Feb. 18, 1915, an old acquaintance of President Woodrow Wilson,
Thomas Dixon was an avowed White Supremacist and Southern Apologist. He had
written a play called “The Clansman” which film director and producer D.W.
Griffith had optioned and made into the film, “Birth of A Nation” Dixon asked
for the opportunity to screen the film at the White House for the president and
he agreed to the screening.
Both myths and history were made this night, ones that would
have ripples over the next decade and influence American thought and treatment
of African Americans.
The myth is that Wilson was an enthusiastic viewer of the film
and told both Griffith and Dixon, “It's like writing history with
lightning. My only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” This line has
appeared in numerous books and articles regarding the film and it is often done
to support that both Wilson and the film are extremely bigoted. The truth is the
film is racist and so was Wilson however if at all true only the first part of
the quote is close to authentic.
The greater truth is that it is irrelevant whether Wilson said
this. The very fact that he saw the film and did not denounce the racism and
the story of a heroic Ku Klux Klan was enough.
Just the fact that a sitting president would screen a film in
the White House for his family and cabinet members at this point if film
history was in and of itself an endorsement. Moreover, Wilson had segregated
federal employment eliminating Blacks from all but the most basic cleaning
positions. Wilson’s own scholarly, historical writings before he became president
showed that he was a White Supremacist.
This tacit, informal endorsement of the film led to several events
that were frankly bad for Black Americans and other minority populations. By
reinforcing the prejudices of many White Americans the film became some people's truth and not fiction, They preached it from the church pulpit, politician soapbox, or
anywhere else.
Worse than just reinforcing the existing prejudices the fact
the president saw the film and did not speak out it cast the Klan in a favorable
light. The popularity of the film after Wilson’s screening kicked off a full
rebirth of the Klan. Former Methodist minister William Joseph Simmons revived
the Klan in Atlanta, Georgia, holding a cross burning at Stone Mountain
on Thanksgiving night in 1915. This version of the Klan grew quickly and turned
out to be more violent than the original. Its growth helped spur the ‘Red
Summer’ of 1919 which led to nationwide violence and even massacres of Blacks.
The repression of Blacks by putting them in their proper place
was the message and with the Klan and supporters infiltrating many police
departments and government offices it became difficult if not impossible to
expand civil rights
Whether Wilson said the infamous line or not he gave his
approval of the false history of “Birth of A Nation” and helped boost its
popularity which had consequences that are undeniable.
Sources:
Benbow, Mark E. “Birth of a Quotation: Woodrow Wilson and
‘Like Writing History with Lightning.’” The Journal of the Gilded Age and
Progressive Era, vol. 9, no. 4, 2010, pp. 509–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20799409.
Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
Benbow, Mark E. “Birth of a Quotation: Woodrow Wilson and
‘Like Writing History with Lightning.’” The Journal of the Gilded Age and
Progressive Era 9, no. 4 (2010): 509–33.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20799409.
Benbow, M. E. (2010). Birth of a Quotation: Woodrow Wilson
and “Like Writing History with Lightning.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and
Progressive Era, 9(4), 509–533. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20799409
No comments:
Post a Comment