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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokesman-Review ran an editorial blasting the sensational hit movie, D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” as a distortion of history.

The editor’s main objections were in the movie’s portrayal of black people and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan.

“The spotlight is held on the worst side of the black man, in the darkest period of his tribulations.”

As for its portrayal of the Klan, the editor was appalled to find the audience falling “into a state of warmest admiration that finds expression in cordial applause” during the scenes of the Klan’s rides.

In fact, the Klan was a “lawless secret organization, which became so vicious and murderous as to forfeit the respect and support of many of the better people of the South.” The organization came under the control of “cruel spirits,” who used it to “gratify personal spite and administer individual revenge.”

The editors said “The Clansman,” the book on which the movie was based, was intended to cause the North to consider slavery, secession and reconstruction from the “ultra Southern viewpoint.”

Unfortunately, said the editor, the realities of that period were now “half-forgotten” – or little-known by the current generation. Thus “The Birth of a Nation” found a gullible audience.