Dark Images of the Invisible Empire: A Study of the Ku Klux Klan as
View into the Heart of American Racism
Reading Memorial High School
Reading, MA 01867
Autumn 2009
Unit on Race Relations on the Eve of the Great War
Honors History 11
Grade 11
Jeffrey R. Ryan, Ph.D., Instructor
Enduring Understanding:
Students should use the information they acquire in this lesson to develop a deeper
understanding how fundamental racism is in modern America and how much it was an
accepted part of the social structure. They will be encouraged to devise ways to
recognize modern forms of racism as well as to develop strategies to challenge and to
undermine it.
Connections to Massachusetts History Frameworks, Historical
Thinking Benchmarks:
U.S.I.41: Framework on Policies and Consequences of Reconstruction.
U.S.II.9: Framework on the Post-Civil War Struggles of African Americans to Gain
Civil Rights
Historical Thinking Benchmarks:
A. Analysis of primary and secondary sources
B. Understanding of historical debate and controversy
C. Understanding of bias and points of view
Essential Questions:
I.
II.
To what degree was the Ku Klux Klan an established institution in early
twentieth century America and how did its powerful position affect ordinary
citizens?
How perceptions of race as are depicted in D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a
Nation perpetuated in contemporary popular culture and what can be done to
discourage this trend?
Learning Objectives:
I.
Students will develop a deeper understanding of key themes in American
history from Reconstruction to the Great Depression.
II.
III.
IV.
The concept of racism as it influenced black-white relations from the end of
Reconstruction to the early 1920s will be emphasized and explored.
The Great Migration of African Americans from the rural Deep South to the
urban North was a massive demographic development in our country.
Students will consider how migration affected the expansion of the Ku Klux
Klan and other hate groups in areas above the Mason-Dixon Line.
Since the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, many pundits have
suggested that we are now living in a “post-racial” society. Our students will
discuss the question of why it is that African Americans of our own time still
have a shorter life expectancy, a higher unemployment rate and a greater
percentage of its population in prison. The controversy of the affirmative
action will be analyzed and discussed.
Learning Activities:
Students will view selected scenes from D. W. Griffith’s classic film The Birth of
a Nation. Premiering in 1915, this work was a major achievement that offered a
variety of film “firsts.” It was the first full length picture; at two hours and forty
minutes, it far exceeded the standard ten minute fare that was popular in nickelodeons
of the age. It was the first film to shoot “on location,” with Griffith lugging his
camera equipment outside of the studio to record reenactments of Civil War battles.
It was also the first film to create a fire storm of protest.
Griffith’s movie was based on Thomas Dixon’s 1905 novel The Clansman: An
Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. While Dixon’s book was not a great
commercial success, the film was a cinematic sensation, endorsed by then president
Woodrow Wilson as “history as lightning.” It was an odd coincidence that Wilson
and Dixon had been college roommates; they also shared a starkly white supremacist
world view. While The Birth of a Nation purports to be an epic tale of the Civil War
and Reconstruction, its most memorable sequences contain demeaning images of
black people along with a scene involving the attempted rape of a white girl by an
African American character. This myth of the threat of sexual violence from black
men toward white women had inspired thousands of lynchings in America from the
end of the Civil War until well into the middle of the twentieth century. When the
film opened, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) protested and asked that the studio withhold the movie’s release, fearing
that it might spawn racial violence. The NAACP’s request was ignored; Birth of a
Nation was released; and attacks on blacks by racist gangs did increase.
Day One of the Lesson:
The day before the students see parts of Griffith’s film, they will see a
brief PowerPoint presentation on Klan violence. The previous evening, they shall
have been assigned chapter 2, “Ain’t Slavery No More” from Kevin Boyle’s Arc
of Justice. The instructor can give them a brief overview of the origins of the
KKK in the Reconstruction era, and then they will view the archival images and
consider the following questions:
 The first image is a photograph of a Klan march through the
nation’s capital in the 1920s with the dome of the United States
capitol in the background. What might this picture say about the
place of the KKK in American society at the time the picture was
taken?
 The second picture is a photograph of a Klan march in Springfield,
Ohio in 1923. How does that contrast with stereotypes that persist
about the regional influence of the Ku Klux Klan?
 Slide three depicts Klansmen showing a sign that tries to stresses
their patriotism. Can such a racist group be truly patriotic? Is
there an inherent contradiction between racism and patriotism?
 The fourth image is of a cross burning, a reminder that the KKK
has tried to portray itself as a defender of the Christian faith. How
does historical record of the Klan contradict its claims of Christian
virtue and purity?
 Slides five through eight are frightful and horrifying images of
lynchings, most of which were reproduced as postcards and sent
around the country as family greetings? What does such an
unapologetic publication of these pictures say about the nature of
racism in America in the early twentieth century?
