The Birth of a Nation

The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 silent drama movie. It was directed by D. W. Griffith. It was based on the book "The Clansman" by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It stars Lillian Gish. 
The movie is about two families during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. The Northern Stoneman family is pro-Union. The Southern Cameron family is pro-Confederacy. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized. It is a white supremacist and antisemitic film.
The movie was a great success. It was very controversial though. It showed African-American men (played by white actors in blackface) as stupid and sexually aggressive towards white women. It also showed the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force. There were protests. The movie was banned in several cities. The outcry of racism was great. Screenings were often followed by riots and attacks.
The movie is also credited in part with the formation of the "second era" Ku Klux Klan the same year. "The Birth of a Nation" was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK. In 1915, it was the first movie to be shown at the White House, by Democrat Woodrow Wilson.