date=October 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001231943/http://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000649893 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[DJ Spooky]] has called Breil's score, with its mix of [[Dixieland]] songs, classical music and "vernacular heartland music...an early, pivotal accomplishment in remix culture." He has also cited Breil's use of music by Wagner as influential on subsequent Hollywood films, including ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' (1977) and ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/dj-spooky-is-remixing-birth-of-a-nation/527472/|title=Why Remix The Birth of a Nation?|last=Capps|first=Kriston|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=May 23, 2017|access-date=February 28, 2018|archive-date=March 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301104042/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/dj-spooky-is-remixing-birth-of-a-nation/527472/|url-status=live}}</ref>
In his original compositions for the film, Breil wrote numerous [[leitmotif]]s to accompany the appearance of specific characters. The principal love theme that was created for the romance between Elsie Stoneman and Ben Cameron was published as "The Perfect Song" and is regarded as the first marketed "theme song" from a film; it was later used as the theme song for the popular radio and television sitcom ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]''.<ref name="hickman78">{{harvnb|Hickman|2006|p=78}}</ref><ref name="marks-1997">{{cite book |last=Marks |first=Martin Miller |title= Music and the Silent Film: Contexts and Case Studies, 1895–1924 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-19-536163-6 |pages=127–135 }}</ref>
==Release==
[[File:Birth-of-a-nation-klansmen-1140x688.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|Poster and advertisement of ''The Birth of a Nation'' on the second week of release including preview images from the film]]
===Theatrical run===
The first public showing of the film, then called ''The Clansman'', was on January 1 and 2, 1915, at the Loring Opera House in [[Riverside, California]].<ref name=Lennig/> The second night, it was sold out and people were turned away.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Riot|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=January 12, 1915|page=24|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380195459/?terms=clansman|archive-date=January 29, 2020|access-date=June 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129055433/https://www.newspapers.com/image/380195459/?terms=clansman|url-status=live}}</ref> It was shown on February 8, 1915, to an audience of 3,000 people at Clune's Auditorium in [[downtown Los Angeles]]<ref name=Warnack>{{cite news|title=Trouble over ''The Clansman''|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=February 9, 1915|page=16|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33192531/the_clansman_birth_of_a_nation_los/|first=Henry Cristeen|last=Warnack}}</ref> and ran there for seven months.{{sfn|Campbell|1981|p=50}}
At the New York premiere, Dixon spoke on stage when the interlude started halfway through the film, reminding the audience that the dramatic version of ''The Clansman'' appeared in that venue nine years previously. "Mr. Dixon also observed that he would have allowed none but the son of a Confederate soldier to direct the film version of ''The Clansman''."<ref>{{cite news |date=March 4, 1915 |title=The Birth of a Nation |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1915/03/04/archives/campaign-for-100000-society-women-have-raised-23000-for-lenox-hill.html |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |access-date=June 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204004937/https://www.nytimes.com/1915/03/04/archives/campaign-for-100000-society-women-have-raised-23000-for-lenox-hill.html |url-status=live }}</ref> An estimated 3 million people watched the film across 6,266 showings in New York City by January 1916.{{sfn|Campbell|1981|p=59}}
The film's backers understood that the film needed a massive [[publicity campaign]] if they were to cover the immense cost of producing it. A major part of this campaign was the release of the film in a [[roadshow theatrical release]]. This allowed Griffith to charge premium prices for [[Movie ticket|tickets]], sell souvenirs, and build excitement around the film before giving it a [[wide release]]. For several months, Griffith's team traveled to various cities to show the film for one or two nights before moving on. This strategy was immensely successful.<ref name=":1" />
===Change of title===
Dixon had seen a screening of the film for an invited audience in New York in early 1915, when the title was still ''The Clansmen''. Struck by the power of the film, he told Griffith that ''The Clansmen'' was not an appropriate title, and suggested that it be changed to ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>[[Gary W. Gallagher|Gallagher, Gary W.]] (2008) ''Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood & Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War'' Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p.42. {{isbn|978-0-8078-3206-6}}</ref> The title was changed before the March 2 New York opening.<ref name=Rohauer>{{cite book|title=Southern horizons : the autobiography of Thomas Dixon|contribution=Postscript|first=Raymond|last=Rohauer|___location=[[Alexandria, Virginia]]|publisher=IWV Publishing|year=1984|editor-first=Karen|editor-last=Crowe|oclc=11398740|pages=321–337}}</ref>{{rp|329}} However, the title was used in the press as early as January 2, 1915,<ref>{{cite news|date=January 2, 1915|title=Fashion's Freaks|newspaper=[[Sandusky Register]]|___location=[[Sandusky, Ohio]]|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/36357459/?terms=%22birth%2Bof%2Ba%2Bnation%22}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Blow at Free Speech|newspaper=[[Potter-Leader Enterprise|Potter Enterprise]]|___location=[[Coudersport, Pennsylvania]]|date=January 27, 1915|page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/278895674/?terms=%22birth%2Bof%2Ba%2Bnation%22|archive-date=January 29, 2020|access-date=June 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129055437/https://www.newspapers.com/image/278895674/?terms=%22birth%2Bof%2Ba%2Bnation%22|url-status=live}}</ref> while it was still referred to as ''The Clansman'' in October.<ref>{{cite news|title='The Clansman' Opens Sunday, Opera House.Costliest Motion Picture Drama Ever Produced|newspaper=[[Bakersfield Californian]]|___location=[[Bakersfield, California]]|date=October 8, 1915|page=9|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33179264/clansman_birth_of_a_nation_opens_in/}}</ref>
===Special screenings===
====White House showing====
''The Birth of a Nation'' was the first movie shown in the [[White House]], in the [[East Room]], on February 18, 1915.<ref name=President>{{cite news|title=President to See Movies [''sic'']|newspaper=[[The Washington Star|Washington Evening Star]]|date=February 18, 1915|page=1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30174748/birth_of_a_nation_in_white_house/|archive-date=April 17, 2019|access-date=April 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417211101/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30174748/birth_of_a_nation_in_white_house/|url-status=live}}</ref> An earlier movie, the Italian ''[[Cabiria]]'' (1914), was shown on the lawn. It was attended by President [[Woodrow Wilson]], members of his family, and members of his [[cabinet (government)|Cabinet]].<ref name=Indorsed>{{cite news|title=Dixon's Play Is Not Indorsed by Wilson|newspaper=[[Washington Times (1894–1939)|Washington Times]]|date=April 30, 1915|page=6|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252267/wilson_and_birth_of_a_nation_at_the/|archive-date=April 15, 2019|access-date=June 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415142708/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252267/wilson_and_birth_of_a_nation_at_the/|url-status=live}}</ref> Both Dixon and Griffith were present.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=1987|title=The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America|first=Wyn Craig|last=Wade|isbn=978-0671414764}}</ref>{{rp|126}} As put by Dixon, not an impartial source, "it repeated the triumph of the first showing."<ref name=Southern>{{cite book|title=Southern horizons: the autobiography of Thomas Dixon|first=Thomas Jr.|last=Dixon|___location=[[Alexandria, Virginia]]|publisher=IWV Publishing|year=1984|editor-first=Karen|editor-last=Crowe|oclc=11398740}}</ref>{{rp|299}}
There is dispute about Wilson's attitude toward the movie. A newspaper reported that he "received many letters protesting against his alleged action in Indorsing the pictures {{sic}}", including a letter from [[Massachusetts]] Congressman [[Thomas Chandler Thacher]].<ref name=Indorsed/> The showing of the movie had caused "several near-riots".<ref name=Indorsed/> When former Assistant Attorney General [[William H. Lewis]] and A. Walters, a bishop of the [[African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]], called at the White House "to add their protests", President Wilson's private secretary [[Joseph Patrick Tumulty]] showed them a letter he had written to Thacher on Wilson's behalf. According to the letter, Wilson had been "entirely unaware of the character of the play [movie] before it was presented and has at no time expressed his approbation of it. Its exhibition at the White House was a courtesy extended to an old acquaintance."<ref name=Indorsed/> Dixon, in his autobiography, quotes Wilson as saying, when Dixon proposed showing the movie at the White House, that "I am pleased to be able to do this little thing for you, because a long time ago you took a day out of your busy life to do something for me."<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|298}} What Dixon had done for Wilson was to suggest him for an honorary degree, which Wilson received, from Dixon's ''[[alma mater]]'', [[Wake Forest College]].<ref name=Benbow/>{{rp|512}}
[[File:Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation.jpg|thumb|A quote from Woodrow Wilson's ''History of the American People'' is included in the film's [[intertitle]]s.]]
Dixon had been a fellow graduate student in history with Wilson at [[Johns Hopkins University]] and in 1913 dedicated his historical novel about Lincoln, ''The Southerner'', to "our first Southern-born president since Lincoln, my friend and collegemate Woodrow Wilson". The evidence that Wilson knew "the character of the play" in advance of seeing it is circumstantial but very strong: "Given Dixon's career and the notoriety attached to the play ''The Clansman'', it is not unreasonable to assume that Wilson must have had some idea of at least the general tenor of the film."<ref name=Benbow/>{{rp|513}} The movie was based on a best-selling novel and was preceded by a stage version (play) which was received with protests in several cities—in some cities it was prohibited—and received a great deal of news coverage. Wilson issued no protest when ''[[The Washington Evening Star]]'', at that time [[Washington, D.C.]]'s newspaper of record, reported in advance of the showing, in language suggesting a press release from Dixon and Griffiths, that Dixon was "a schoolmate of President Wilson and is an intimate friend" and that Wilson's interest in it "is due to the great lesson of peace it teaches."<ref name=President/> Wilson, and only Wilson, is quoted by name in the movie for his observations on American history and the title of Wilson's book (''History of the American People'') is mentioned as well.<ref name=Benbow/>{{rp|518–519}} The three [[title card]]s with quotations from Wilson's book read (ellipses and underscore in the original):
<blockquote>
"Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of one race as of the other, to cozen, beguile and use the negroes... In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences."
