It captured the social and cultural tensions in the era.
The film started with the civil war and ended with the Ku Klux Klan saving the south during the Reconstruction Era. Because KKK is anti-immigration and anti-black, they used the film as a recruiting technique to spread those beliefs. This ended up working as the number of members began to flourish. D.W Griffith used KKK has heroes in his film, and because films were one of the most well-known forms of entertainment in the 1900s, many people paid to watch it. The movie reflects the 1900s because it recounts the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction through the eyes and experiences of Southern whites who strongly opposed the political and social progress made by newly freed African Americans after the Civil War. For example, President Woodrow Wilson endorsed “Birth of a Nation” and it became the first film screened in the White House. I think that because of this, many whites in America during the 1900s began to mistreat African Americans. They were being swayed into using …show more content…
The first group is the Majorities. Majorities are the social group that have the most power and control in society. The other group is the minorities, who lack power and control in society. During the time in which the film was made, people of colour were the ones who faced discrimination and segregation. In other words, they were the outsiders in “society’s” eyes. This is definitely seen throughout the film as African Americans were mistreated and misrepresented. According to a newspaper article “Life in the "Promised Land": African-American Migrants