Resident instructors lecture on ‘The Birth of a Nation’

Greg Leonov

the advocate

 

On Wednesday, April 15, several Mt. Hood instructors held a “Historian’s Roundtable” discussion about D.W. Griffith’s landmark 1915 motion picture, “The Birth of a Nation.”

History instructors Pat Casey and Elizabeth Miliken and Film studies instructors Jonathan Morrow and David Wright talked about the film’s history, controversy, and impact on the motion picture medium that can still be observed today.

According to Casey, “Birth of a Nation” was the America’s first big blockbuster. “This was an utter, complete game-changer – this movie,” he said. Filmed in several locations in Southern California, “Birth of a Nation” turned Hollywood into “the world’s film factory,” he said.

The film deals with the Civil War and Reconstruction. “People my age could remember the Civil War, and people, even youngsters like Jonathan and David, can remember Reconstruction: In 1915, things are that close,” said Casey.

Casey gave a historical background on the film. After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his vice president, Andrew Johnson, took over and “does this incredibly lenient process where the southern states … re-institute everything (in racist policies) that they had before the war.” They restricted almost all rights of African Americans.

In response, Congress (under a Republican Party majority at the time) instituted its own reconstruction approach. “It becomes this effort to not just free the slaves, but an effort – using government force – to somehow create equality among black and white,” said Casey.

Miliken explained that “Birth of a Nation” was an effective tool to sway people’s views on reconstruction. “Because of its power as a film, and because it was so popular, and because it was so artistically sophisticated and powerful, it helped to further promote and legitimate a view of race relations in this country – a view of what reconstruction that was not accurate historically, and that was one of the things of white supremacy,” he said.

The film was produced by Griffith, who “does with this (film-making) perfect things that have become part of the driver of cinema to this very day,” said Casey.

“Birth of a Nation” is an adaptation of Thomas Dixon Jr.’s book and play titled “The Clansman.”

“This guy (Dixon) is from an old American tradition,” said Casey. “He’s a guy who decides he wants to use mass media to change public opinion, and he’s very good.”

Dixon traveled to the North and decided that the region’s ideas on reconstruction were wrong, so he wrote “The Clansman” in an effort to change the North’s attitudes on reconstruction, said Casey.

Morrow talked about the restriction of rights, and said that it is an issue that remains relevant today. “They weren’t racist back then, (the  legislators and Congress) sat down and wrote laws. It wasn’t just an attitude. It was institutionalized in the same (way that) people are trying to do now with voter suppression laws that are an outrage.

“In the Carolinas and in several other states across the country, Republicans are trying to force (restrictive) voter ID laws into effect, and some have done so,” Morrow said.

Miliken clarified, saying that troubling laws were never directly racist. “The laws that kept people from voting in the South never used any racial terms; there was never a law passed that said ‘Black people can’t vote.’ It was, because according to the 15th Amendment, the right to vote cannot be impeded because of race or previous condition of servitude,” he said.