Today In Black History

Facts You Should Know!

Issue #428 Black History Monday, December 4, 2023

Welcome to this Today in Black History post. Black History IS American History, no matter how hard some people try to erase our history and contributions.

Most of this information is available at yenoba.com, blackfacts.com, and onthisday.com.

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Today’s Black WOW!

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

The very successful and even more controversial silent movie, The Birth of a Nation, was also a technical and cultural landmark in film history. It was adapted from a 1905 book and play by Thomas Dixon, Jr., titled The Clansman, which was also the original name of the movie.

It was the first non-serial American 12-reel film ever made. Its plot chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship between two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over several years—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons (Wikipedia).

It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by racist President Woodrow Wilson, his family, and members of his cabinet.

The film has been denounced for its racist depiction of African Americans. The film portrays its black characters (many of whom are played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women. The Black men were shown with their feet up on their desks eating watermelon.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is portrayed as a heroic force, necessary to preserve American values, protect white women, and maintain white supremacy.

The film has been acknowledged as an inspiration for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, which took place only a few months after its release.

The NAACP and other civil rights organizations attempted to ban the movie, but that just made it more popular with white viewers.

Today's Black History

- In 1833, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. 

- In 1895, South Carolina adopted a new constitution designed to eliminate Black voters with the so-called “understanding clause” that allowed illiterate white voters to register if they satisfied the white registrars that they understood specific parts of the state constitution. Ironically, tens of thousands of poor white farmers were still disenfranchised because they could not afford the poll tax, which was put in place to disenfranchise poor Black farmers.

- In 1906, Alpha Phi Alpha was founded at Cornell University as the first Black Greek Letter (BGL) fraternity.

- In 1909, the Black newspaper Amsterdam News was founded by James Henry Anderson.

- In 1915, the Great Migration began, during which more than two million Southern Blacks moved to Northern industrial centers to avoid the overt racism and frequent lynchings in the Southern states.

- In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan received a charter from the Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court. The organization had an estimated four million members at the height of its influence.

Let’s discuss these facts in our community on Substack Notes.