100 years ago in Spokane: Some black citizens hadn’t forgiven theater’s screening of “The Birth of a Nation”

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Clemmer Theater (today’s Bing Crosby Theater) was bringing in the Tuskegee Jubilee Singers, a five-man singing group from the famous black college, the Tuskegee Institute.

However, Spokane’s black community had mixed emotions about this event. In fact, one man was organizing a boycott.

Why? Because the Clemmer had been the theater that presented D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” the year before. Many in the black community were still seething about it. They believed “The Birth of a Nation” promoted racial hatred. Some had asked the theater not to show the movie, but the management turned them down.

One letter writer said that “the colored citizens of Spokane and our visitors should not patronize or have any business relationship whatsoever with (the Clemmer).” In fact, this letter writer believed that, if the Tuskegee Jubilee Singers were informed about the Clemmer’s support of “The Birth of a Nation,” they would cancel their engagement and appear at some other theater.