Birth of a Nation and O Brother Where Art Thou:
A Comparative Look at Two Films
and Their Portrayal of the KKK
By: James Capps
Ancient History in Cinema
History 500CY
Falls and Rydberg-Cox
November 22, 2005
After the Civil War ended, America was still in a state of upheaval, especially in
the South. The period immediately following the war until 1877 is known as
Reconstruction(rebuilding the South). Whites in the South were angered by the newfound
freedoms of the former slaves. They were able to get wage earning jobs, though these
jobs were hard work with low pay. The plantation owners had lost their labor supply, so
many of them fell into debt or lost their land (D’Souza, 171). The most traumatic loss for
Whites was to have Blacks in political power. Many served as senators or other state and
federal officials. The North also showed hostility to Blacks after the war. They prevented
them from joining labor unions and competing with Whites for jobs. The unions they
were allowed to join, however, were segregated. In the South, to keep Blacks under some
sort of control, Southern activists established the Black Codes, laws that restricted blacks
from getting certain jobs or required them to get licenses for other jobs(D’Souza, 172).
This was the climate under which the Klan first surfaced. Throughout history it has had
various surges in popularity followed by intense criticisms. This paper will seek to
compare and contrast the portrayal of Klan members in the films Birth of a Nation by
D.W. Griffith and O Brother Where Art Thou by the Coen brothers, while also comparing
the perceptions of the Klan in two time periods in which they were produced, 1915 and
2000.
The Ku Klux Klan began as a secret society for Southern soldiers in Pulaski,
Tennessee in early 1866 that were tired of having nothing to fight. The name was a play
on Greek letters based on the rising popularity of Southern colleges (Hurst, 278). Initially
they did not intend to have the sheets that we know a synonymous with the Klan today.
To create a buzz in the community they donned them to keep their secrecy, and also to
strike fear into people. The reaction they received from people, especially from Blacks
caused the sheets to become part of their identity (Hurst, 278). By late 1866, the Klan had
spread outside Pulaski to surrounding counties and their influence was consistently
growing.
The early Klan shifted their focus from just having meetings and scaring people in
rides at night to having a real and directed purpose. They were angry over the New
South’s policies and two groups in particular, neither of them was black. The first were
Northern “carpetbaggers,” who the Klan saw as destroying the Southern way of life. The
second group was Southern Republicans who were seen as traitors to the Old South and
its ways. Originally the Klan paid little attention to Blacks, only realizing after going out
on late night rides in their sheets, the panic they could cause people to experience. Then,
when Blacks started gaining more political power, in this time period, the Klan’s focus
shifted more to them. The preferred methods for killing people and causing more fear in
people both Black and White was lynching. Lynching had already been an established
practice going back to the Revolutionary War (D’Souza, 173). The Klan adopted
lynching as a form of vigilante justice. Until the last decade of the nineteenth century,
lynching had shown no racial preferences, in fact the majority of those lynched up until
that time were White (D’Souza, 173). However, the Klan found the Black population to
be an ever increasingly easy target and more susceptible to their attacks. In 1873, just
seven years after the Klan’s inception the first wave of the Klan was all over. They were
accused of abuses of the law and Congress began a series of investigations that brought
them down (D’Souza, 173). Similar organizations came about to try and keep the
movement going but it was dead for another thirty years.
In the early twentieth century, two novels on the Reconstruction era of the South
were written that served as the inspiration for the revival of the Klan in 1915. The
Reverend Thomas Dixon wrote both these anti-black novels. The first novel, written in
1902, was called The Leopard’s Spots: A Romance of the White Man’s Burden. The
second novel, written in 1905, was called The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku
Klux Klan and it was an instant success. The majority of copies were sold in the South,
but it was met with nationwide acclaim. This book sold more than one hundred thousand
copies in only a few months (D’Souza, 173). Both of these books awakened a nostalgia
and desire for the old ways that the Klan was associated with. Dixon adapted The
Clansman and it was performed as a play. A writer in Griffith’s production company
suggested that he consider making Dixon’s novel into a feature film (Williams, 61).