 In Kevin Boyle’s Arc of Justice, the main character, the author
tells of his main character, Ossian Sweet’s earliest childhood
memories. In 1925, Sweet was a successful, middle class African
American who purchased a comfortable home in a predominantly
white neighborhood in Detroit. Sweet had, at least outwardly,
escaped the pall of southern racism, yet his most nagging
childhood recollection is that if seeing his neighbor burned alive
when Ossian was nine years old. Students should exchange ideas
of what such an experience would have on the life of a child.
 In the four pictures of lynchings, there are people assembled,
posing for the photographer. Who might these people be and why
would they be getting their picture taken?
 What does it say about the criminal justice system in America that
such atrocities could take place in the open?
 Why did no one try to stop such mob violence from happening?
 What is our responsibility if we see violence being perpetrated in
our own time?
 Some people have suggested paying reparations to the descendants
of slaves in a similar way to the compensation afforded to the
survivors of the Japanese American internment camps of World
War II. Do you think that reparations should be granted to the
descendants of lynching victims?
Day Two of the Lesson:
Students will see selection excerpts from The Birth of a Nation and will consider
the following study questions:
 In DVD Chapter 24, “Riot in the Master’s Hall,” how many racial stereotypes of
African Americans are shown, and what is the overall impression someone might
form of them if he or she were not well read in American history?
 In Chapters 25 and 26 of the DVD, how does the director portray the “Little
Colonel” and his reaction to the rise to power of persons of color in his town?
 Griffith stages what he labels the “Inspiration” for the formation of the Klan?
How accurate is that historically?
 In Chapters 28 and 29, we see the sequence in which “Little Sister” is approached
by Gus, the “mulatto” who tells her of his romantic intentions. The sweet young
thing commits suicide by jumping of a cliff rather than allow herself to be touched
by a black man. Her brother, the “Little Colonel,” finds her body and calls up the
Klan to avenge her death. This scene was a white supremacist’s nightmare and
reinforced every stereotype of African American men as sexual predators. The
students should take this opportunity to discuss how such misconceptions as these
can lead to hatred and violence.
 In the film’s final scenes, the Klan rides to the rescue and white power is restored;
we see a “special effects” kind of denouement with the film’s heroes in Heaven,
where all the saints are white and then an ominous image of Hell where the
residents are of an undetermined ethnic stripe. The film closes with the “Little
Colonel” and his lily white bride on their honeymoon, gazing beatifically into the
future as the soundtrack plays a triumphant “Star Spangled Banner.” Such images
initially appear laughable to a modern audience. Yet we need to have the students
consider the impact they would have had almost a century ago.
 This film was the introduction to American history for millions of half educated
Americans who were born here and millions of immigrants who had come here as
part of the Second Great Wave of Immigration that was happening at the time.
Since the president of the United States had endorsed The Birth of Nation as
legitimate history, what influence might the film have had on racial attitudes?
 What are some ways in which racism and Nativism persist in our current culture
and what are some actions we can take to challenge them and to encourage to
growth of a more just and harmonious society?
Day Three of the Lesson:
Students will be divided into five groups and will prepare a twenty minute
classroom presentation on a major racial confrotation in America in the early twentieth
century. The students can select topics on this day and begin to plan their symposia
while the teacher consults with each group. They will have one week to prepare their
projects on one of the following riots or court cases:
Atlanta, Georgia 1906
Springfield, Illinois 1908
East St. Louis, Illinois 1917
Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921
Rosewood, Florida 1923
The Scottsboro Case, 1931
Their presentations should be based on at least ten scholarly sources of research
and should focus on the following themes:




Racial climate in the area in question prior to the incident
Economic conditions in the area on the event of the event
Actions or occurrences that precipitated the event
Description of the incident itself. What happened? How many were effected?
What kind of settlement was reached, if any?
 Long term consequences of the episode
 What the story says about America at the time that it occurred
Projects will be evaluated on the basic of creativity, thoroughness of research and the
historicity of the information presented.
Annotated Bibliography:
Allen, Frederick Lewis, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s. New
York: Harper & Row, 1931. Allen was journalist during the time in question and his
book is a colorful and lively collection of anecdotes of social life and culture in Jazz
Age America. He offers a chapter on the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan that
provides intriguing contemporary insight.
Boyle, Kevin, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz
Age. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004. Kevin Boyle gives us a chronicle
of the life of Ossian Sweet, an African American doctor, who was attacked by a racist
mob when trying to move into his newly purchased home in a white neighborhood of
Detroit. When some of his friends tried to defend him and themselves, they fired
guns into a crowd of their assailants, and a bystander was killed. Dr. Sweet and his
companions were charged with murder at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was
extending its pernicious reach into America’s northern states.
Carter, Dan, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1979. Carter’s book is one of the finest studies of the rape
trial of nine young African American men tried for the rape of two white women in
Alabama in 1931. All nine were convicted on flimsy evidence and condemned to
death, and it took over fifteen years for the “Scottsboro Boys” to clear their names.
As the film The Birth of a Nation concerns the attempted rape of a white girl by a
black man, Scottsboro’s focus on an actual legal case is a worthwhile read in
preparation for this lesson.