"... The policy of the congressional leaders wrought…a veritable overthrow of civilization in the South... in their determination to <u>'put the white South under the heel of the black South.'"</u>
"The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the southern country."
</blockquote>
In the same book, Wilson has harsh words about the abyss between the original goals of the Klan and that into which it evolved.<ref>{{cite book|volume=5|page=64|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.213603/page/n81|first=Woodrow|last=Wilson|title=A History of the American People|___location=New York|publisher=[[Harper & Brothers]]|year=1916}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Link|first=Arthur Stanley|title=Wilson: The New Freedom|date=1956|publisher=Princeton University Press|pages=253–254}}</ref> Dixon has been accused of misquoting Wilson.<ref name=Benbow/>{{rp|518}}
In 1937, a popular magazine reported that Wilson said of the film, "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Loewen |first1=James W. |title=Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |date=2018 |publisher=The New Press |isbn=9781620973929 |edition=Reprint |url=https://thenewpress.com/books/lies-my-teacher-told-me |archive-date=January 28, 2019 |access-date=January 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128083144/https://thenewpress.com/books/lies-my-teacher-told-me |url-status=live }}</ref> Wilson over the years had several times used the metaphor of illuminating history as if by lightning and he may well have said it at the time. The accuracy of his saying it was "terribly true" is disputed by historians; there is no contemporary documentation of the remark.<ref name=Benbow>{{cite journal |last1=Benbow |first1=Mark |title=Birth of a Quotation: Woodrow Wilson and 'Like Writing History with Lightning' |journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |date=October 2010 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=509–533 |jstor=20799409 |doi=10.1017/S1537781400004242 |s2cid=162913069 }}</ref>{{rp|521}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=McEwan|first1=Paul|title=The Birth of a Nation|date=2015|publisher=Palgrave|___location=London|isbn=978-1-84457-657-9|pages=80–81}}</ref> [[Vachel Lindsay]], a popular poet of the time, is known to have referred to the film as "art by lightning flash."<ref>{{cite web |title="Art [and History] by Lightning Flash": The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/episodes/the-birth-of-a-nation-and-black-protest/ |website=[[Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media]] |publisher=George Mason University |access-date=2020-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909092445/http://chnm.gmu.edu/episodes/the-birth-of-a-nation-and-black-protest/ |archive-date=9 September 2015 |___location=Fairfax, Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref>
====Showing in the Raleigh Hotel ballroom====
The next day, February 19, 1915, Griffith and Dixon held a showing of the film in the [[Raleigh Hotel (Washington D.C.)|Raleigh Hotel]] ballroom, which they had hired for the occasion. Early that morning, Dixon called on a North Carolina friend, [[Josephus Daniels]], [[Secretary of the Navy]]. Daniels set up a meeting that morning for Dixon with [[Edward Douglass White]], [[Chief Justice of the Supreme Court]]. Initially Justice White was not interested in seeing the film, but when Dixon told him it was the "true story" of Reconstruction and the Klan's role in "saving the South", White, recalling his youth in Louisiana, jumped to attention and said: "I was a member of the Klan, sir".<ref name=Cook1968>{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Raymond A.|title=Fire from the Flint: The Amazing Careers of Thomas Dixon|url=https://archive.org/details/firefromflint00cook|url-access=registration|year=1968|oclc=729785733|___location=[[Winston-Salem, N.C.]]|publisher=J. F. Blair}}</ref>{{rp|171–172}} With White agreeing to see the film, the rest of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] followed. In addition to the entire Supreme Court, in the audience were "many [[Member of Congress|members of Congress]] and [[Foreign Service Officer|members of the diplomatic corps]]",<ref>{{cite news|title='The Birth of a Nation' Shown|newspaper=[[The Washington Star|The Washington Evening Star]]|date=February 20, 1915|page=12|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252453/birth_of_a_nation_shown_at_national/|archive-date=April 17, 2019|access-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417211053/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252453/birth_of_a_nation_shown_at_national/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Chief Justice and Senators at 'Movie'|newspaper=[[Washington Herald]]|date=February 20, 1915|page=4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252702/chief_justice_and_senators_attend/|archive-date=April 17, 2019|access-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417211057/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30252702/chief_justice_and_senators_attend/|url-status=live}}</ref> the Secretary of the Navy, 38 members of the Senate, and about 50 members of the House of Representatives. The audience of 600 "cheered and applauded throughout."<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|425}}<ref name=March>{{cite news|title=Movies at Press Club|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=February 20, 1915|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30253151/birth_of_a_nation_at_national_press_club/|archive-date=April 19, 2019|access-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419142204/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30253151/birth_of_a_nation_at_national_press_club/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=''Birth of a Nation''. Noted Men See Private Exhibition of Great Picture|newspaper=[[The Sun (New York City)|New York Sun]]|date=February 22, 1915|page=7|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31393222/audience_at_birth_of_a_nation/}}</ref>
====Consequences====
In Griffith's words, the showings to the president and the entire Supreme Court conferred an "honor" upon ''Birth of a Nation''.<ref name=Benbow/>{{page needed|date=March 2019}} Dixon and Griffith used this commercially.
The following day, Griffith and Dixon transported the film to New York City for review by the [[National Board of Censorship]]. They presented the film as "endorsed" by the President and the cream of Washington society. The Board approved the film by 15 to 8.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America|first=Wyn Craig|last=Wade|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=1987|isbn=978-0671654559}}</ref>{{rp|127}}
A warrant to close the theater in which the movie was to open was dismissed after a [[Long-distance calling|long-distance call]] to the White House confirmed that the film had been shown there.<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|303}}<ref name=Cook1968/>{{rp|173}}
Justice White was very angry when advertising for the film stated that he approved it, and he threatened to denounce it publicly.<ref name=Benbow/>{{rp|519}}
Dixon, a racist and white supremacist,<ref name=Leitner>{{citation
|first=Andrew
|last=Leitner
|title=Thomas Dixon, Jr.: Conflicts in History and Literature
|publisher=Documenting the American South, University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
|access-date=May 6, 2019
|url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon_intro.html
|archive-date=February 28, 2017
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228142801/http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon_intro.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref> clearly was rattled and upset by criticism by African Americans that the movie encouraged hatred against them, and he wanted the endorsement of as many powerful men as possible to offset such criticism.<ref name=Franklin/> Dixon always vehemently denied having anti-black prejudices—despite the way his books promoted white supremacy—and stated: "My books are hard reading for a Negro, and yet the Negroes, in denouncing them, are unwittingly denouncing one of their greatest friends".<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|424}}
In a letter sent on May 1, 1915, to Joseph P. Tumulty, Wilson's secretary, Dixon wrote: "The real purpose of my film was to revolutionize Northern sentiments by a presentation of history that would transform every man in the audience into a good Democrat... Every man who comes out of the theater is a Southern partisan for life!"<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|430}} In a letter to President Wilson sent on September 5, 1915, Dixon boasted: "This play is transforming the entire population of the North and the West into sympathetic Southern voters. There will never be an issue of your segregation policy".<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|430}} Dixon was alluding to the fact that Wilson, upon becoming president in 1913, had allowed cabinet members to impose segregation on federal workplaces in Washington, D.C. by reducing the number of black employees through demotion or dismissal.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yellin|first=Eric S.|date=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mx-NiOJ3n-AC&pg=PA127|title=Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207065000/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mx-NiOJ3n-AC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127|archive-date=February 7, 2018|___location=Chapel Hill|publisher=University of North Carolina|page=127|isbn=9781469607207}}</ref>
===New opening titles on re-release===
One famous part of the film was added by Griffith only on the second run of the film<ref>Schickel, Richard (1984). ''D. W. Griffith: An American Life''. New York: Limelight Editions, p. 282.</ref> and is missing from most online versions of the film (presumably taken from first run prints).<ref>This includes the one at the Internet Movie Archive [https://archive.org/details/dw_griffith_birth_of_a_nation] and the Google video copy [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5639233838609252948#] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813174157/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5639233838609252948|date=August 13, 2010}} and Veoh [http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v1640308YD8z9qcp Watch Videos Online | The Birth of a Nation | Veoh.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609173838/http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v1640308YD8z9qcp|date=June 9, 2010}}. However, of multiple YouTube copies, one that has the full opening titles is {{YouTube|vPxRIF1c2fI|DW GRIFFITH THE BIRTH OF A NATION PART 1 1915}}</ref>
These are the second and third of three opening title cards that defend the film. The added titles read:<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Birth of a Nation |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/1826 |access-date=May 18, 2025 |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |archive-date=February 23, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250223232641/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/1826 |url-status=live }}</ref>
