What is The Birth of a Nation?
Q: What is The Birth of a Nation?
A: The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 silent drama movie directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr., starring Lillian Gish.
Q: What is the movie about?
A: The movie is about two families during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era - the Northern Stoneman family who are pro-Union, and the Southern Cameron family who are pro-Confederacy. It also dramatizes the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.
Q: Why was it controversial?
A: The movie was very controversial because it showed African-American men (played by white actors in blackface) as stupid and sexually aggressive towards white women, and portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic forces.
Q: How did people respond to it?
A: People responded to it with protests, bans in several cities, outcries of racism, screenings followed by riots and attacks, and even credited in part with formation of "second era" Ku Klux Klan that same year.
Q: Where was it first shown?
A: In 1915, The Birth of a Nation was first shown at the White House.
Q: Was it successful?
A: Yes, despite its controversy, The Birth of a Nation was a great success when released in 1915.