Dixon, Thomas, The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan.
Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1970. Originally published in 1905,
Dixon’s novel is an execrable piece of writing. If, on the other hand, one is analyzing
American race relations, it contains 374 pages of post-Confederate apologetics and
white supremacist rants. One might call it a classic in its field.
Dunning, William Archibald, Reconstruction, Political and Economic, 1865 – 1877.
New York: Harper, 1935. A professor of history at Columbia from 1886 – 1903,
Dunning was the mentor to a generation historians of Reconstruction. His argument
was that the Radical Republicans fomented a disaster in the Old South by trying to
enforce a system of racial equality as the expense of the formerly elite white planters.
His implicitly racist conclusions were accepted by historians for a long time.
Foner, Eric, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. New
York: Alfred Knopf, 2005. A professor of history at Columbia University, Foner is
the dean of historians of Reconstruction in America. His account of the restoration of
white supremacy in the South after the Civil War is much more realistic and fair
minded than that of the traditional chronicles of Dunning and Wilson.
Griffith, D. W., The Birth of a Nation. Chatsworth, CA: Blackhawk Films DVD,
1992. As stated above, Griffith’s 1915 was an explosive controversy when it opened
in 1915. We hope that its use in the context of this lesson can help to diminish racist
attitudes and encourage healing and reconciliation in our country.
Lukas, J. Anthony, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a
Struggle for the Soul of America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. In 1905,
Frank Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho, was murdered when someone
hurled a bomb at him in front of his home. A massive manhunt resulted in the arrest
of the assassin, who in term accused “Big Bill” Haywood, leader of the Industrial
Workers of the World, of complicity in the crime. The subsequent trial pitted leftist
labor organizers and impoverished miners against the entrenched powers of Big
Business and Capital. Violence and threats of violence nearly exploded into all out
class war in the American northwest in the first decade of the twentieth century.
While Lukas’s book does not deal extensively with race relations, his book provides a
brilliant portrait of Gilded Age America.
McWhorter, Diane, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama : The Climactic Battle
of the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. While this
Pulitzer Prize winning book focuses on an era a bit beyond the scope of our lesson,
McWhorter’s introduction provides some fascinating background of the relationship
between Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Dixon, author of The Clansman.
Oney, Steve, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the
Lynching of Leo Frank. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Leo Frank was a
Jewish business owner who was lynched for the killing of Mary Phagan, a teenage
worker whose was founded murdered in Frank’s Atlanta factory in 1913. He was
convicted after a trial based largely on circumstantial evidence and condemned to
death. In 1915 Governor John Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison,
but the prisoner was dragged from his place of incarceration and hanged by a mob in
August of 1915. Steve Oney work is a highly commendable look at race relations and
anti-Semitism in Atlanta in the early twentieth century.
Stampp, Kenneth M., The Era of Reconstruction, 1865 – 1877. New York: Vintage
Books, 1965. A revisionist historian, Stampp adamantly refuted the traditional
interpretation of Reconstruction as exemplified in the writings of William Dunning.
Unlike Dunning, Stampp insists that there was much about the Reconstruction
regimes in the post-Civil War South that was just, fair, and high-minded.
Wilson, Woodrow, A History of the American People. New York and London:
Harper & Brothers, c. 1917. This five volume opus of United States history helped to
solidify President Wilson’s position as one of the preeminent historians in America.
His chapters on Reconstruction describe the struggle of white supremacists to
reestablish “home rule” as a reasonable response to the meddling of extremist Radical
Republicans in the former Confederate states. The fact that Wilson was the first
American president to have a Ph.D. and that that doctorate was in history further
established his credentials as an authority on the South. Thus, when he endorsed the
historical accuracy of The Birth of a Nation, millions of people accepted the film’s
racist message as absolute truth.
Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States, 1492 – Present. New York:
Harper Collins, 2003. A refreshing look at American history from the perspective of
the poor and the oppressed, Zinn provides a dramatic chronicle of the events in focus
this lesson. We enthusiastically recommend the following chapters:
“Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom”
“The Other Civil War”
“Robber Barons and Rebels”
“The Socialist Challenge”
“Self-help in Hard Times”
Afterword:
I am well aware that there may be those who do not wish to teach the material I have
chosen for this lesson. The Ku Klux Klan has inspired nothing but bigotry and
violence for generations, and perhaps it is best forgotten. The Clansman is
preposterous trash that might be left to gather dust on the shelves of distant libraries.
The Birth of a Nation is fraught with offensive images and may be best left to rust in
some obscure Hollywood film archive. Yet if we truly wish to eradicate racism in our
beautiful country, it is vital that we examine that racism at its cultural source. While
racist thinking did not begin with the Klan and D.W. Griffith did not invent racial
stereotyping, the images his film created are long-lasting and have left a terrible
legacy. It is our fervent hope that by bringing this film and the book that inspired it
into the classroom, we can dramatically unmask its hateful pretensions and exorcise
its bigotry from our nation’s soul forever.