Satanic Writes 0
A copy of The Clansman, written by a Baptist preacher often described as the “Billy Graham of his day” in terms of his popularity, resided on my parents’ bookshelf. I don’t know that they ever read it. Likely they had inherited it, but no doubt they knew of it. It was probably a fixture in many Southern white households of a certain day.
I was never tempted to read it, I can’t say why. My hand hovered over it many times, but I did not pick it up.
It’s a book that still influences today. It was the source for D. W. Griffith’s vile movie, Birth of a Nation*, a propaganda piece for Jim Crow created by scions of the Secesh. Many of today’s images of freed slaves and their descendants (think watermelons and fried chicken) can be traced to that book and movie.
Yesterday, I listened to the podcast of last Friday’s Another View, which featured a discussion of Birth of a Nation. You should listen too.
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*The “nation” in question was the terrorist organization called the Ku Klux Klan, which D. W. Griffith thought was a Good Thing. ‘Nuff said.
