D. W. Griffith (and The Birth of a Nation) on This Day in History

 

This day in history: D. W. Griffith died on this day in 1948. David Wark Griffith was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film. Griffith is known to modern audiences primarily for directing the film The Birth of a Nation (1915). The Birth of a Nation is one of the most financially successful films of all time and it made investors enormous profits. The film held the mantle of the highest-grossing film until it was overtaken by Gone with the Wind (1939), another film about the Civil War and Reconstruction era. The film also attracted much controversy for its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Historians frequently cite The Birth of a Nation as a major factor in the KKK's revival in the 20th century, and it remains a polarizing work to this day.

"We shouldn’t forget that during this period racism and segregation were promoted by the president of the United States, 'progressive' Woodrow Wilson. During his administration, black postal workers across the country lost their jobs, and federal agencies adopted segregation. Wilson even hosted a screening at the White House of D. W. Griffith’s pro-KKK film The Birth of a Nation—and boasted afterward about how good it was." Source

"All of this was consistent with the Progressive era in general, when supposedly "scientific" theories of racial superiority and inferiority were at their zenith. Theodore Roosevelt was the exception, rather than the rule, among Progressives when he did not agree with these theories." Source

You can watch this 3-hour-plus long movie on Youtube for free.

See also: Democrats’ Racist Roots

Buy on Amazon for only 99 cents by clicking here - see a local listing for this here

Alcohol Prohibition on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on this day in 1933. The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment. However, to this day there are still 83 counties in the United States where the sale of alcohol is completely prohibited. 

My state of North Carolina does not allow alcohol sales between 2am and 7am Monday through Saturday or before 12pm on Sundays, though you can now buy beer after 10am now on Sundays. 

There are many strange liquor laws across America (hello Utah) and even in Canada, and they can all be traced back to Prohibition. "You look at any regulatory structure in North America and if it was examined in a global perspective, you’d look at it in stunned disbelief, like ‘What is going on here?’ It really does go back to the Prohibition mentality of control, and the slow loosening of control over the years." ~Wine lawyer Mark Hicken

Alcohol prohibition also gave us a powerful mob and Las Vegas. "Prohibition built The Mob. The Mob built Vegas. Without organized crime, there would be no Las Vegas Strip, casinos probably wouldn’t run nearly as efficiently, and it’s likely that the city never would have become a glamorous tourist destination at all." Source

Prohibition was also responsible for the major expansion of the Ku Klux Klan. The law “provided a way for the Klan to legitimize its 100% Americanist mission — it could target the drinking of those they perceived to be their enemies...One notorious example occurred in 1923-24 in southern Illinois’ Williamson County, where the Klan mobilized hundreds of volunteers to raid saloons and roadhouses. Hundreds of people were arrested and more than a dozen killed." Source

Prohibition showed us that Government is more interested in out compliance than our health. To prevent bootleggers from using industrial ethyl alcohol to produce illegal beverages, the federal government ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols. In response, bootleggers hired chemists who successfully renatured the alcohol to make it drinkable. As a response, the Treasury Department required manufacturers to add more deadly poisons, including the particularly deadly methyl alcohol, consisting of 4 parts methanol, 2.25 parts pyridine base, and 0.5 parts benzene per 100 parts ethyl alcohol. New York City medical examiners prominently opposed these policies because of the danger to human life. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended. New York City medical examiner Charles Norris believed the government took responsibility for murder when they knew the poison was not deterring consumption and they continued to poison industrial alcohol (which would be used in drinking alcohol) anyway. Norris remarked: "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol ... [Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."

There are 14 countries where alcohol consumption is illegal: Yemen, United Arab Emirates (In Sharja), Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Mauritania, Maldives, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, some states in India, Brunei and Bangladesh. 

See also Alcoholic & Narcotic History of the World - 60 Books on CDrom (or to download)