Role in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed through the congress and the senate, which Lyndon Johnson signs on july 2 of 1964. We will look at that. That is where we will go from there. I will finish on one last note, and that has to do with africanamericans. There is a major anniversary coming up in two weeks and that anniversary is not on most peoples radar but it will be the 150th anniversary of congresss passage of the 13th amendment which ended slavery. That will happen saturday, december 31st. January. Im sorry january 31st. That will be coming up. In four years, slavery is obliterated from the United States in lincolns first term. If you saw the daniel daylewis movie of four years ago, that is really what that movie is about. It will take another hundred years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any questions about anything . Well good. Well, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. [inaudible] know, and all the sources will tell you that. All the sources will mention that. She never left a diary or anything. We just know from the oral tradition, from the indians, and what captain john smith wrote so its right, we do not know for sure much. Thank you. You are welcome. [inaudible] february 19 with jim barber and ira aldrich. Hope to see you there. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] february marks the 100th anniversary of the release of the film the birth of a nation. Filmmaker dw griffith screen the film for president Woodrow Wilson at the white house. In about an hour, well show the film in its entirety, but first, author dick lehr on the films history. This week on q a, our guest is dick lehr, author of the birth of a nation how a legendary filmmaker and a crusading editor reignited americas civil war. Dick lehr, in a recent Washington Post review, the gentleman who wrote it, it starts off this way no redblooded american would favor censoring works of art. While reading dick lehrs book you may find yourself rooting for that with a clampdown of the 1915 film of the same name. Isnt that a great start . Why the birth of a nation and what is it . Its considered the first blockbuster film. The story i want to tell is not only the making and release of the film in 1915 but the controversy that it provoked. It is mainly a story about a civil rights leader from a boston by the name of William Monroe trotter, a radical newspaper editor as well who was at the forefront of extensive protest action against this bill film about civil war and reconstruction which is entirely racist in its portrayal of black america. If it were to come out today, what would happen . I hope it would not get censored but i hope there will be lots of protest drawing attention to the racism at the heart of the story and in griffiths hands. We are going to do a minute want to show the opening of this if people have not seen it in they will understand what it looks like. It is three hours. Lets watch. The first minute, what did we just see . We showed griffith, the first thing of this union in america of africans enslaved to the United States. It sets the note, the tone that freeing slaves was a huge mistake. When did you first watch and what was your reaction . My first viewing was in a film history course in college. It is the starting point. This movie in terms of filmmaking techniques was a breakthrough moment in american film. Usually in survey courses, this where you begin. A lot of attention is paid to griffiths techniques, use of the closeup and crosscutting to enhance the drama. Also the epic scale, it goes on for three hours. That was that. That is where i first got into it. Theres a huge disconnect between the technique and the story it tells of the civil war and reconstruction. February when was the date . February 17, 1915, a showing at the white house with Woodrow Wilson. Explain how it happened. The filmmakers, griffith being the director, but also the author of the book, the clansman, written by a man named tom dixon. Wilson and dixon went way back they knew each other. Dixon said lets get this movie screened in the white house. He pulled it off and thats what happened. In the east room of the white house, the first ever screening. Who was in the crowd . His family, some of his cabinet members, other highranking washington figures. As i read in your book, a former chief justice . A former chief justice and it went so well that night that very quickly put together a second screening for the Supreme Court of the United States and congressional leaders. Again, terrific sense of marketing and getting these powerbrokers behind the movie as being an awesome piece of filmmaking. You have to remember when you go back to 1915, the film industry, is in its infancy. No one had ever seen anything like what griffith had produced, take away the subject matter being the civil war and reconstruction. Just the effects of it all had people, audiences weeping during emotional scenes. Others applauding during battle scenes and whatnot. It really was kind of a star wars of its time. Where was Woodrow Wilson from originally . He was originally from the south, kentucky. Where was d. W. Griffith from . Louisville, kentucky. His father, Lieutenant Colonel roaring Jake Griffith fought for the confederacy. Where was tom dixon from . From the south as well. You had this unified front in terms of a Southern View of the war and its aftermath. Newspaper reporters diplomats, the turnout on such short notice had exceeded any reasonable expectation to be permitted to attend, journalist had to agree the film was off the record because it had not been shown public in the east. Those were the terms of both for the screening at the white house and the second screening i just mentioned. Griffith was not one to live by those terms because he sent telegrams after the white house screening to a favorite entertainer reporter of his at the l. A. Times. A