Griffith had read the novel and agreed that it would make a good film. He researched for
the film by dissecting the book and studying the history of the period of Reconstruction.
He portrayed the novel on film as accurately as he possibly could. The film that Griffith
produced was the first one of its kind in its enormous scale and pioneering techniques of
filmmaking. Griffith portrayed the Blacks in his movie as crazed and uncivilized. Women
are portrayed as the victims of these crazed Black men. The climax of the movie comes
in the restoration of justice and civility by the Klan as they ride into town valiantly.
Birth of a Nation opened in the spring of 1915 to critical acclaim as a landmark
achievement in production and material. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court praised
the film; he had been a member of the original Klan (D’Souza, 174). President Woodrow
Wilson, who is now known to be a racist, received a private screening of the film. He
believed in an ideology called “Americanism,” that there should be nothing in America
but pure Americans. He was also anti-hyphen in that if someone was Irish-American they
could not be pure and would only serve as a detriment to us against our enemies. This
ideology was also held for Blacks, as they were African-American. He also praised the
film saying that, “Its like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all
so terribly true”(Loewen, 28). The film was also met with many criticisms based on its
material, especially in the North.
Yet, the film was well received for the most part, and it is evident that it reflected
the attitudes of many people during this period. The release of the film inspired another
reverend, Reverend William Simmons to lead a revival of the Klan. On Thanksgiving
night in 1915 on the top of Stone Mountain in Georgia, he had the first meeting of the
new Klan. He took out advertisements in newspapers to promote his revival. For a fee of
ten dollars, one could become a member. Chapters in areas all over the country began to
spring up, though the Klan had originally been a more rural group.
The new Klan was made up of planters and industrialists, and was established to
fight the changes that were occurring in American culture. The Klan’s claim was that
they were trying to save America from sinking any further into immorality. Many new
opportunities were opening up for Blacks in the workforce and in society. They were able
to get many jobs they had previously been unable to get and had gained more housing
opportunities. America was trying to desperately stay out of World War I in its hold on
an isolationist ideology. The technology was also changing along with the culture. Henry
Ford and his automobiles were produced at an alarming rate due to the assembly line. The
car became a beacon for an attack on indecency. Teenagers became mobile and could
now travel somewhere to have a date, rather than staying at home. This also led to
teenagers having a greater chance for promiscuity. Women were also becoming more
independent. This was the era of the flappers and women’s suffrage movements. These
women’s liberation movements frightened many that wanted to keep women in the home
as wives and mothers. The communist revolution in Russia also instilled a sense of fear
and paranoia into the American people. The Klan promised to fight all these things and
reinstall America’s traditional values. The targets for the Klan besides Black Americans
were Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. Whites who were poor or otherwise unable to
compete could still have a sense of power over Blacks. Many used the anthem that at
least they’ll, “Never be Black” (D’Souza, 175). Historian Richard Wright believes that
the new Klan served as a, “Religion of the materially disinterested and culturally
disinherited” (D’Souza, 175).
The Klan was influential at all levels in culture and society. There was a chapter
at Harvard University. They also had clout in the political arena. They grew to a
membership of somewhere between two and five million by 1925. They had members in
all levels of state and federal offices such as: governors, mayors, sheriffs, and judges. The
Klan ran the state of Indiana in this time period, and they also held major political
influence in sixteen other states. Their influence went all the way to the White House of
two presidencies. The first was Woodrow Wilson who was already established as a racist
earlier in this paper. The second was Warren G. Harding, who was inducted as a member
in the Green Room of the White House!
The decline of the second wave of the Klan occurred in two ways; one was the
efforts of the NAACP and the other was their own undoing. In 1905, the NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) wanted to revive the
abolitionist movement (D’Souza, 189). The group was also a haven for activist Blacks
like W.E.B. DuBois. In 1905 they met at Niagara to create their platform of ideas. They
wanted to end lynching, have equal education, and abolish racial discrimination and
segregation. (D’Souza, 190). As the decade of the 1920’s wound down the Klan started
losing its influence and saw a sharp decline of membership, from the millions they once
had to only a few thousand. Klan leaders started to argue amongst each other over
authority for who should be in control of the advancement of the revival. Their downfall
also came in the selection of which groups they directed their hate towards. They began
with Blacks and Catholics, but then they spread their focus to include drunks, adulterers,
unions, Jews, and communists (D’Souza, 190). The spread of their focus came with their
desire to protect the decency of America, especially in attacking drunks and adulterers.