<blockquote>
A PLEA FOR THE ART OF THE MOTION PICTURE:
We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue—the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word—that art to which we owe [[Bible|the Bible]] and the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]</blockquote>
...and:
<blockquote>If in this work we have conveyed to the mind the ravages of war to the end that war may be held in abhorrence, this effort will not have been in vain.</blockquote>
Various film historians have expressed a range of views about these titles. To Nicholas Andrew Miller, this shows that "Griffith's greatest achievement in ''The Birth of a Nation'' was that he brought the cinema's capacity for spectacle... under the rein of an outdated, but comfortably literary form of historical narrative. Griffith's models... are not the pioneers of film spectacle... but the giants of literary narrative".<ref>{{cite book |title=Modernism, Ireland and the erotics of memory |last=Miller |first= Nicholas Andrew |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-81583-3|page=226}}</ref> On the other hand, S. Kittrell Rushing complains about Griffith's "didactic" title-cards,<ref>{{cite book |title=Memory and myth: the Civil War in fiction and film from Uncle Tom's cabin to Cold mountain |last=Rushing |first=S. Kittrell |year=2007 |publisher=Purdue University Press |isbn=978-1-55753-440-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/memorymythcivilw0000unse/page/307 307] |url=https://archive.org/details/memorymythcivilw0000unse/page/307}}</ref> while Stanley Corkin complains that Griffith "masks his idea of fact in the rhetoric of high art and free expression" and creates a film that "erodes the very ideal" of liberty that he asserts.<ref>{{cite book |title=Realism and the birth of the modern United States:cinema, literature, and culture |last=Corkin |first=Stanley |year=1996 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-1730-4|pages=144–145 }}</ref>
== Social impact ==
=== KKK support ===
Studies have linked the film to greater support for the KKK.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Ang |first=Desmond |date=2023 |title=The Birth of a Nation: Media and Racial Hate |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20201867 |journal=American Economic Review |language=en |volume=113 |issue=6 |pages=1424–1460 |doi=10.1257/aer.20201867 |issn=0002-8282}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite news |date=March 27, 2021 |title=A Tarnished Silver Screen: How a racist film helped the Ku Klux Klan grow for generations. |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/27/how-a-racist-film-helped-the-ku-klux-klan-grow-for-generations |access-date=April 1, 2021 |archive-date=July 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726051122/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/27/how-a-racist-film-helped-the-ku-klux-klan-grow-for-generations |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Esposito |first1=Elena |last2=Rotesi |first2=Tiziano |last3=Saia |first3=Alessandro |last4=Thoenig |first4=Mathias |date=2023 |title=Reconciliation Narratives: The Birth of a Nation after the US Civil War |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20210413 |journal=American Economic Review |language=en |volume=113 |issue=6 |pages=1461–1504 |doi=10.1257/aer.20210413 |s2cid=155099706 |issn=0002-8282|hdl=11585/927713 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Glorifying the Klan to approving white audiences,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wiggins |first1=David K. |title=Out of the Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes |date=2006 |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |page=59}}</ref> the film became a national cultural phenomenon: merchandisers made Ku Klux hats and kitchen aprons, and ushers dressed in white Klan robes for openings. In New York there were Klan-themed balls and, in Chicago that Halloween, thousands of college students dressed in robes for a massive Klan-themed party.<ref>{{cite podcast |url=http://www.southernhollows.com/episodes/birthofanation |title=A 1905 Silent Movie Revolutionizes American Film—and Radicalizes American Nationalists |website=Southern Hollows podcast |host=Stinson Liles |date=28 January 2018 |access-date=3 June 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527210102/http://www.southernhollows.com/episodes/birthofanation |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Anti-black violence ===
When the film was released, riots broke out in [[Philadelphia]] and other major cities in the United States. The film's inflammatory nature was a catalyst for gangs of white people to attack black people. On April 24, 1916, the ''[[Chicago American]]'' reported that a white man murdered a black teenager in [[Lafayette, Indiana|Lafayette]], [[Indiana]], after seeing the film, although there has been some controversy as to whether the murderer had actually seen ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>Gallen, Ira H. & Stern Seymour. ''D.W. Griffith's 100th Anniversary The Birth of a Nation'' (2014) pp. 47f.</ref> The mayor of [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]] was the first of twelve mayors to ban the film in 1915 out of concern that it would promote racial prejudice, after meeting with a delegation of black citizens.<ref>Gaines, Jane M. (2001). ''Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 334.</ref> The NAACP set up a precedent-setting national boycott of the film, likely seen as the most successful effort. Additionally, they organized a mass demonstration when the film was screened in Boston, and it was banned in three states and several cities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christensen |first=Terry |url=https://archive.org/details/reelpoliticsamer00chri/page/19 |title=Reel Politics, American Political Movies from Birth of a Nation to Platoon |publisher=Basil Blackwell Inc. |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-631-15844-8 |___location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reelpoliticsamer00chri/page/19 19] |url-access=registration}}</ref>
In 2021, a Harvard University research paper found that the film was shown in 606 [[County (United States) |counties]] in the United States and that "[o]n average, lynchings in a county rose fivefold in the month after [the film] arrived."<ref name=":4" /> A 2023 study in the [[American Economic Review]] found that roadshow screenings of the film were associated with a sharp spike in lynchings and race riots between 1915 and 1920.<ref name=":3" />
== Contemporary reception ==
===Critical response===
''[[The New York Times]]'' called the film "melodramatic" and "inflammatory" in a brief review adding that: "A great deal might be said concerning the spirit revealed in Mr. Dixon's review of the unhappy chapter of Reconstruction and concerning the sorry service rendered by its plucking at old wounds."<ref>{{cite book |last=McEwan |first=Paul |title=The Birth of a Nation |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2015 |page=16 |isbn=978-1-844-57659-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-R9dDwAAQBAJ&q=%22A+great+deal+might+be+said+concerning+the+spirit+revealed%22&pg=PA16 |via=Google Books |access-date=June 24, 2019}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' praised Griffith's direction, claiming he "set such a pace it will take a long time before one will come along that can top it in point of production, acting, photography and direction. Every bit of the film was laid, played and made in America. One may find some flaws in the general running of the picture, but they are so small and insignificant that the bigness and greatness of the entire film production itself completely crowds out any little defects that might be singled out."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/variety38-1915-03/page/n65/mode/2up |title=Film Reviews: The Birth of a Nation |magazine=Variety |page=23 |date=March 1, 1915 |access-date=August 11, 2021 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
[[Burns Mantle]] in the ''[[New York Daily News]]'' noted "an element of excitement that swept a sophisticated audience like a prairie fire in a high wind", while the ''[[New York Tribune]]'' said it was a "spectacular drama" with "thrills piled upon thrills". ''[[The New Republic]]'', however, called it "aggressively vicious and defamatory" and a "spiritual assassination. It degrades the censors that passed it and the white race that endures it".<ref>[[Gary W. Gallagher|Gallagher, Gary W.]] (2008) ''Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood & Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War'' Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p.45. {{isbn|978-0-8078-3206-6}}</ref>
===Box office===
[[File:Birth of a Nation 1916 poster.jpg|thumb|right|A 1916 newspaper advertisement announcing the film's screening in [[El Paso, Texas]]]]
The box office gross of ''The Birth of a Nation'' is not known and has been the subject of exaggeration.<ref>{{cite web|last=Aberdeen|first=J. A.|url=http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/statesrights.htm|title=Distribution: States Rights or Road Show|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320033508/http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/statesrights.htm|archive-date=March 20, 2015|work=Hollywood Renegades Archive|access-date=May 2, 2014}}</ref> When the film opened, the tickets were sold at premium prices. The film played at the [[Liberty Theater]] at [[Times Square]] in [[New York City]] for 44 weeks with tickets priced at $2.20 ({{Inflation|US|2.20|1915|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="THR">{{cite magazine | url = http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/909518 | title = 'The Birth of a Nation' at 100: "Important, Innovative and Despicable" (Guest Column) | last = Doherty | first = Thomas | magazine = [[The Hollywood Reporter]] | date = February 8, 2015 | access-date = February 8, 2015 | archive-date = February 9, 2015 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20150209191014/http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/entry/view/id/909518 | url-status = dead }}</ref> By the end of 1917, Epoch reported to its shareholders cumulative receipts of $4.8 million,<ref name="Schickel_281" /> and Griffith's own records put Epoch's worldwide earnings from the film at $5.2 million as of 1919,<ref name="Wasko">{{cite book |last=Wasko |first=Janet |chapter=D.W. Griffiths and the banks: a case study in film financing |editor-last=Kerr |editor-first=Paul |title=The Hollywood Film Industry: A Reader |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-7100-9730-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jMINAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA34 34] |quote=Various accounts have cited $15 to $18 million profits during the first few years of release, while in a letter to a potential investor in the proposed sound version, Aitken noted that a $15 to $18 million box-office gross was a 'conservative estimate'. For years ''Variety'' has listed ''The Birth of a Nation''{{'}}s total rental at $50 million. (This reflects the total amount paid to the distributor, not box-office gross.) This 'trade legend' has finally been acknowledged by ''Variety'' as a 'whopper myth', and the amount has been revised to $5 million. That figure seems far more feasible, as reports of earnings in the Griffith collection list gross receipts for 1915–1919 at slightly more than $5.2 million (including foreign distribution) and total earnings after deducting general office expenses, but not royalties, at about $2 million.