woman named grace kingsley and just reported both the screening and how wonderful it had gone. It was grace kingsley, and one of her columns, wrote the news thered been an amazing screening in the white house. What was Woodrow Wilsons known attitudes at the time about africanamericans . Well, you know, i think he was very smart politically. The crusading newspaper editor and civil rights leader, was it make her to in the book, Monroe Trotter had supported wilson when he ran for president in 1912. Black leaders had gone in new jersey and come away with wilsons promise to be fair to all americans. Trotter was naive and that was general because it was under wilsons watch as president that the National Government went to jim crow. There is a backsliding. Segregation and the treasury and other federal agencies was unprecedented. And it drove trotter nuts. It is in the Public Domain and they can go to youtube and find opportunities to watch the whole thing. I will show excerpts through the hour. We will talk about after we start it. Some slaves shown in demeaning roles in the early part of this movie. What is the time period . Before civil war and this is what is known as part one of the movie. The notion here is to show that in demeaning roles, but they are a funloving bunch of slaves, a kind of harmony about it. And peace and wellbeing in a way. This is part of looking back to the precivil war years that is part of the socalled lost cause and nostalgia for a time that was not so bad really for everybody. Where was this location . In the fictional town of piedmont, South Carolina. One of the things you notice when you watch the movie is some blacks are actually black people and other are blackface. Why the mixture . I do not know exactly. The overwhelmingly majority of actors were white actors in blackface. Certainly any of the major characters who were black in the movie are white actors. You are talking about the review, the leaking of the story of the woman at the los angeles times, i would use a quote from back then. Now comes the protest of the darkies and interference against the picture. How often did you find the word darkie used back then . All of the time. It opened in l. A. In february and went to new york in march of 1915 and went to boston where there was an amazing titanic battle. And reviews everywhere, however, almost universally were just fawning over the movie. And then also in the same breath, critical of the black protests that were started to develop and snowball and climaxed in boston. Yeah, it was dismissive and hostile like the quote you just read. Compare that to later in the year when when the reviewer in the atlanta constitution, who after seeing the movie wrote a rave review saying, greece had its homer, we have our d. W. Griffith. How did you get to this as a book . I have to say i was aware of the film, earlier as i mentioned aware from college and film studies. It was trotter who grabbed my attention. I was about five years ago, an article i was reading in a made a reference to trotter, a newspaperman and civil rights leader. And i live in boston, i am a journalist, i teach there. I did not really know him. It embarrassed me in a way for all of the reasons i just mentioned. I started reading further and realized what a big deal he was in the early 1900s, a forgotten civil rights leader who in the early 1900 wouldve been mentioned in the same breath as booker t. Washington, web dubois. I was going, maybe a biography in this guy . He was advocating a new strategy in civil rights and challenging booker t. Washington. I learned there was a biography written 40 years ago that as long outofprint of print that was titled the guardian, the name of his weekly newspaper. I said, theres a place for a new biography. But then i got to 1915 and just the surface in some of these references to how he was at the forefront of this extended protest against the movie that i knew about. That was my aha moment. I said, that is the drama to capture what i think were so many big ideas about Civil Liberties and rights, film media revolution. Heres an excerpt. It is a civil war battle but before we get to that. The stoneman family and the cameron family. Set that up. Griffith, in order to tell such a big story, the civil war and its aftermath, he chooses to tell it through two families. The camerons from the fictional town of piedmont, South Carolina. And the stonemans from the north. They knew each other before the war, interlocking relationships, friendships between the sons and a number of children in each family. Their story is played out both from before, during and after the war. How much is fiction . All of that. Here is a civil war battle. Lets watch. It is supposed to be where . The man with a sword, that is the little colonel who is getting wounded and hurt in the charge against him and the bluecoats. Waving the flag. It is about bravery. You have the union on the right, confederates on the left. Hopefully, your viewers, in its time, amazing pieces of cutting in filmmaking. And then, now that is one of the stonemans and his realizing his friend from the south. A moment of crossing the line here. These guys are friends. Cameron from the south and stoneman from the north. And the red lane of death taking their place and the battle goes on into the night. It captures griffith and what people were blown away by. He was able to stage battle scenes like that. This is the aftermath of the war. And the color is changed . Its a technique for tint and mood. These were cuttingedge techniques. It impacted the mood of the film. Why did d. W. Griffith think people would sit still for a threehour plus movie . He was taking a chance in many ways. It was not that far removed from 1905 where the first nickelodeons, which grew explosively which featured in the short entertainments for a nickel. They went on for 10 minutes. In the intervening years, there was an apprenticeship for him, where he the earliest films was an apprenticeship for him, where he the earliest films were the onereelers. 