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"So true," remarked President Woodrow Wilson when he showed D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent epic, “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House, a movie still said to be one of the most influential films of all time, particularly in advancing the cause of the KKK, heroic myths about The South and stereotypes about Blacks. The film was based on a work of fiction published in 1905 --The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr. (the movie’s earlier name), which enjoyed great popularity. Part of a historical romance trilogy, the novel is even more blatant than the movie in advancing White superiority and a need to oppose by state law the Reconstruction Amendments to The United States Constitution. The book is not that readily available, but the movie is. How might both be used to expand civil discourse in a constructive manner that would find acceptance in classrooms around the country?