}}</ref> although the distributor's share of the revenue at this time was much lower than the exhibition gross. In the biggest cities, Epoch negotiated with individual theater owners for a percentage of the box office; elsewhere, the producer sold all rights in a particular state to a single distributor (an arrangement known as "state's rights" distribution).<ref>{{cite book|last = Kindem|first = Gorham Anders| title = The international movie industry| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwC&pg=PA314| year = 2000| publisher = Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press| isbn = 978-0-8093-2299-2| page = 314| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170106183228/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwC&pg=PA314&dq=| archive-date = January 6, 2017| df = mdy-all}}</ref> The film historian [[Richard Schickel]] says that under the state's rights contracts, Epoch typically received about 10% of the box office gross—which theater owners often underreported—and concludes that "''Birth'' certainly generated more than $60 million in box-office business in its first run".<ref name="Schickel_281">{{cite book| last = Schickel| first = Richard| author-link = Richard Schickel| title = D.W. Griffith: An American Life| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-YFNfV5fRDgC&pg=PA281| year = 1984| publisher = Simon and Schuster| isbn = 978-0-671-22596-4| page = 281| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170106183929/https://books.google.com/books?id=-YFNfV5fRDgC&pg=PA281&dq=| archive-date = January 6, 2017| df = mdy-all}}</ref>
The film was the [[Timeline of highest-grossing films|highest-grossing film]] until it was overtaken by ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), another film about the Civil War and Reconstruction era.<ref>{{cite book |last=Finler |first=Joel Waldo |year=2003 |title=The Hollywood Story |publisher=Wallflower Press |isbn=978-1-903364-66-6 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rvVhEJmbfrsC&pg=PA47 47]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Kindem| first = Gorham Anders| title = The international movie industry| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Zg-1VxIZKAwCr}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> By 1940 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine estimated the film's cumulative [[gross rental]] (the distributor's earnings) at approximately $15 million.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Show Business: Record Wind |date=February 19, 1940 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763541,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202110029/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763541,00.html |archive-date=February 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=April 29, 2014}}</ref> For years ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' had the gross rental listed as $50 million, but in 1977 repudiated the claim and revised its estimate down to $5 million.<ref name="Schickel_281" /> It is not known for sure how much the film has earned in total, but producer Harry Aitken put its estimated earnings at $15–18 million in a letter to a prospective investor in a proposed sound version.<ref name="Wasko" /> It is likely the film earned over $20 million for its backers and generated $50–100 million in box office receipts.<ref name="Monaco">{{cite book |last=Monaco |first=James |title=How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-975579-0 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bgbOsjnppAcC&pg=PA262 262] |quote=The Birth of a Nation, costing an unprecedented and, many believed, thoroughly foolhardy $110,000, eventually returned $20 million and more. The actual figure is hard to calculate because the film was distributed on a "states' rights" basis in which licenses to show the film were sold outright. The actual cash generated by ''The Birth of a Nation'' may have been as much as $50 million to $100 million, an almost inconceivable amount for such an early film.}}</ref> In a 2015 ''Time'' article, [[Richard Corliss]] estimated the film had earned the equivalent of $1.8 billion adjusted for [[inflation]], a milestone that at the time had only been surpassed by ''[[Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic]]'' (1997) and ''[[Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar]]'' (2009) in [[Real versus nominal value (economics)|nominal]] earnings.<ref name=time/>
===Criticism===
Like Dixon's novels and play, ''Birth of a Nation'' received considerable criticism, both before and after its premiere. Dixon, who believed the film to be entirely truthful and historically accurate, attributed this to "[[Sectionalism|Sectionalists]]", i.e. non-Southerners who in Dixon's opinion were hostile to the "truth" about the South.<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|301, 303}} It was to counter these "sinister forces" and the "dangerous... menace" that Dixon and Griffith sought "the backing" of President Wilson and the Supreme Court.<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|296}}
The [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) protested at premieres of the film in numerous cities. According to the historian David Copeland, "by the time of the movie's March 3 [1915] premiere in New York City, its subject matter had embroiled the film in charges of racism, protests, and calls for [[censorship]], which began after the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP requested the city's film board ban the movie. Since film boards were composed almost entirely of whites, few review boards initially banned Griffith's picture".<ref>Copeland, David (2010). ''The Media's Role in Defining the Nation: The Active Voice''. Peter Lang Publisher. p. 168.</ref> The NAACP also conducted a public education campaign, publishing articles protesting the film's fabrications and inaccuracies, organizing petitions against it, and conducting education on the facts of the war and Reconstruction.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.naacp.org/about/history/timeline/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091119213141/http://www.naacp.org/about/history/timeline/|url-status=dead|title=NAACP – Timeline|archive-date=November 19, 2009}}</ref> Because of the lack of success in NAACP's actions to ban the film, on April 17, 1915, NAACP secretary [[Mary Childs Nerney]] wrote to NAACP Executive Committee member George Packard: "I am utterly disgusted with the situation in regard to ''The Birth of a Nation'' ... kindly remember that we have put six weeks of constant effort of this thing and have gotten nowhere."<ref name="historymatters">{{cite web|last1=Nerney|first1=Mary Childs|title=An NAACP Official Calls for Censorship of The Birth of a Nation|url=http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4966/|website=History Matters|access-date=May 9, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524132722/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4966|archive-date=May 24, 2015}}</ref> [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]'s biographer [[David Levering Lewis]] opined that "... ''The Birth of a Nation'' and the NAACP helped make each other", in that the NAACP campaign in one sense served as advertising for the film, but that it also "... mobilized thousands of black and white men and women in large cities across the country... who had been unaware of the existence of the [NAACP] or indifferent to it."<ref name="Lewis Biography">{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=David Levering |title=[[W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919]] |date=1993 |publisher=Henry Holt |isbn=0-8050-2621-5 |page=507}}</ref>
[[File:WMTrotter1915.jpg|thumb|left|Newspaper editor and activist [[William Monroe Trotter]] led a demonstration against the film, which resulted in a [[List of ethnic riots|riot]].]]
[[Jane Addams]], an American social worker and social reformer, and the founder of [[Hull House]], voiced her reaction to the film in an interview published by the ''[[New York Post]]'' on March 13, 1915, just ten days after the film was released.<ref name="Stokes_432">{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|p=432}}</ref> She stated that "One of the most unfortunate things about this film is that it appeals to race prejudice upon the basis of conditions of half a century ago, which have nothing to do with the facts we have to consider to-day. Even then it does not tell the whole truth. It is claimed that the play is historical: but history is easy to misuse."<ref name="Stokes_432" /> In New York, Rabbi [[Stephen Samuel Wise]] told the press after seeing ''The Birth of a Nation'' that the film was "an indescribable foul and loathsome libel on a race of human beings".<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|426}} In Boston, [[Booker T. Washington]] wrote a newspaper column asking readers to boycott the film,<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|426}} while the civil rights activist [[William Monroe Trotter]] organized demonstrations against the film, which he predicted was going to worsen race relations. On Saturday, April 10, and again on April 17, Trotter and a group of other blacks tried to buy tickets for the show's premiere at the Tremont Theater and were refused. They stormed the box office in protest, 260 police on standby rushed in, and a general melee ensued. Trotter and ten others were arrested.<ref>{{cite news|title=Race Riot at Theater|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=April 18, 1915|page=2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30109816/protests_at_birth_of_a_nation/|archive-date=March 31, 2019|access-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331154209/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30109816/protests_at_birth_of_a_nation/|url-status=live}}</ref> The following day a huge demonstration was staged at [[Faneuil Hall]].<ref name="NAACP" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/10/05/when-birth-nation-sparked-riot-boston/bN9S0ltko6QyRIQiJcr9KJ/story.html|title=When 'Birth of a Nation' sparked a riot in Boston|last=Lehr|first=Dick|website=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=October 6, 2016|access-date=February 28, 2018|archive-date=March 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301044349/https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/10/05/when-birth-nation-sparked-riot-boston/bN9S0ltko6QyRIQiJcr9KJ/story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In Washington D.C, the Reverend [[Francis James Grimké]] published a pamphlet entitled "Fighting a Vicious Film" that challenged the historical accuracy of ''The Birth of a Nation'' on a scene-by-scene basis.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|427}}
