CL 4/2

The ruling on the Plessy vs. Ferguson case brought about cliches and stereotypes against African Americans in cinema. Including lynchings, chicken thieving, Africans being chased by hound dogs, Africans eating water melons, Africans sitting on assigned seats on trains.

The “Guardian Newspaper” was created by William Trotter, which initially challenged Booker T. Washington’s direct interventions of politics, meaning he doesn’t like critisism so he may influence newspapers and what they were trying to write about him.

The Original 29 was founded by Dubois and Trotter. There were 29 men who chose Niagra Falls to meet to represent the flow of change that would eventually develop amongst the black and white racial tension.

This group illuminated the evils of segregation that Woodrow Wilson had enforced in his Jim Crow policies. This had created a surge of racial tension, which from years prior to the creation of the Wilson’s policy, had been slowly dissipating. The delegates of African Americans that were lead by Trotter and Dubois had all gotten together and met with Wilson to discuss the rising tensions encouraged by the newly enforced Jim Crow laws. That right there showed how legitimate white supremacy and Jim Crow laws were and they were slowly reverting back to what it was like in the years subsequent to the ending of the civil war.

I would like to add that their term of racial pornography is a little out of context I think. If I heard that, I would believe there was biracial porn films being produced back then. Just saying…

Anyways. I don’t know if I skipped this part or what but I believe the differences in approach for combatting white supremacy between Trotter and Dubois was that Trotter wanted to speak to people man to man (like Wilson) which typically offended the person arguing against Trotter and Dubois would send letters out to major influencers and censorship groups of media promoting white supremacy in posters and film. Which really didn’t work. Also, Trotter was seen as very radical, which Dubois was the contrary.

Pamphlets were created by Dubois to shine light on the failure of free speech. Trotter ended up going down to the theatre where the movie was being played, and he demanded a ticket to the movie. This ended up in a fight between the a cop and Trotter, which once again, had him kicked out and arrested. Some of his followers though managed to sneak into the theatre to view the movie. This sparked a surge in protesters who would either be rioting at the while the movie was playing or would be marching down the street at random times. Because of these riots, the movie was being reported as dangerous to cities all over the United States.

The movie inspired the rebirth of the KKK. Apparently, the clan was the biggest it has ever been subsequent to the glorification of the Birth of a Nation. Black lynchings became a thing, blacks being randomly attacked became a thing.