However, many Americans increasingly became scared that they would be the next
targets. Politicians and newspapers began speaking out and reporting of the Klan’s abuses
and violence. It soon became a liability for a candidate to associate with the Klan in any
way. By the 1930’s the number of lynching fell to ten (D’Souza, 191).
The source for the Coen brothers’ film O Brother Where Art Thou, which is set in
the 1930’s, is Homer’s The Odyssey, although loosely. Homer’s tale is the story of
Odysseus and his adventures after the Trojan War. He meets various characters along the
way like the Cyclops and the sirens, and travels to uncharted worlds like Hades (Greek
underworld). The Coens’ claim, that they have never read Homer’s tale, though they
needed to read it to get some idea of the story to write the screenplay. The basic story
remains however, of a man separated from his home on a journey to get back to that
home and his wife. They do not include all of the elements of Homer’s story, so their film
falls under the category of dramatic interpretation. They also take Odysseus out of his
element from ancient Greece and place him into Depression era Mississippi. This was a
difficult time for many Americans, especially poor farmers in the rural South. Thus we
see the theme of disenfranchised Whites turning to Klan membership for guidance.
Although this film is set in the Depression era South the attitudes towards the Klan are
more reflective of the time in which it was produced.
The Klan still exists today even if it is at a lower capacity. Dinesh D’Souza had
written his book in 1995, but even these ten years later the Klan is viewed in much of the
same way. Occasionally a new book will still pop up or even an article in a magazine or
newspaper. Some authors believe that the movement is still small, but that it is growing
again, especially in the South. Alphonso Pinkney, an author that D’Souza uses as one of
his sources believes in his book, The Myth of Black Progress, “No one knows exactly
what the Klan membership is but it is clear that it is growing in the South and elsewhere”
(D’Souza, 392). Two other authors, Joe Feagin and Hernan Vera state in their book,
White Racism, “The white supremacy movement is growing” (D’Souza, 392). D’Souza
believes that they are not on the rise; he says they are out of money, still have a low
membership, and are watched closely by police and civil rights groups. In 1987, Morris
Dees, led a suit against the Klan in which his clients were rewarded seven million dollars.
The Klan had to liquidate many of their assets, including their national headquarters. In
1991, he estimated that their membership was down to four thousand. He believed that it
could have been possible for them to have disappeared completely by the beginning of
this new century, though that has not yet happened. Stuart Lowengrub, the leader of the
Anti-Defamation League in Atlanta at the time this book was written said, “The Klan
today has nothing left, no influence at all, political or economic. What’s left of the Klan
is no more than a nuisance” (D’Souza, 393).
The Klan still makes appearances in the media. They occasionally have made
appearances on talk shows like Geraldo and Jerry Springer. These are showcases in
which those on the show attempt to explain themselves, but they more often only show
our modern day perceptions of them to a bigger audience. We tend in our modern day
culture to think of Klansmen as being uneducated, ignorant, or Rednecks stuck in the
past. In the past, on Howard Stern’s radio show he would frequently encourage people to
call Klan groups taunting them and leaving messages in which they laugh at their
ignorance. In his 2001 spoken word performance, Henry Rollins, actor and former front
man of the 1980’s punk band Black Flag gave his theory on how to dismantle the Klan
from American society. He spoke of going after them on his first day in the office of the
presidency, by enlisting three thousand men from the three main facets of society they
hate the most(Gays, Blacks, and Jews). He would have well known fashion designers
create the most outlandish Klan outfits they could think of. They would then infiltrate
their parades and rallies forcing members to leave the Klan while discouraging others
from joining (Rollins, track 2). This just illustrates that in many peoples’ minds today, the
Klan is more of a joke than an actual political or social threat.