1015 minutes long. He was directing them and roosevelt scenarios for them and whatnot. He was incredibly ambitious who wanted to elevate film to a higher art form. Some of these techniques, a famous cinematographer developed and others he heard about, but he put them to a new and more artistic use. It kind of culminated in 1914 when he was filming this. He was in search of a big bang moment, a big story in which to really spread his wings and blow audiences away. How much filmmaking was there back then . It was a growing industry and in its infancy learned that in these quick turnaround entertainment, little comedies were profitable and so, griffith was hugely successful making those for a Company Called biograph. But by 1913, he was at odds with the owners because they wanted him to stick with the recipe. You know, we are all making money here. He is saying, no, there is more here. We can do more with this medium. They had a falling out. He left. When did Monroe Trotter get wind of the movie and how well did he know Woodrow Wilson . That is two questions. Let me start with wilson. I love the fact theres connective tissue between wilson and griffith which we already mentioned in terms of the screening. A couple years before in the end of 1914 trotter had an encounter with wilson in the white house that i think he juxtaposed, it says everything about the dynamic here. Trotter supported wilson in 1912 for the presidency. By 1914, he and many black leaders in the country were appalled by the jim crow in the federal government. Trotter insisted on an audience with the president and pulled all of the strings to get into the white house which he did. He presented the president with a huge petition and confronted him in a very firm, trotterlike way about segregation in the federal offices about what a betrayal it was. Wilson it soured so fast, wilson could not believe a black man was talking to him in this way. Essentially, he told trotter to stop and nobody talks to me like that. He told the others in the delegation if they ever come back, they would have to find another person to represent them. He basically kicked trotter out of the white house. You have a quote for Woodrow Wilson. Yes, i love that letter that wilson wrote after this encounter that came up in front news. That to me is right out of the playbook that wilson had used in his encounters with people like trotter. Like in 1912 when they met able to persuade trotter to support him. Saying generic things. He lost it at that moment. I loved it because trotter, he was not impressed with power. He was speaking truth to power. Here is a guy who had gone to harvard. Trotter was in the class of 1895 at harvard. He was the first black phi beta kappa. He was not overwhelmed by the trappings of the oval office. He was not impolite. He was making his case. Wilson was unused to it. The one thing, it has nothing to do with whether the movie is good or bad. What i found well done was the lincoln assassination. Of all the times ive seen that in places and this back in 1915. It is all about the capabilities of d. W. Griffith. Did i read in your book that they had complete mockup of the ford theater . Thats where most of the film was filmed in hollywood which griffith had gone to and start working in 1910. It was a story that gets at the early days of hollywood. We have a minute and a half to show. It leads up to what will not see is the guard outside the box where Abraham Lincoln was sitting and John Wilkes Booth comes around and opens the door and shoots him. Lets watch and you can explain. That is John Wilkes Booth right there. When you look at the box on the left, the major and his wife and is that Mary Todd Lincoln . Yes. Yes thats the derringer . I go to filmmaking techniques here area the closeup, the cross cutting. This was revolutionary in a way. It used to be you put a camera down and had actors sort of performing in front of them. The stage and here comes the assassination. Shifting points of view. John wilkes boothe jumping onto the stage. Off he goes. Cutting between perspectives, closeups. The camera happens to be there and the narrative. It looks like ford theater does. Yeah, photographs. Back in 1915, the audience was spellbound viewing this. And the music, you can hear the music. It was really important to griffith. This was an original score that he had a composer create. You said in your book, in boston there was a 40piece orchestra. About 28piece and in some places 40piece. A 40piece orchestra in the theater . To create the magic of it. The ushers would be dressed in period pieces. The audience were given programs for the movie which would start in 20 mins or so. How many people acted in the movie . I do not have an accurate count. Griffith, who was again one of the groundbreaking in Public Relations as well and promotions, talked about having 25,000 extras in the civil war scene. That was wildly untrue. Hes a lot of tricks with the camera to make it seem like thousands of soldiers. How long did it take him to make the film . He started shooting on july 4, 1914 and he done by the end of the year. Did you plan your book because it was the 100th anniversary . I did. This centennial of the movie is next year. I expect people to Pay Attention in the film world and i wanted a story that gave a good notice to all of that accomplishment and put it in a larger context of its time. Not just in terms of civil rights, but to the history of censorship. The public is watching. How much did it cost . That is another thing that griffith exaggerated immensely. I think about 100,000 budget. He had that at 500,000. How much would it be today . I would need a calculator. How did he get the money . He partnered up and got his primary financing from that producer. As he went over budget and the late sum