The Birth of a Nation is a controversy tale about civil war and racism. The film focus in two families, from South and North. And even though fighting for opposite sides the friendship continue. In the movie Griffith show the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes who came in the rescue of the white people who were being terrified by the black troops.
Within our Gates after being abandoned by her fiancé, Sylvia goes back to Piney Woods to help to run a school for Negroes. When she finds out that the school is facing serious financial problems and is about to close for good, Sylvia decides to travel and try to raise enough money to keep the school open.
We can see many differences in the ways Micheaux and Griffith deal with racism in their films. The one thing that really got my attention in Micheaux's movie was that he portrays the Negroes as dedicated. Sylvia travels to raise money so they can keep the school open, so the kids from her race can have a chance of education. In the other hand, Griffith portrays black people as rowdy. In The Birth of a Nation Griffith shows white people as poor, helpless souls being attacked by the villain and cruel Negroes. The Ku Klux Klan is in reality a group of valiant heroes who ride to the rescue of the white people who have being hiding in fear of the evil Negroes.
Talking about how The Birth of a Nation influenced racial attitudes and behavior in the United States, the movie was a sensation and "...was also the subject of protest by civil-rights organizations and critiques by clergymen and editorialists, and for good reason: “Birth of a Nation” proved horrifically effective at sparking violence against blacks in many cities," wrote Richard Brody, on The New Yorker.
Even though the movie generated so much commotion it's important to understand that Griffith is not the only one to blame. He made a controversial movie, yes! But it was for the people to evaluate and separate reality from fiction. You don't decide to fake your own murder after watching Gone Girl, or fall in love with your phone after watching Her.
"They saw only what Griffith wanted to say but not what the movie showed, and, upon seeing what Griffith showed, were ready to take up arms in anger. Ambient and accepted racism left viewers ignorant of the facts and prone to accept Griffith’s racist version as authentic—and denied other filmmakers the chance to appropriate and even to advance Griffith’s methods and make movies offering historically faithful accounts of the same periods and events." Richard Brody, The New Yorker.
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) tried, without much success, to get The Birth of a Nation censured. The NAACP tried protest campaign and boycotts. When they realized that they wouldn't get the film censured they decided it was time to try something else:
" An April 17, 1915, letter from NAACP national secretary Mary Childs Nerney describes the NAACP’s efforts, largely in vain, to get local film censors to remove particularly racist scenes from The Birth of a Nation. The NAACP’s ongoing national campaign to censor the film had decidedly mixed results. Despite successes in Boston and Chicago in getting sympathetic officials placed on newly formed film censorship boards, by year’s end distributors could show The Birth of a Nation almost anywhere in the country (the exceptions included Kansas), though with several minor cuts in the film’s release print." - The Birth of a Nation and Black Protest, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.
References:
Brody, Richard. The Worst Thing About “Birth of a Nation” Is How Good It Is.
Griffith, D.W. The Birth of a Nation. 1915
Micheaux, Oscar. Within our Gates. 1920.
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