Both Griffith and Dixon in letters to the press dismissed African-American protests against ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref name="Rylance page 1-20">Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005, p. 15.</ref> In a letter to ''[[The New York Globe]]'', Griffith wrote that his film was "an influence against the intermarriage of blacks and whites".<ref name="Rylance page 1-20"/> Dixon likewise called the NAACP "the Negro Intermarriage Society" and said it was against ''The Birth of a Nation'' "for one reason only—because it opposes the marriage of blacks to whites".<ref name="Rylance page 1-20"/> Griffith—indignant at the film's negative critical reception—wrote letters to newspapers and published a pamphlet in which he accused his critics of censoring unpopular opinions.<ref name="Mayer_166">Mayer, David (2009). ''Stagestruck Filmmaker: D.W. Griffith & the American Theatre''. University of Iowa Press, p. 166. {{ISBN|1587297906}}.</ref>
When Sherwin Lewis of ''The New York Globe'' wrote a piece that expressed criticism of the film's distorted portrayal of history and said that it was not worthy of constitutional protection because its purpose was to make a few "dirty dollars", Griffith responded that "the public should not be afraid to accept the truth, even though it might not like it". He also added that the man who wrote the editorial was "damaging my reputation as a producer" and "a liar and a coward".<ref name=Lennig>{{Cite journal|last=Lennig|first=Arthur|date=April 2004|title=Myth and Fact: The Reception of The Birth of a Nation|url=http://web.uvic.ca/~ayh/Lenning.doc|journal=Film History|volume=16|number=2
|pages=117–141|access-date=June 16, 2019|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222130243/http://web.uvic.ca/~ayh/Lenning.doc|archive-date=December 22, 2014|doi=10.2979/FIL.2004.16.2.117}} [http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A138527522/GPS Gale Power Search] All the online versions are missing the 8 illustrations in the printed version.</ref>
===Audience reaction===
[[File:Flora-birth-of-a-nation.jpg|thumb|right|The scene where Flora flees into the forest ''(pictured)'' pursued by the black character Gus moved a viewer to fire shots at the screen to help her.<ref name="ReferenceD"/>]]
''The Birth of a Nation'' was very popular, despite the film's controversy; it was unlike anything that American audiences had ever seen before.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McEwan|first1=Paul|title=The Birth of a Nation |date=2015 |publisher=Palgrave |___location=London |isbn=978-1-84457-657-9 |page=12}}</ref> The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "the greatest picture ever made and the greatest drama ever filmed".<ref>Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005, p. 1.</ref> [[Mary Pickford]] said: "''Birth of a Nation'' was the first picture that really made people take the motion picture industry seriously".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Howe |first=Herbert |date=January 1924 |title=Mary Pickford's Favorite Stars and Films |url=https://archive.org/stream/pho26chic#page/n31/mode/2up |journal=[[Photoplay]] |access-date=September 4, 2015 }}</ref> The producers had 15 "[[detective]]s" at the [[Liberty Theater]] in [[New York City]] "to prevent disorder on the part of those who resent the 'reconstruction period' episodes depicted."<ref>{{cite news|title=News of plays and players|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=April 25, 1915|page=2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30256444/detectives_keeping_order_at_birth_of_a/|archive-date=April 4, 2019|access-date=April 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404171609/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30256444/detectives_keeping_order_at_birth_of_a/|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Reverend [[Charles Henry Parkhurst]] argued that the film was not racist, saying that it "was exactly true to history" by depicting freedmen as they were and, therefore, it was a "compliment to the black man" by showing how far black people had "advanced" since Reconstruction.<ref name="Rylance">Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005, pp. 11–12.</ref> Critic Dolly Dalrymple wrote that, "when I saw it, it was far from silent... incessant murmurs of approval, roars of laughter, gasps of anxiety, and outbursts of applause greeted every new picture on the screen".<ref name="ReferenceD">Rylance, David. "Breech Birth: The Receptions To D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth Of A Nation''" pp. 1–20 from ''Australasian Journal of American Studies'', Volume 24, No. 2, December 2005, p. 3.</ref> One man viewing the film was so moved by the scene where Flora Cameron flees Gus to avoid being raped that he took out his handgun and began firing at the screen in an effort to help her.<ref name="ReferenceD"/> [[Katharine DuPre Lumpkin]] recalled watching the film as an 18-year-old in 1915 in her 1947 autobiography ''The Making of a Southerner'': "Here was the black figure—and the fear of the white girl—though the scene blanked out just in time. Here were the sinister men the South scorned and the noble men the South revered. And through it all the Klan rode. All around me people sighed and shivered, and now and then shouted or wept, in their intensity."<ref name=dixon/>
===Sequel and spin-offs===
D. W. Griffith made a film in 1916, called ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'', partly in response to the criticism that ''The Birth of a Nation'' received. Griffith made clear within numerous interviews that the film's title and main themes were chosen in response to those who he felt had been intolerant to ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Birth of a Nation (BFI Film Classics)|last = McEwan|first = Paul|publisher = BFI/Palgrave Macmillan|year = 2015|isbn = 978-1-84457-657-9|___location = London|page = 14}}</ref> A sequel called ''[[The Fall of a Nation]]'' was released in 1916, depicting the invasion of the United States by a [[German Empire|German]]-led confederation of [[Monarchies in Europe|European monarchies]] and criticizing [[Pacifism in the United States|pacifism]] in the context of the [[World War I|First World War]]. It was the first [[feature-length]] [[sequel]] in film history.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History|first=Gregory Paul|last=Williams|year=2005|page=87|publisher=www.storyofhollywood.com |isbn=9780977629909|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9W4R_CZtFe8C&pg=PA87|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207065000/https://books.google.com/books?id=9W4R_CZtFe8C&pg=PA87&dq=|archive-date=February 7, 2018}}</ref> The film was directed by Thomas Dixon Jr., who adapted it from [[The Fall of a Nation (novel)|his novel of the same name]]. Despite its success in the foreign market, the film was not a success among American audiences,<ref name=Slide>{{cite book |last=Slide |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Slide |title=American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon |year=2004 |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |isbn=978-0-8131-2328-8 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/10080 |via=[[Project MUSE]] |access-date=September 16, 2018 |archive-date=September 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917143241/http://muse.jhu.edu/book/10080 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|102}} and is now a [[lost film]].<ref name=Slide />{{rp|Summary}}
In 1918, an American silent drama film directed by [[John W. Noble]] called ''[[The Birth of a Race]]'' was released as a direct response to ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/pfop-notorious-silent-movie-drew-local-protests/article_c281212a-a5b7-532e-9745-03ee6b70e623.html |title= Notorious silent movie drew local protests |newspaper= [[The Pantagraph]] |date= February 7, 2016 |access-date= April 11, 2016 |last= Kemp |first= Bill |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160208230101/http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/pfop-notorious-silent-movie-drew-local-protests/article_c281212a-a5b7-532e-9745-03ee6b70e623.html |archive-date= February 8, 2016 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> The film was an ambitious project by producer [[Emmett Jay Scott]] to challenge Griffith's film and tell another side of the story, but was ultimately unsuccessful.<ref>{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|p=166}}</ref> In 1920, African-American filmmaker [[Oscar Micheaux]] released ''[[Within Our Gates]]'', a response to ''The Birth of a Nation''. ''Within Our Gates'' depicts the hardships faced by African Americans during the era of [[Jim Crow laws]].<ref name=guardian>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/05/birth-of-a-nation-100-year-anniversary-racism-cinema|title=Deride the lightning: assessing The Birth of a Nation 100 years on|first=Ashley|last=Clark|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=March 5, 2015|access-date=February 24, 2018}}</ref> Griffith's film was remixed in 2004 as ''Rebirth of a Nation'' by [[DJ Spooky]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/395 |title=Rebirth of a Nation at Paula Cooper Gallery |publisher=Paulacoopergallery.com |date=June 18, 2004 |access-date=July 3, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401065710/http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/395 |archive-date=April 1, 2012}}</ref> [[Quentin Tarantino]] has said that he made his film ''[[Django Unchained]]'' (2012) to counter the falsehoods of ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref name=Brody/>
===Influence===
In November 1915, [[William Joseph Simmons]] revived the Klan in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], holding a cross burning at [[Stone Mountain]].<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|430}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/essay-ku-klux-klan|title=Essay: The Ku Klux Klan|website=Southern Poverty Law Center|date=January 26, 2010 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-15}}</ref> The historian John Hope Franklin observed that, had it not been for ''The Birth of a Nation'', the Klan might not have been reborn.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|430–431}}
==Modern reception==
===Critical response===
[[File:Roger Ebert cropped.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Roger Ebert]] deemed ''The Birth of a Nation'' "a great film that argues for evil".]]