The Klan is partially kept alive by the media and their sensationalizing of the
Klan. For example, the Klan had decided to stop the number of Mexicans from crossing
the border of Texas by patrolling it. Only eight Klan members showed up to patrol the
whole border! When the news media showed up to cover the event they greatly
outnumbered the Klan members. Another example was a Klan rally where they were
going to have a cross burning, typical Klan activity, however, the Klan delayed the
burning until the media showed up to cover it. Though they do not have the power they
once did the NAACP reported that their, “views are shared quietly by others” (D’Souza,
396). This portrays the climate of the times in which we live and it likely had an effect on
how the Coens’ presented the Klan in their film.
The story of the film, Birth of a Nation, is centered on the Stoneman and Cameron
families. It follows from the beginnings of slavery through Reconstruction and how it
affected these families. The film takes place in Piedmont, South Carolina, which in
reality served as a major place of activity for the Klan. In the film, the Blacks take over
the town in its politics (locally and in the South Carolina House) and wreak havoc on the
Whites of the town. The characters are used to symbolically portray specific themes and
stir up feelings related to this period in American history. The women in the film
represent the purity of White womanhood being threatened, but also the purity of the
whole South that was lost in the war. The White men of the film are the heroes that exude
the virtues of the old South. They are also shown to be the pro-Klan characters that are
trying to establish order again. The Black men of the film are depicted as the villains in
the Reconstruction South who are out to corrupt and control the White characters. These
Black characters are the anti-Klan characters of the film.
The women of the film are Elsie Stoneman and Flora Cameron. Elsie is the
daughter of Austin Stoneman, an abolition supporter in Washington. She is also the love
interest of Col. Ben Cameron. Flora Cameron is the littlest sister of Col. Ben Cameron.
Both of these women illustrate the purity of womanhood being threatened in similar
ways. In the scenes that involve Elsie and Ben, his attempts at getting a kiss from her are
thwarted because of her chastity, but he may kiss a bird that she had kissed. In a later
scene Silas Lynch, who had been elected the lieutenant governor, was having a party and
he trapped Elsie in his office. His intention was to force Elsie to marry him. He said,
“See! My people fill the streets. With them I will build a Black Empire and you as my
queen shall sit by my side” (Lang, 136). Flora has a similar experience with Gus, who is
described in the screenplay from the book by Lang, as a renegade Negro. Gus walks by
the Cameron house and seeing Flora there he asks if she would accept his proposal of
marriage, he also had a newly acquired social status. She refused and ran away into the
woods as Gus chases her. Flora comes to a cliff and begs Gus to stop or she will jump.
Gus does not and she jumps to her death at the bottom. Rather than be a victim of assault,
or be married to a black man against her will, she decides it would be better to be dead
than dishonored. Ben says after finding her, “for her who has learned the stern lesson of
honor we should not grieve that she found sweeter the opal gates of death” (Lang, 123).
Both of these women represent the South and show the liberties that the carpetbaggers
and the freed Blacks now thought they could take.
The White men of the film are portrayed in two ways, the hero and also the
victim. Col. Ben Cameron is the leader of the Klan, a Southern war hero and also hero of
the story. He acts as the protector and savior of all those in the town from the Blacks that
have taken over. In the scene that shows his inspiration for the Klan, he is sitting on a
riverbank contemplating what he calls the, “degradation and ruin of his people” (Lang,
114). He sees some white children scare some Black children from under a sheet. From
that comes what would come to be the, “…the organization that saved the South from the
anarchy of Black rule” (Lang, 114). The creation of the Klan is, in Ben’s mind, a reaction
to the Blacks abuses of power. Their violence is only used to gain justice. The other
major white male character is Austin Stoneman, the father of Elsie and the abolition
supporter from Washington. In Washington he supports the movements to garner Blacks
equal treatment with whites. He instills Silas Lynch as the lieutenant governor
proclaiming, “I shall make this man, Silas Lynch, as a symbol of his race, the peer of any
white man living” (Lang, 97). He sends Lynch south to set up the policies he wants
carried out for the Blacks. He became ill and at his doctor’s suggestion moved to the
warmer climate of Piedmont. There Stoneman could supervise the institution of his
policies firsthand. Later in the film he is betrayed by Lynch. While his daughter is being
threatened, Lynch turns on him and becomes violent pushing him down. This caused
Stoneman to switch sides and sympathize with Cameron and the Klan.
