The Red Record and The Birth of a Nation

Catalog description

This course addresses the power of mass media and the tactics used by early black journalists to confront and subvert racist propaganda. Featured in this course are Ida B. Wells and her efforts in the late 19th and early 20th century to identify and call out justification for the lynching of Black people, especially Black men. We look at Wells' efforts, and what informed them, in juxtaposition with the film Birth of a Nation by director D. W. Griffith. The goal is for students to understand the enduring significance of the film as a piece of propaganda, and the foundation for the manner in which Hollywood situates and engages with the Black character.