Released in 1915, ''The Birth of a Nation'' has been considered as innovative among its contemporaries in the early days of film. According to the film historian [[Kevin Brownlow]], the film was "astounding in its time" and initiated "so many advances in film-making technique that it was rendered obsolete within a few years".<ref>Brownlow, Kevin (1968). ''The Parade's Gone By...''. University of California Press, p. 78. {{ISBN|0520030680}}.</ref> The content of the work, however, has received widespread criticism for its blatant racism. Film critic [[Roger Ebert]] wrote:
<blockquote>Certainly ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) presents a challenge for modern audiences. Unaccustomed to silent films and uninterested in film history, they find it quaint and not to their taste. Those evolved enough to understand what they are looking at find the early and wartime scenes brilliant, but cringe during the postwar and Reconstruction scenes, which are racist in the ham-handed way of an old [[minstrel show]] or a vile comic pamphlet.<ref name="Ebert">{{cite news|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=The Birth of a Nation (1915)|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-birth-of-a-nation-1915|work=[[RogerEbert.com]]|access-date=August 5, 2019|date=March 30, 2003|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224005516/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20030330%2FREVIEWS08%2F303300301%2F1023|archive-date=February 24, 2011|df=mdy-all}}</ref> </blockquote>
Ebert added that
<blockquote>... stung by criticisms that the second half of his masterpiece was racist in its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and its brutal images of blacks, Griffith tried to make amends in ''Intolerance'' (1916), which criticized prejudice. And in ''[[Broken Blossoms]]'' he told perhaps the first [[Miscegenation|interracial love]] story in the movies—even though, to be sure, it's an idealized love with no touching.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=January 23, 2000 |title=Great Movies: 'Broken Blossoms' |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000123/REVIEWS08/1230301/1023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004011203/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20000123%2FREVIEWS08%2F1230301%2F1023 |archive-date=October 4, 2012 |access-date=July 3, 2013 |publisher=Rogerebert.suntimes.com |df=mdy-all}}</ref></blockquote>
Despite its controversial story, the film has been praised by film critics, with Ebert mentioning its use as a historical tool: "''The Birth of a Nation'' is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like [[Leni Riefenstahl|Riefenstahl]]'s ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'', it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."<ref name="Ebert" />
According to a 2002 article in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', the film facilitated the refounding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.<ref>[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/316.html Hartford-HWP.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201234509/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/316.html |date=February 1, 2017 }}, A Painful Present as Historians Confront a Nation's Bloody Past.</ref> [[History.com]] states that "There is no doubt that ''Birth of a Nation'' played no small part in winning wide public acceptance" for the KKK, and that throughout the film "African Americans are portrayed as brutish, lazy, morally degenerate, and dangerous."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/birth-of-a-nation-opens|title=Birth of A Nation Opens|website=history.com|date=February 9, 2010 |publisher=A+E Networks|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129021913/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/birth-of-a-nation-opens|archive-date=November 29, 2016}}</ref> [[David Duke]] used the film to recruit Klansmen in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/08/383279630/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation|title=100 Years Later, What's The Legacy Of 'Birth Of A Nation'?|website=[[NPR]]|date=February 8, 2015|access-date=February 26, 2018|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027081505/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/08/383279630/100-years-later-whats-the-legacy-of-birth-of-a-nation|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2013, the American critic [[Richard Brody]] wrote ''The Birth of a Nation'' was:
<blockquote>... a seminal commercial spectacle but also a decisively original work of art—in effect, the founding work of cinematic realism, albeit a work that was developed to pass lies off as reality. It's tempting to think of the film's influence as evidence of the inherent corruption of realism as a cinematic mode—but it's even more revealing to acknowledge the disjunction between its beauty, on the one hand, and, on the other, its injustice and falsehood. The movie's fabricated events shouldn't lead any viewer to deny the historical facts of slavery and Reconstruction. But they also shouldn't lead to a denial of the peculiar, disturbingly exalted beauty of ''Birth of a Nation'', even in its depiction of immoral actions and its realization of blatant propaganda. The worst thing about ''The Birth of a Nation'' is how good it is. The merits of its grand and enduring aesthetic make it impossible to ignore and, despite its disgusting content, also make it hard not to love. And it's that very conflict that renders the film all the more despicable, the experience of the film more of a torment—together with the acknowledgment that Griffith, whose short films for Biograph were already among the treasures of world cinema, yoked his mighty talent to the cause of hatred (which, still worse, he sincerely depicted as virtuous).<ref name="Brody"/></blockquote>
Brody also argued that Griffith unintentionally undercut his own thesis in the film, citing the scene before the Civil War when the Cameron family offers up lavish hospitality to the Stoneman family who travel past mile after mile of slaves working the cotton fields of South Carolina to reach the Cameron home. Brody maintained that a modern audience can see that the wealth of the Camerons comes from the slaves, forced to do back-breaking work picking the cotton. Likewise, Brody argued that the scene where people in South Carolina celebrate the Confederate victory at the [[First Battle of Bull Run|Battle of Bull Run]] by dancing around the "eerie flare of a bonfire" implies "a dance of death", foreshadowing the destruction of [[Sherman's March to the Sea|Sherman's March]] that was to come. In the same way, Brody wrote that the scene where the Klan dumps Gus's body off at the doorstep of Lynch is meant to have the audience cheering, but modern audiences find the scene "obscene and horrifying". Finally, Brody argued that the end of the film, where the Klan prevents defenseless African Americans from exercising their right to vote by pointing guns at them, today seems "unjust and cruel".<ref name="Brody"/>
In an article for ''[[The Atlantic]]'', film critic [[Ty Burr]] deemed ''The Birth of a Nation'' the most influential film in history while criticizing its portrayal of black men as savage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/what-was-the-most-influential-film-in-history/513863/|title=What Was the Most Influential Film in History?|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=March 2017|access-date=February 26, 2018|archive-date=March 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301044724/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/what-was-the-most-influential-film-in-history/513863/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Richard Corliss]] of ''Time'' wrote that Griffith "established in the hundreds of one- and two-reelers he directed a cinematic textbook, a fully formed visual language, for the generations that followed. More than anyone else—more than all others combined—he invented the film art. He brought it to fruition in ''The Birth of a Nation''." Corliss praised the film's "brilliant storytelling technique" and noted that "''The Birth of a Nation'' is nearly as antiwar as it is antiblack. The Civil War scenes, which consume only 30 minutes of the extravaganza, emphasize not the national glory but the human cost of combat. ... Griffith may have been a racist politically, but his refusal to find uplift in the South's war against the Union—and, implicitly, in any war at all—reveals him as a cinematic humanist."<ref name=time>{{cite news|url=https://time.com/3729807/d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation-10/|title=D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation 100 Years Later: Still Great, Still Shameful|last=Corliss|first=Richard|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=March 3, 2015|access-date=March 4, 2018|archive-date=February 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220182651/http://time.com/3729807/d-w-griffiths-the-birth-of-a-nation-10/|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Accolades===
In 1992, the U.S. [[Library of Congress]] deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-04-ca-864-story.html|title='The Birth of a Nation' Documents History|date=1993-01-04|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-22|archive-date=August 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809043320/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-04-ca-864-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[American Film Institute]] ranked it #44 within the [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies]] list in 1998.<ref>{{cite news|title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/features/afi100list.htm|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=1998|access-date=August 8, 2024|archive-date=July 29, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240729230959/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/features/afi100list.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Historical portrayal===
The film remains controversial due to its interpretation of American history. [[University of Houston]] historian [[Steven Mintz]] summarizes its message as follows: "[[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] was an unmitigated disaster, African-Americans could never be [[racial integration|integrated]] into white society as equals, and the violent actions of the Ku Klux Klan were justified to reestablish honest government".<ref>{{cite web|first=Steven|last=Mintz|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slaveryfilm.cfm|title= Slavery in film: The Birth of a Nation (1915)|website=Digital History|access-date=November 18, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051212055821/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slaveryfilm.cfm|archive-date=December 12, 2005 }}</ref> The South is portrayed as a victim. The first overt mentioning of the war is the scene in which Abraham Lincoln signs the call for the first [[United States Volunteers#American Civil War|75,000 volunteers]]. However, the first aggression in the Civil War, made when the Confederate troops fired on [[Fort Sumter]] in 1861, is not mentioned in the film.<ref>{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|p=184}}.</ref> The film suggested that the Ku Klux Klan restored order to the postwar South, which was depicted as endangered by abolitionists, freedmen, and [[carpetbagger|carpetbagging]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] politicians from the North. This is similar to the [[Dunning School]] of historiography which was current in academe at the time.<ref>{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|pp=190–91}}.</ref> The film is slightly less extreme than the books upon which it is based, in which Dixon misrepresented Reconstruction as a nightmarish time when black men ran amok, storming into weddings to rape white women with impunity.<ref name=dixon>{{cite web| last = Leiter| first = Andrew| title = Thomas Dixon, Jr.: Conflicts in History and Literature| publisher = Documenting the American South| date = 2004| url = http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon_intro.html| access-date = July 21, 2017| url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170228142801/http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/dixon_intro.html| archive-date = February 28, 2017| df = mdy-all}}</ref>