The Black characters in the film are presented as crazed and insecure in how to
handle their new freedoms. The first is Silas Lynch, who serves as the lieutenant
governor of South Carolina and lives in Piedmont. He begins in Washington as a protégé
of Stoneman and while he is there he is a humble character, who even bows to Stoneman.
Once he arrives in Piedmont he comes into instant conflict with Ben Cameron. Under his
authority the Blacks begin pushing the whites of the town around. In a local election his
soldiers stop whites from voting. By the end of the film voting is turned back around, the
Klan bans the Blacks from voting through intimidation. As the film goes on he becomes
increasingly more corrupt and abuses his power. He has drunken parties where he chases
women around. The legislature passes laws that state whites must salute the Black
soldiers as they pass, and a bill that would allow for interracial marriages. Outnumbered
the Whites of the town are referred to as the helpless minority (Lang, 111). Silas uses the
new laws to his advantage when he tries to set up a ceremony and marry Elsie against her
will. He lastly orders the killing of all the Klansmen after they leave Gus’ body on his
porch. Gus has a smaller role but he is portrayed as a crazy Black man with a creepy
personality, who is sneaking around, and hiding behind trees. His character is indicative
of the rest of the Blacks in the town. He is seen as intimidating and a threat to the young
girl which is synonymous with the Southern way of life.
In O Brother Where Art Thou, the characters are portrayed in a stark contrast.
White characters are the ones that are seen as corrupt and evil. Big Dan Teague is
representative in two ways; he represents the Cyclops monster of Homer’s Odyssey, by
his eye patch, and he is also later in the film revealed to be a Klan member. At the time
we are introduced to him he acts like a decent man, a Bible salesman. Any man who sells
the Bible, we assume, must be a good and moral person. But then he takes Everett and
Delmar to lunch for conversation, where he shows his true colors by attacking them,
stealing their money, and killing the toad that was thought to be their companion Pete.
Considering the time period of the movie, 1937, when we discover Dan to be a Klan
member, we can assume that he was influenced by the revival of the Klan that started
after the release of Griffith’s movie. Yet he is portrayed as a corrupt business man and
very unlike any of the characters in Griffith’s film. Homer Stokes, the man running for
governor of the state of Mississippi is the other character that is discovered to be in the
Klan. In his political rally early in the film, he talks of cleaning up the state and reforms
that will improve the state. He also talks about upholding traditional values and moral
fiber in his speech, which he believes the current governor, has strayed away from. His
character was not intent on really being the “reform” candidate, he was just saying what
he felt the people wanted to hear.
The main characters of the film are somewhat reluctant heroes in that they seem
to always be stumbling into the situation that needs solving. In the Klan ceremony scene,
they rolled down a hill while fighting amongst each other ending up at the ceremony.
They are also anti-heroes in that they are escaped convicts, and they are not really out to
save the day but they are not interested in going on a crime spree either. Pete and Delmar
become reformed and give up their shady pasts after getting baptized in the river. In
meeting “Babyface” Nelson or George Nelson as he prefers, they tag along and try to talk
him out of robbing the bank. Overall they are portrayed as three well meaning guys
looking for a fresh start. They also have a strong sense of camaraderie and are always
looking out for each other.
The only Black character of the film is the young musician that has sold his soul
to the devil, Tommy Johnson. Tommy is polite, well dressed, and clean in his suit and
hat. Tommy, minus his lost soul is the most moral character in the film. He is just a
young man trying to make a living playing his guitar. When the Klan captures him he
pleads with them that he is innocent and has not done anything to anyone.
