Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane’s former mayor, W.J. Hindley, was in Spokane for the Manitoba Censorship Board. 

His role: To weigh the merits of D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” which was scheduled to open the next day at the Clemmer Theater (today’s Bing Crosby Theater).

Hindley, who quit his mayoral job to become pastor of the Central Congregational Church in Manitoba, was present for an advance screening.

“I have seen no greater motion picture that I can recall,” Hindley said. “Its war scenes surpass those of ‘The Battle of Gettysburg.’ It is the biggest dramatic picture that I have witnessed.”

He did have some reservations. He said it was “unfortunate” that the “sunny and prophetic side of the Negro’s nature is not emphasized a little more to give better balance to the picture of the Negro.” He called the movie decidedly “Dixonesque” in its treatment, referring apparently to Thomas Dixon, who wrote the book on which the movie was based, “The Clansman.”

In fact, Hindley suggested that some of the scenes purporting to show the “degenerate Negro” be eliminated. He said he did not, however, think the movie would stir up “racial hatred,” in Manitoba, at least in part because there was no existing “feeling in Canada against the Negro.” 

The movie already had spawned some objections in Spokane, yet Hindley did not weigh in on those.