The film portrayed President Abraham Lincoln as a friend of the South and refers to him as "the Great Heart".<ref>{{harvnb|Stokes|2007|p=188}}.</ref> The two romances depicted in the film, Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron and Ben Cameron with Elsie Stoneman, reflect Griffith's retelling of history. The couples are used as a metaphor, representing the film's broader message of the need for the reconciliation of the North and South to defend white supremacy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://filmracepolitics.weebly.com/blog|title=The Birth of a Nation: The Significance of Love, Romance, and Sexuality|date=March 6, 2015|publisher=Weebly|access-date=August 22, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208165535/http://filmracepolitics.weebly.com/blog|archive-date=December 8, 2015}}</ref> Among both couples, there is an attraction that forms before the war, stemming from the friendship between their families. With the war, however, both families are split apart, and their losses culminate in the end of the war with the defense of white supremacy. One of the intertitles clearly sums up the message of unity: "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol8No2/SalterBirth.htm|title=The Birth of a Nation as American Myth|first=Richard C.|last=Salter|website=The Journal of Religion and Film|series=Vol. 8, No. 2|date=October 2004|access-date=August 22, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622205145/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol8No2/SalterBirth.htm|archive-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref>
The film further reinforced the popular belief held by whites, especially in the South, of Reconstruction as a disaster. In his 1929 book ''The Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln'', [[Claude Bowers]] treated ''The Birth of a Nation'' as a factually accurate account of Reconstruction.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|432}} In ''The Tragic Era'', Bowers presented every black politician in the South as corrupt, portrayed Republican Representative [[Thaddeus Stevens]] as a vicious "[[race traitor]]" intent upon making blacks the equal of whites, and praised the Klan for "saving civilization" in the South.<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|432}} Bowers wrote about black empowerment that the worst sort of "scum" from the North like Stevens "inflamed the Negro's egoism and soon the lustful assaults began. Rape was the foul daughter of Reconstruction!"<ref name=Franklin/>{{rp|432}}
===Academic assessment===
[[File:Thaddeus Stevens - Brady-Handy-crop.jpg|left|thumb|upright|The character of Congressman Stoneman in the film echoes [[Thaddeus Stevens]] (''pictured''), one of the two most powerful Radical Republicans of the 1860s.]]Despite some similarities between the Congressman Stoneman character and Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of [[Pennsylvania]], Rep. Stevens did not have the family members described and did not move to South Carolina during Reconstruction. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1868. However, Stevens's biracial housekeeper, [[Lydia Hamilton Smith]], was considered his common-law wife, and was generously provided for in his will.<ref>[[Marc Egnal|Egnal, Marc]] (2009). ''Clash of Extremes''.</ref>
In the film, Abraham Lincoln is portrayed in a positive light due to his belief in conciliatory postwar policies toward Southern whites. The president's views are opposite those of Austin Stoneman, a character presented in a negative light, who acts as an antagonist. The assassination of Lincoln marks the transition from war to Reconstruction, each of which periods has one of the two "acts" of the film.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://boothiebarn.com/2013/06/15/the-assassination-in-the-birth-of-a-nation/|title=The Assassination in 'The Birth of a Nation'|last=|date=June 15, 2013|website=BoothieBarn|access-date=June 22, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715103923/https://boothiebarn.com/2013/06/15/the-assassination-in-the-birth-of-a-nation/|archive-date=July 15, 2017}}</ref> In including the assassination, the film also establishes to the audience that the plot of the movie has historical basis.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reel_new/films/list/0_68_9_123|title=Reel American History – Films – List|last=University|first=Library and Technology Services, Lehigh|website=digital.lib.lehigh.edu|access-date=June 22, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015004629/http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/reel_new/films/list/0_68_9_123|archive-date=October 15, 2015}}</ref> Franklin wrote the film's depiction of Reconstruction as a hellish time when black freedmen ran amok, raping and killing whites with impunity until the Klan stepped in is not supported by the facts. Instead, most freed slaves continued to work for their former masters in Reconstruction for the want of a better alternative and, though relations between freedmen and their former masters were not friendly, very few freedmen sought revenge against the people who had enslaved them.<ref name=Franklin>{{cite journal|last=Franklin|first=John Hope|title=''The Birth of a Nation'': Propaganda as History|pages=417–434|journal=[[Massachusetts Review]]|volume=20|number=3|jstor=25088973|date=Autumn 1979}}</ref>{{rp|427–428}}
The depictions of mass Klan paramilitary actions did not have historical equivalents. However, there were incidents in 1871 where Klan groups traveled from other areas in fairly large numbers to aid localities in disarming local companies of the all-black portion of the state militia, and the organized Klan continued activities as small groups of "night riders".<ref>West, Jerry Lee (2002). ''The Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan in York County, South Carolina, 1865–1877'', p. 67.</ref>
The largely discredited pro-Confederate<ref name=":Foner1993">Eric Foner, ''Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory Of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1993; Revised, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996, p. xii</ref><ref name=":12">Foner, ''Freedom's Lawmakers'', p. xii</ref><ref name="georgiaencyclopedia.org">{{Cite web |title=E. Merton Coulter, ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FHistoryArchaeology%2FHistoriansHistoricalOrganization%2FHistorians&id=h-851 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429231929/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=%2FHistoryArchaeology%2FHistoriansHistoricalOrganization%2FHistorians&id=h-851 |archive-date=2013-04-29 |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref> historian [[E. Merton Coulter]] treated ''The Birth of a Nation'' as historically correct and painted a vivid picture of "black beasts" running amok, encouraged by alcohol-sodden, corrupt and vengeful black Republican politicians.<ref name="Franklin" />{{rp|432}}
The [[civil rights movement]] of the 1960s inspired a new generation of historians, such as scholar [[Eric Foner]], who led a reassessment of Reconstruction. Building on [[Black Reconstruction in America|W. E. B. DuBois' work]], but also adding new sources, they focused on achievements of the African American and white Republican coalitions, such as establishment of universal public education and charitable institutions in the South and extension of voting rights to black men. In response, the Southern-dominated [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and its affiliated white militias used extensive terrorism, intimidation and even assassinations to suppress African-American leaders and voters in the 1870s and thereby to regain power in the South.<ref>[[Nicholas Lemann|Lemann, Nicholas]] (2006). ''Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War''. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, pp. 150–154.</ref>
==Legacy==
===Film innovations===
In his review of ''The Birth of a Nation'' in ''[[1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die]]'', Jonathan Kline writes that "with countless artistic innovations, Griffith essentially created contemporary film language... virtually every film is beholden to [''The Birth of a Nation''] in one way, shape or form. Griffith introduced the use of dramatic close-ups, tracking shots, and other expressive camera movements; parallel action sequences, crosscutting, and other editing techniques". He added that "the fact that ''The Birth of a Nation'' remains respected and studied to this day—despite its subject matter—reveals its lasting importance."<ref>{{cite book |title= 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die | editor1-first= Steven Jay | editor1-last= Schneider| year= 2014 | edition= 7th |publisher= [[Barron's Educational Series]] |___location=Hauppauge, New York |isbn= 978-1844037339 |page= [http://www.barronsbooks.com/cat/1001movies_pg02.pdf 24-25] |oclc= 796279948| series= Quintessence Editions}}</ref>
Griffith helped to pioneer such camera techniques as close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last=Norton |first=Mary Beth |title=A People and a Nation, Volume II: Since 1865, Brief Edition |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-305-14278-7 |page=487}}</ref> ''The Birth of a Nation'' also contained many new artistic techniques, such as color tinting for dramatic purposes, and featuring its own musical score written for an orchestra.<ref name=":0" />
===Home media and restorations===
For many years, ''The Birth of a Nation'' was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website ''Brenton Film'', many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, [and] running speeds," which were "usually in ''definitely unoriginal'' black and white."<ref name="Brenton Film">{{cite web |url=http://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/the-birth-of-a-nation-controversial-classic-gets-a-definitive-new-restoration |title=The Birth of a Nation: Controversial Classic Gets a Definitive New Restoration |work=Brenton Film |access-date=February 23, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225184025/http://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/the-birth-of-a-nation-controversial-classic-gets-a-definitive-new-restoration |archive-date=February 25, 2016 |date=February 17, 2016 }}</ref>
One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist [[David Shepard (film preservationist)|David Shepard]]'s 1992 transfer of a [[16 mm film|16mm]] print for [[VHS]] and [[LaserDisc]] release via [[Image Entertainment]]. A short documentary, ''The Making of The Birth of a Nation'', newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on [[DVD]] by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000.<ref name="Brenton Film" />
In the UK, [[Photoplay Productions]] restored the [[Museum of Modern Art]]'s [[35mm movie film|35mm]] print that was the source of Shepard's 16 mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the [[British Film Institute]]. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on [[Channel 4]] television and screened in theaters many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video.<ref name="Brenton Film" />
Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by [[Kino International (company)|Kino Video]] in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith.<ref name="Brenton Film" /> In 2011, Kino prepared an HD transfer of a 35 mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the [[Library of Congress]] and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on [[Blu-ray]] by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their "[[Masters of Cinema]]" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain.<ref name="Brenton Film" />
In 2015, the year of the film's centenary, [[Photoplay Productions]]' [[Patrick Stanbury]], in conjunction with the [[British Film Institute]], carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new [[4K resolution|4K]] scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and [[Twilight Time (home video label)|Twilight Time]], alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.<ref name="Brenton Film" />
===In popular culture===