The representations of the Klan in the two films are a sharp contrast. In Birth of a
Nation, in the trial scene of Gus the Klan produces evidence that he did it because Ben
Cameron found Gus’ hat at the cliff. They are judging him for a real crime to claim
justice for the death of Flora, not just because he is black. The scene is shot with a red
filter over the lens and a burning cross in the background. The red filter had been used
more than once earlier in the film to show the chaos(town burning) that was caused by
the invading carpetbaggers from the North and the free Blacks. Now the red filter shows
the South getting its revenge from the wrongs done to them earlier. The Klan rally in O
Brother Where Art Thou shows a Klan rally in the same regard, with intent to burn a
cross and kill a black man. However, their rally is more for ritual, they are shown
chanting and dancing in patterns. They are also lynching their victim for no real reason, a
senseless act. The reason that they give for hanging Tommy, is that they are just doing
what they do. The three heroes save Tommy by dressing as Klansmen, which also
represents Odysseus escaping the Cyclops by tying his party to sheep. Dan pulls their
hoods off and because of their dirty faces they are mistaken to be Black themselves. The
Klansmen of this film are portrayed as bumbling and unintelligent, being thwarted by
four men.
The end of Birth of a Nation shows a triumphant Klan parading into town with the
women and the cabin people they saved. They have saved the Southern way of life from
being overrun by the abusive Blacks and, “…their determination to put the white South
under the heel of the black South” (Lang, 94). The Klan succeeded in their goal of putting
the Blacks back in their place. They had also reunited the North and South under a
common cause. The end of O Brother Where Art Thou, does not show the Klan in a
triumphant way. Homer Stokes goes to his political rally to find the four men that broke
up his Klan rally performing on stage and integrated. He stops the show to inform the
people of what these men had done. The people do not seem to care that there is an
integrated band on stage but they do care that Stokes belongs to the Klan. He is booed out
of the building and loses all credibility with the people that had supported him in his
campaign.
The representations of the Klan in Birth of a Nation were not only representative
of the time period of the Reconstruction South but also the revival of the Klan in 1915
after the release of the film. The film shows Ben Cameron finding inspiration to begin the
Klan. Along that riverbank he was searching to find a way to save what he believed was
the Southern way of life from extinction. The film shows the Klan as a reactionary force
to the policies that the North was instituting on the South. These new policies were being
enforced by Southern Republicans who were accused of being traitors to the Southern
way of life. The Blacks were also threatening Southern culture by having their new
freedoms, especially the franchising of Blacks, or the right to vote. This film is not only
representative of the Reconstruction South the film covers but it is also representative of
prevailing attitudes at the time in which Griffith made his film, 1915. Griffith claims in
the second part of the film that, “ This is an historical presentation of the Civil War and
Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people of today” (Lang,
94). Aside from this disclaimer, this is not how the film was received among the public.
Yet at the time Griffith made his film, America was having a culture crisis. Many thought
that America was sinking into immorality and Blacks were having another surge of new
opportunities in the workforce and society. The resurgence of the Klan at this time,
proves that people were desperate to reinstill the traditional values Americans felt they
were losing.
The representations of the Klan in O Brother Where Art Thou, show two different
times. On one end of the spectrum the Coens’ show an America desperate for change.
The film takes place in Depression era South in 1937. At this time the Klan still existed
but the revival of the early twentieth century had ended. However, this was also the time
of “Jim Crow” and segregation in America that divided the country. Blacks were allowed
the same rights and facilities supposedly “separate but equal,” but they were not equal at
all. Though the Coens’ depict an America affected by the Depression, as illustrated in the
Hogwallop family farm they, do not necessarily reflect the attitudes we would think of in
this time. At the rally, our three heroes save Tommy from being lynched, because he was
their friend, but more importantly he was innocent. At the recording of the song in the
beginning the man says he does not allow any “negro songs,” but at the political rally the
audience has no concern about having a Black man perform on stage with a group of
White men. The views shown by the Coens’, although in the context of the time period of
the film, seem actually more representative of the times we live in now, of postsegregation America.
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