As far as historical accuracy goes, "The Birth of a Nation" earns a failing grade. The story it tells about the Civil War and the origin of the Ku Klux Klan is so warped a savvy high school student today might suspect it was produced recently by The Onion, as an astonishingly bad joke.
While the movie’s history is woefully twisted, since its release in 1915 "The Birth of a Nation," directed by D.W. Griffith, has evolved into an important historical document itself. It was America‘s first widely distributed feature length motion picture. Sadly, in its initial release many viewers swallowed its glorification of the KKK as genuine history. Now it stands as powerful evidence of how utterly determined some people were at that time to avert their eyes from the truth.
"Historical artifacts — and ‘Birth of a Nation’ is most definitely an artifact — should be presented in context, especially when shown to children," said Paul Levengood, Virginia Historical Society’s president. "Without some understanding of the times in which that artifact was created, it loses much of its meaning, and much of its power to educate."
In its original release "The Birth of a Nation" was more than just entertainment; it was poisonous propaganda. It helped make the Jim Crow Era more possible. It spread ideas that paved the way for Virginia’s leaders 50 years ago to offer up Massive Resistance as proper public policy.
Levengood added, "‘Birth of a Nation’ needs to be presented for what it was: a movie made by a man with a political agenda at a time that was perhaps the low point of race relations in the United States."
In spite of those pretty good reasons to use "The Birth of a Nation" as a teaching tool, Richmond’s City Council apparently doesn’t want today’s students to even see the film. By a seven-to-one margin, earlier this month, it passed a resolution to discourage the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar from screening the silent movie.
At this writing, it is unclear if City Council intends to establish a policy of regularly condemning movies that offend its members.
In 2011, with local museums presenting new exhibitions recognizing the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, much in Richmond has changed since the 100th anniversary. Still, with modern scholarly examinations of the Civil War — or the War Between the States, if you insist — being discussed around town, it’s surely going to be a bumpy ride this year for Richmonders who get nervous when it comes to talking about racial matters.
After all, for today’s history student to understand how we got to this point in time they need to know that their grandparents and great-grandparents were routinely taught a version of history that was sometimes closer to "The Birth of a Nation" than it was to the untidy truth.
In 1961 Virginia’s history books had been cooked to teach seventh graders that slavery was not the main cause for the war. They were taught that most slave masters were kindly and parental, while slaves were mostly happy with their easy lives and took little interest in matters political.
Now, while Virginia’s textbooks might have bogus facts poured into them, generally speaking, the inaccuracies don’t serve an agenda to willfully distort chapters of history. And it seems our local museums are relishing the opportunity to demonstrate how devoted they are to telling all sides of the story of the Civil War. Fresh looks at the past are a good part of what we will have the chance to see this year.
Accordingly, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is featuring "Civil War Drawings from the Becker Collection," which exhibits eyewitness sketches of artist-reporters embedded with the Union troops.
In 1961 such art exhibitions were likely to have portrayed the war only through the eyes of Confederate soldiers.
VMFA’s Chief Curator, Dr. Sylvia Yount, said: "As a fine-arts museum, VMFA has chosen to focus on art of the period that sheds new light on and encourages fresh interpretations of the dramatic events that divided and defined our nation."
At the VHS a major exhibition called, "An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia" opens on Feb. 4.
From the VHS website:
An American Turning Point is not a top-down study of battles and generals. Instead, the exhibition engages visitors in the experiences of a representative group of individuals and situations to promote an understanding of the wartime experiences of Virginians, and those who served in Virginia, during the war. The stories of the men, women, and children who struggled to survive Virginia's Civil War can be are found in the fabric of every uniform, the blade of every sword, the handle of every tool, the imagery of every drawing, the words of every letter, and the notes of every song.
Throughout the year there will plenty of other shows in town pertaining to Civil War history, which will give seventh graders today an advantage over their counterparts 50 years ago. And, hopefully, from here on City Council will not discourage any more exhibitions meant to present all sides, even the most deliberate distortions, of a complicated but fascinating time in history.
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