Menu
Idea

The Birth of a Nation (film)

Back out to film
55
View on Map
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Scene from Birth of a Nation.

“A Public Menace”

How the fight to ban "The Birth of a Nation" shaped the nascent civil rights movement.
by Dorian Lynskey via Slate on March 31, 2015
Movie poster of The Birth of a Nation depicting a Ku Klux Klan member as a knight.

How the Work of Thomas Dixon Shaped White America’s Racist Fantasies

On the literary and cinematic legacy of white supremacy in the United States.
by Joel Edward Goza via Literary Hub on September 23, 2024

Mocking the Klan

Was cartoonist Billy Ireland’s pen really mightier than the burning crosses of the KKK?
by Eliya Smith via The Baffler on August 11, 2021
Still from "Apocolypse Now"

How a Wagner Opera Defined the Sound of Hollywood Blockbusters

“Ride of the Valkyries” has been featured in hundreds of films, including 'The Birth of a Nation,' 'Jarhead,' and most famously, Apocalypse Now.'
by Alex Ross via The New Yorker on September 15, 2020
Robert Smalls

What Woodrow Wilson Did to Robert Smalls

We all know, in the abstract, that Wilson was a white supremacist. But here’s how he wielded his racism against one accomplished Black American.
by Aderson François via The New Republic on July 3, 2020
partner

How Oscar Micheaux Challenged the Racism of Early Hollywood

The black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux was one of the first to make films for a black audience, a rebuke to racist movies like "The Birth of a Nation."
by Anna Siomopoulos, Kristin Hunt, Richard Grupenhoff via JSTOR Daily on October 3, 2019
Protester at an "America First" rally.

The Great-Granddaddy of White Nationalism

Thomas Dixon’s racist discourse lurks in American politics and society even today.
by Diane Roberts via Southern Cultures on September 18, 2019
A scene from Birth of a Nation.

Births of a Nation

Cedric Robinson has a great deal to teach us about Trumpism and the significance of resistance in determining the future.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via Boston Review on March 6, 2017
KKK march in Washington in 1925.

When Bigotry Paraded Through the Streets

A century ago, millions of Americans banded together to reform the KKK, the rest turned a blind eye.
by Joshua D. Rothman via The Atlantic on December 4, 2016

How the Klan Got Its Hood

Members of the Ku Klux Klan did not wear their distinctive white uniform until Hollywood—and a mail-order catalog—intervened.
by Alison Kinney via The New Republic on January 8, 2016
Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson Was Extremely Racist — Even By the Standards of His Time

He called black people "an ignorant and inferior race," and it gets worse.
by Dylan Matthews via Vox on November 20, 2015
A large KKK Rally with burning crosses in the background.

100 Years Ago, the KKK Planted Bombs at a US University – Part of Their Crusade Against Catholics

Most of the Klan’s victims were African American, but many other groups have been targeted during the hate group’s century and a half of history.
by William Trollinger via The Conversation on December 15, 2023
Thaddeus Stevens

Why America Is Just Now Learning to Love Thaddeus Stevens, the 'Best-Hated Man' in U.S. History

The Pennsylvanian was one of America’s greatest heroes. Why hasn’t he gotten his due?
by Tracy Schorn via Smithsonian on November 30, 2023
Map showing density of Southern-born whites living outside the south in 1900.

The Confederate Diaspora

A summary of how white migration out of the postbellum South entrenched Confederate culture across the U.S. during postwar reconciliation.
by Samuel Bazzi, Andreas Ferrara, Martin Fiszbein, Thomas Pearson, Patrick A. Testa via National Bureau Of Economic Research on June 21, 2023
Sign for the Community of Faith church in Houston, lit up at night near dark railroad tracks.

The Racist Roots of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sex Scandal “Apocalypse”

The Southern Baptist Convention is tearing itself apart over its leaders’ long-running cover-up of abusers in its ranks. But there’s a deeper reckoning below.
by Audrey Clare Farley via The New Republic on May 30, 2022
Four members of House committee on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Riot, sitting in a hearing.
partner

What History Says About The Jan. 6 Committee Investigation

The importance of an unambiguous report that cannot be weaponized by Trump supporters.
by Stephen A. West via Made by History on March 13, 2022
Dual circular images of fire, representing seeing fire through the eye holes of a klan hood

Sins of the Fathers

In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball’s white supremacist great-great-grandfather becomes a case study in the enduring legacy of slavery.
by Colin Grant via New York Review of Books on October 28, 2021
Members of the Harvard branch of the KKK pose for 1924 graduation photo at the foot of John Harvard Statue

The Crimson Klan

The KKK was clearly present at Harvard. But the university rarely mentions the 20th century in its attempts to reckon with its past.
by Simon J. Levien via The Harvard Crimson on March 29, 2021
Thaddeus Stevens

The Radicalism of Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens understood far better than most that fully uprooting slavery meant overthrowing the South’s economic system and challenging property rights.
by Matthew E. Stanley via Jacobin on March 1, 2021

The Return of American Fascism

How a legacy of violent nationalism haunts the republic in the age of Trump.
by Sarah Churchwell via New Statesman on September 2, 2020
Eugene Debs in a suit

Eugene Debs Believed in Socialism Because He Believed in Democracy

Eugene Debs’s unswerving commitment to democracy and internationalism was born out of his revulsion at the tyranny of industrial capitalism.
by Shawn Gude via Jacobin on September 2, 2020

The Next Lost Cause?

The South’s mythology glamorized a noble defeat. Trump backers may do the same.
by Caroline E. Janney via Washington Post on July 31, 2020

America's Black Soldiers

The long history behind the Army's Jim Crow forts.
by Elizabeth D. Samet via The American Scholar on July 11, 2020
Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.

The Creator of Mount Rushmore’s Forgotten Ties to White Supremacy

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was deeply involved with the Ku Klux Klan while designing the Confederate memorial at Stone Mountain, Ga.
by Diane Bernard via Retropolis on July 2, 2020
Collage of military uniforms and a Confederate general over a photo of troops training on a military base.

The Lost Cause’s Long Legacy

Why does the U.S. Army name its bases after generals it defeated?
by Michael Paradis via The Atlantic on June 26, 2020

In the Time of Monsters

Watchmen is a sophisticated inquiry into the ethical implications of its own form—the flash and bang, the prurience and violence of comic books.
by Namwali Serpell via New York Review of Books on March 19, 2020

The Roots of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance in the US

Robin D.G. Kelley on the predecessors to Antifa.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via Literary Hub on March 6, 2020

How Black Lives Matter Is Changing What Students Learn During Black History Month

“Whenever there’s a tragedy in black America, there’s always been an uptick of black history courses."
by Olivia B. Waxman via Made By History on January 31, 2020

‘1917’ and the Trouble With War Movies

"Every film about war ends up being pro-war," Francois Truffaut once said.
by Adam Nayman via The Ringer on January 29, 2020
Edmund G. Ross.

Mike Pence’s Impeachment Hero Is a Corrupt 19th Century Politician

An historian debunks the vice president’s op-ed.
by Brenda Wineapple, Mark Joseph Stern via Slate on January 17, 2020
View More
30 of
55

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History