On January 21 a group of African Americans presented a petition to the Commercial Club that the movie the Birth of a Nation not be shown in the Bloomington theaters. The Commercial Club passed the question on to the city council. They believed that the movie had caused caused prejudicial feelings against African Americans.
Reviews of the movie at the time stated that the movie depicts the great events of the war, as well of those of the re-construction up until "the southern people were permitted to govern their own affairs in their own way." It went on to state that the "wild adventures and acheivements of the Ku Klux Klan dominate the final scene, which yield a happy ending of a double romance between southern and northern sweethearts." The movie showed again in April because so many people were unable to attend in January.
In December the movie was brought to Bloomington yet again -- but this time there was an additional exhibit of photos from the Hampton Institute that depicted the "progress of the Negroes" since the end of slavery. My research has revealed a collection of photographs requested by the Hampton Institute by Frances Benjamin Johnston. Those photographs became part of the Negro exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
No further mention of the opinions of the African American population about "Birth of a Nation" was made in the Pantagraph. Another article indicated that the "old soldiers" of the GAR were opposed the movie as well, because of the bad light cast upon the Union uniform. Specifically, they objected to a Negro soldier in Union uniform chasing a white woman to assault her. They also objected to the depiction of General Grant and other officers in the garb and pose of bandits.
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