Word: griffiths
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Harvard-Radcliffe Association of Afro-American Students (Afro) and the Adams House Film Society have tentatively agreed to reschedule D.W. Griffith's film "Birth of a Nation" for November 15 and 16, preceded by a presentation by a professor of black studies and followed by a political discussion of the movie...
...Birth of a Nation," directed by pioneer film-maker D.W. Griffith and released in 1915, presents a militantly anti-black view of the South after the Civil War. But as the first movie to use moving cameras and night filming, among other innovations, it is generally considered a motion picture landmark...
WHILE PRESERVATION of First Amendment rights may allow racial pseudo-scientists--both dead and alive--to briefly gain an audience, unwavering protection of free speech has served the cause of racial justice far more than hurt it. Both the demonstrators and D.W. Griffith could have had their say Saturday night, and there is no doubt which side would have won the audience...
SATURDAY NIGHT'S protesters did not silence D.W. Griffith, they did not prevent past and future showings of his films, they did not suppress racist ideas or ideas with which they disagreed. On the contrary, they said they'd welcome showings of Griffith's film in different, more avowedly controversial contexts, and on Monday afternoon they agreed to just such a showing. Even if the protesters' desire were to suppress Griffith's movie or ideas, they couldn't. It's silly to identify their action with official strong-arm tactics, or with other potentially dangerous attempts at dictatorial rule, because...
That racist ideas do prevail among the orthodox--though they differ in important ways from those of Griffith's time--lies at the heart of any accurate criticism of Saturday night's action. The action was wrong not because it raised the issue of racism too forcefully, but because it didn't raise it forcefully enough--the demonstrators failed to present a meaningful discussion of racism at Harvard after they stopped the movie...