* ''The Birth of a Nation''{{'s}} reverent depiction of the Klan was lampooned in [[Mel Brooks]]'s ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' (1974).<ref>{{cite news|last=Rose|first=Steve|title=From Birth of a Nation to BlacKkKlansman: Hollywood's complex relationship with the KKK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/13/blackkklansman-spik-lee-hollywood-ku-klux-klan|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=August 13, 2018|access-date=August 9, 2024}}</ref>
* [[Ryan O'Neal]]'s character Leo Harrigan in [[Peter Bogdanovich]]'s ''[[Nickelodeon (film)|Nickelodeon]]'' (1976) attends the premiere of ''The Birth of a Nation'' and realizes that it will change the course of American cinema.<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Phil|title=The Birth of a Nation: DW Griffith's Distortion of History and its Legacy|url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/the-birth-of-a-nation-dw-griffiths-distortion-of-history-and-its-legacy/|publisher=[[Wales Arts Review]]|date=July 17, 2014|access-date=August 9, 2024|archive-date=August 9, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809060013/https://www.walesartsreview.org/the-birth-of-a-nation-dw-griffiths-distortion-of-history-and-its-legacy/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Clips from Griffith's film are shown in
**[[Robert Zemeckis]]'s ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' (1994), where the footage is meant to portray the [[Forrest Gump (character)|titular character]]'s ancestor and namesake [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/barbour_birth_nation/|title=Still lying about history|first1=Nancy|last1=Isenberg|first2=Andrew|last2=Burnstein|website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|date=February 17, 2011|access-date=February 26, 2018|archive-date=February 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227094333/https://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/barbour_birth_nation/|url-status=live}}</ref>
** The closing montage of [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Bamboozled]]'' (2000), along with other footage from demeaning portrayals of African Americans in early 20th century film<ref name=guardian/>
** Lee's ''[[BlacKkKlansman]]'' (2018), where [[Harry Belafonte]]'s character Jerome Turner speaks about its role in the [[lynching of Jesse Washington]] as the modern Ku Klux Klan led by [[Grand Wizard]] [[David Duke]] ([[Topher Grace]]) screens it as propaganda.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/review-blackkklansman-spike-lee-david-edelstein/|title=Review: Spike Lee's provocative 'BlacKkKlansman'|first1=David|last1=Edelstein|website=[[CBS News]]|date=August 11, 2018|access-date=August 12, 2018|archive-date=August 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811174125/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/review-blackkklansman-spike-lee-david-edelstein/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Director [[Kevin Willmott]]'s [[mockumentary]] ''[[C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America]]'' (2004) portrays an imagined history where the Confederacy won the Civil War. It shows part of an imagined Griffith film, ''The Capture of Dishonest Abe'', which resembles ''The Birth of a Nation'' and was supposedly adapted from Thomas Dixon's ''The Yankee''.<ref name=Brody>{{cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/c-s-a-the-confederate-states-of-america-a-faux-documentary-that-skewers-real-white-supremacy|title='C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America', a Faux Documentary Skewers Real White Supremacy|first=Richard|last=Brody|newspaper=[[The New Yorker]]|date=February 15, 2017|access-date=February 26, 2018|archive-date=February 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227094305/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/c-s-a-the-confederate-states-of-america-a-faux-documentary-that-skewers-real-white-supremacy|url-status=live}}</ref>
* In [[Justin Simien]]'s ''[[Dear White People]]'' (2014), Sam ([[Tessa Thompson]]) screens a short film called ''The Rebirth of a Nation'' which portrays white people wearing [[Whiteface (performance)|whiteface]] while criticizing [[Barack Obama]].<ref name=guardian/>
* In 2016, [[Nate Parker]] produced and directed the film ''[[The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)|The Birth of a Nation]]'', based on [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion]]; Parker clarified:
<blockquote>I've reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://filmmakermagazine.com/97103-five-questions-with-the-birth-of-a-nation-director-nate-parker/#.VsC1bvmLTIU|title = Five Questions with the Birth of a Nation director Nate Parker|date = 25 January 2016|website = Filmmaker magazine|last = Rezayazdi|first = Soheil|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160128054154/http://filmmakermagazine.com/97103-five-questions-with-the-birth-of-a-nation-director-nate-parker/#.VsC1bvmLTIU|archive-date = January 28, 2016|df = mdy-all}}</ref></blockquote>
* [[Dinesh D'Souza]]'s 2016 [[political documentary]] ''[[Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party]]'' depicts President Wilson and his cabinet viewing ''The Birth of a Nation'' in the White House before a Klansman comes out of the screen and into the real world. The film is meant to accuse the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and the [[Modern liberalism in the United States|American political left]] in covering up its past support of white supremacy and continuing it through [[Social programs in the United States|welfare policies]] and [[Political machine|machine politics]].<ref name=av>{{cite web |work= [[The A.V. Club]] |url= https://www.avclub.com/hitler-was-liberal-is-just-one-insight-offered-by-din-1827969170 |last= Rizov |first= Vadim |title= 'Hitler was liberal' is just one insight offered by Dinesh D'Souza's fraudulent Death Of A Nation |date= May 25, 2017 |access-date= August 4, 2018 |archive-date= June 26, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220626125804/https://www.avclub.com/hitler-was-liberal-is-just-one-insight-offered-by-din-1827969170 |url-status= live }}</ref> The title of D'Souza's 2018 film ''[[Death of a Nation (2018 film)|The Death of a Nation]]'' is a reference to Griffith's film, and like his previous film is meant to accuse the Democratic Party, and historical American left-wing of racism.<ref name=av/>
* In 2019, [[Bowling Green State University]] renamed its Gish Film Theater, which was named for actress [[Lillian Gish]], after protests alleging that using her name is inappropriate because of her role in ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{cite news
|title=When the Names on Campus Buildings Evoke a Racist Past
|first=Laura M.
|last=Holson
|date=May 23, 2019
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/task-force-university-racism.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/task-force-university-racism.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Film|United States}}
* [[List of American films of 1915]]
* [[List of films and television shows about the American Civil War]]
* [[List of films featuring slavery]]
* [[List of highest-grossing films]]
* [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]]
* [[Racism against African Americans]]
* [[Racism in the United States]]
* [[Tom Rice (film historian)]]
==References==
'''Informational notes'''
{{reflist|group=note}}
'''Citations'''
{{Reflist}}
'''Bibliography'''
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* [[Jane Addams|Addams, Jane]], in ''Crisis: A Record of Darker Races'', X (May 1915), 19, 41, and (June 1915), 88.
* [[Donald Bogle|Bogle, Donald]]. ''Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films'' (1973).
* [[Fawn M. Brodie|Brodie, Fawn M.]] ''Thaddeus Stevens, Scourge of the South'' (New York, 1959), pp. 86–93. Corrects the historical record as to Dixon's false representation of Stevens in this film with regard to his racial views and relations with his housekeeper.
* {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Edward |title=The Celluloid South: Hollywood and the Southern Myth |publisher=[[University of Tennessee Press]] |date=1981 |isbn=0870493272}}
* Chalmers, David M. ''Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan'' (New York: 1965), p. 30
* [[John Hope Franklin|Franklin, John Hope]]. "Silent Cinema as Historical Mythmaker". '''In''' ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. 1997. Gerster, Patrick, and Cords, Nicholas. (editors.) Brandywine Press, St. James, NY. {{ISBN|978-1-881089-97-1}}
* Franklin, John Hope, "Propaganda as History" pp. 10–23 in ''Race and History: Selected Essays 1938–1988'' ([[Louisiana State University Press]], 1989); first published in ''The Massachusetts Review'', 1979. Describes the history of the novel ''The Clan'' and this film.
* Franklin, John Hope, ''Reconstruction After the Civil War'' (Chicago, 1961), pp. 5–7.
*[[Gary W. Gallagher|Gallagher, Gary W.]] (2008) ''Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood & Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War'' Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. {{isbn|978-0-8078-3206-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Hickman|first=Roger|title=Reel Music: Exploring 100 Years of Film Music |___location=New York |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|year=2006}}
* [[Christopher L. Hodapp|Hodapp, Christopher L.]], and Alice Von Kannon, ''Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies For Dummies'' (Hoboken: Wiley, 2008) pp. 235–236.
* [[Ralph Korngold|Korngold, Ralph]], ''Thaddeus Stevens. A Being Darkly Wise and Rudely Great'' (New York: 1955) pp. 72–76. corrects Dixon's false characterization of Stevens' racial views and of his dealings with his housekeeper.
* Leab, Daniel J., ''From Sambo to Superspade'' (Boston, 1975), pp. 23–39.
* ''New York Times'', roundup of reviews of this film, March 7, 1915.
* ''The New Republica'', II (March 20, 1915), 185
* Poole, W. Scott, ''Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting'' (Waco, Texas: Baylor, 2011), 30. {{ISBN|978-1-60258-314-6}}
* [[Francis Butler Simkins|Simkins, Francis B.]], "New Viewpoints of Southern Reconstruction", ''Journal of Southern History'', V (February 1939), pp. 49–61.
* {{cite book |last=Stokes |first=Melvyn |title=D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation: A History of "The Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time" |___location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGJFpiTjbKwC| year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-804436-9}} The latest study of the film's making and subsequent career.
* Williamson, Joel, ''After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction'' (Chapel Hill, 1965). This book corrects Dixon's false reporting of Reconstruction, as shown in his novel, his play and this film.
{{Refend}}
'''Further reading'''
*{{cite news|title='Writing History With Lightning': ''The Birth of a Nation'' at 100|first=Rachel|last=Janik|date=February 8, 2015|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|url=https://time.com/3699084/100-years-birth-of-a-nation/}}
*{{cite book|last=Lehr|first=Dick|title=The Birth of a Movement: How ''Birth of a Nation'' Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights|date=2017|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9781610398244|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq7gDQAAQBAJ}}
==External links==
{{Sister project links
|wikt=no |c= |n=no |q=no |s= |b=no |v=no
}}
*{{IMDb title|0004972}}
*{{rotten-tomatoes|birth_of_a_nation}}
*{{TCMDb title|5764}}
*{{AFI film|id=1826|title=The Birth of a Nation}}
*''The Birth of a Nation'' essay by [[Dave Kehr|David Kehr]] at [[National Film Registry]] [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/birth_nation.pdf]
*{{Internet Archive film|dw_griffith_birth_of_a_nation|The Birth of a Nation}}
*[https://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/the-birth-of-a-nation-controversial-classic-gets-a-definitive-new-restoration ''The Birth of a Nation'': Controversial Classic Gets a Definitive New Restoration] essay by [[Patrick Stanbury]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRl--OQou9s ''The Birth of a Nation'' on YouTube]
{{D. W. Griffith}}
{{Thomas Dixon Jr.}}
{{Ku Klux Klan}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birth of a Nation, The}}
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