The Birth of a Nation essays

The Birth of a Nation essays The Birth of a Nation: Does the Portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan In this controversial 1915 film compare to documented history of the organization? D.W. Griffith was raised in South Carolina by his father who was an ex-confederate soldier. Griffith was raised to believe that fathers views on the superiority white race and the strength of the Confederacy were the natural and correct beliefs. And, when his father joined the Ku Klux Klan, the young boy was introduced to a magnified degree of racism and white supremacy. However, he was blinded from the reality of the situation. When Griffith created the film, Birth of a Nation, he based it on a glorified version of the KKK and their attempt to preserve the peace of the Confederacy, but fails to show the horrors created by the organization during their crusade. In the film, Birth of a Nation, it is explained how when the blacks are given a right to vote, and an election for a senator takes place. A power-hungry mulatto man was elected. The Clan agreed that he had triggered the fermentation of their peaceful state. They believed the blacks were electing leaders who were destroying the Confederacy. In order to prevent the blacks from voting for the Radical Republican Candidates, the Klansmen lingered around the voting booths in atop their horses and in costume to intimidate the black voters. In reality, not only did the Klan use their presence to frighten the blacks from voting, they also used violence. In some cases, the Klan proved their seriousness by murdering important leaders of the black community and members of the Radical Republic Government. In the film, the Klans violent action was under-exaggerated in order to withhold the dignity of the Klan for those who did not believe such actions were justified. At another point of the film, the Mulatto Senator passed a bill that legalized the relationships between blacks and whites. After ...