RETHINKING GRIFFITH AND RACISM. (2nd October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stokes, Melvyn
• Is Part Of: Journal of the gilded age and progressive era. Volume 14:Number 4(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 604
• Page End: 607
• Publication Date: 2015-10-02
• Subjects: United States -- History -- 1865-1921 -- Periodicals; 973
• DOI: 10.1017/S1537781415000419
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1537-7814

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="text-abstract"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Most years I teach a course called "American History through Hollywood Film." One of the movies I use for teaching is <italic>The Birth of a Nation</italic>. This year, in the exam at the end of the course, I asked my students to comment on a particular clip from the film: the scene of the fight in the saloon in which the muscular white blacksmith Jeff (Wallace Reid) battles a group of African Americans and beats them all in a brawl before he is shot in the back. What I expected from the students were some comments on the linkage between alcohol and race, together with a discussion of the wider historical resonances of the sequence, particularly those associated with black boxer Jack Johnson and the attempts to find a "great white hope" able to seize his crown as, since 1908, heavyweight champion of the world. What I got were a number of further suggestions relating to class as well as race that made me want to rethink, at least to some extent, the analysis of this sequence I gave in my 2007 book.</p> </abstract>