Media has the power to inspire people to take action whether the information is true or false. In this section we will review the use of media toward desired ends and the consequences of those calls to action. The definition of propaganda according to MerriamWebsterDictionary.com is, the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.1
The Michigan University Research Guides describes the essential differences between propaganda and scholarship or objective news as follows: “A step beyond bias, propaganda actively seeks to influence through the use of deception. Scholarship (and objective news reporting) is created with virtuous ideals for truth. There is a difference between presenting a point of view and deliberately using psychological techniques to shape opinion.”2 Propagandists often combine true information with falsehoods in a way that it’s difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. In the first lesson we will look very closely at one of the most ingenious uses of propaganda to rewrite history in the minds of its viewers. We will examine the real world consequences and the moral ramifications of the work as a group.
Birth of a Nation: A propaganda-containing movie that was made so well as to change the course of American history.
Starting in 1865 and ending in approximately 1877, the reconstruction was a period of time in which the federal government carried out programs to reintegrate the seceded states back into the Union. In 1868, the 14th amendment to the Constitution laid out the ground rules for creating a unified society within which every person born in America is a citizen. It stated, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The Klan was organized in 1866. It used intimidation, violence, and murder as tactics to keep blacks from voting and to prevent whites from voting for members of the Republican Party. Ultimately, the federal government outlawed the Ku Klux Klan. In 1871, the Ku Klux Klan Act was signed by Grant. It allowed for prosecution of Klan members for their violent acts. Grant sent troops and marshals in to the south to round up Klansmen. The Klan was nearly destroyed.
By 1873, the US was in an economic downturn and people lost interest in creating a safe and equitable South and 1874, the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives. The efforts toward reconstruction came to a halt.
In 1875, David Wark (DW) Griffith was born to a Confederate Soldier and to a mother who had made uniforms for the Ku Klux Klan. He was one of many Southerners who accepted the propaganda of the Dunning school of thought, which held that Reconstruction enforced black supremacy and that black leadership was inherently corrupt. DW Griffith ultimately became revered as the most ingenious American filmmakers of all time. To this day, aspiring filmmakers in college study excerpts of his films. His beautifully and skillfully crafted propaganda movie reshaped Americans opinions on reconstruction and led the way for the Klan to be reborn in the same year as its release.
Thomas P. Doherty, professor of American Studies, describes the persuasive power of Birth of a Nation even for viewers who seem unlikely to feel its power: “…the power of Griffith’s art can still transport viewers to places they do not want to be. An African American colleague who regularly teaches the film told me about a black student who came up to him after a screening to marvel: ‘Wow, that film really works. At the end, I was rooting for the Klan.’”3
The movie mixes both historical events and distortions of history to create narrative that under reconstruction the blacks almost took over and that they used their power to cheat, steal and rape white women. Blacks are portrayed as subhuman creatures who if left un-oppressed would destroy American society due to their ignorance, greed, and lust. The heroes of the story are the Klan and in the movie they use extreme violence to save the South from horrors of Black Supremacy. The movie ignited the deeply rooted fears of many and many heard the call to action. Within the decade after the movie the Klan transformed itself from being a defunct organization to having around three million members.4 Members of the organization became emboldened and they marched publicly without reprisal. The movie was screened at the White House. Shortly thereafter, the US government under Woodrow Wilson, unjustly demoted or froze the salary of many black workers and purged itself of blacks in leadership positions under the policy of “federal segregation.”5
The movie also led to widespread acceptance of violence against Black citizens. “Scholars reported a rise in lynchings by white vigilantes due to the depiction of African American men as rapists.”6 At the time of reconstruction and during slavery the rape of black women was far more common than the reverse.7
The goal in presenting the story of Birth of a Nation is to show the power of negative propaganda. This nation has never known true equal treatment of its black citizens. In 1915, DW Griffith preyed upon historical amnesia and painted a picture of black equality that was horrifying. It created such a fear of black equality that many whites felt the need to increase the inequality that existed.
George Lucas wrote these profound words to be spoken by the character Yoda in The Phantom Menace: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”8 The ultimate effect of this movie was to drum up enough fear so as to gain the support of white Americans for reversing the hard earned gains of black people at the beginning of the 20th century. Many of the disparities evident today in education, income, housing, and life expectancy are a result of policies written during this era. This portion of the unit will help my students to call out such destructive propaganda so as to prevent suffering.
Please see the Classroom Activities section for the Lesson plan for part 1.
