Birth of a Movement (2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birth of a Movement is a documentary film which premiered in 2017. The topic is the beginning of the civil rights movement in the US in the beginning of the 20th century.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Directors: Bestor Cram and Susan Gray

** Writers: Kwyn Bader and Dick Lehr

** Based on the book The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights by Dick Lehr (published in 2017)

** Narrator: Danny Glover

** Studio: Northern Lights Productions

** Shown on US television (PBS) as an episode of the program Independent Lens (season 18 episode 07) (2017)

** Run time: ca. 55 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in this film. Here are the names (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Bob Bellinger – historian – Suffolk University

** David Blight – historian – Yale University

** Vincent Brown – historian – Harvard University

** Dolita Cathcart – historian – Wheaton College

** William Jelani Cobb – journalist – Columbia University

 

** Ira Gallen – archivist - collector

** Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – literary historian – Harvard University

** Reginald Hudlin - filmmaker

** Spike Lee - filmmaker

** Dick Lehr – journalist – Boston University – the film is based on his book about The Birth of a Nation (published in 2017)

 

** Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) - composer

** Charlie Musser – film historian – Yale University

** Charlene Regester – film historian – University of North Carolina

** Ellen Scott – film historian - UCLA

** Melvin Stokes – film historian – College London

 

Archive footage appears between the talking heads. Archive footage is running while the narrator is talking.

 

Archive footage is used to illustrate the information offered by the talking heads and by the narrator.

 

The civil rights movement in the US did not begin with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Nor did it begin with Marian Anderson’s open-air concert held at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. 

 

It began long before these famous and memorable events.

 

In order to find the real beginning, we have to go further back; back to the first two decades of the 20th century when the following three persons played an important role in the black community:

 

** Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

** William Monroe Trotter (1872-1934)

** W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

 

Booker T. Washington was an educator and an author. He was a leader of the African-American community until his death in 1915. He wanted to avoid a conflict with the white community. He advocated an accommodating line. Do not confront the white establishment! Take what you can get and be happy with this!

 

William Monroe Trotter was the founder and editor of a newspaper in Boston. He was a militant activist. He opposed Booker T. Washington’s accommodating line. He did not seek to avoid a conflict. He felt that sometimes it was necessary to face a conflict in order to achieve progress for the black community.

 

W. E. B. Du Bois was a sociologist and an author. Like Trotter, he opposed Booker T. Washington’s accommodating line, but he did not agree with Trotter on every other issue.

 

In 1905, the Niagara Movement was founded. It was the first organization whose purpose was to promote and protect the civil rights of African-Americans. Trotter was among the founders.

 

However, this organization did not live long. There were internal problems. In 1910 it was disbanded.

 

One year before, in 1909, a somewhat similar organization had been founded: the NAACP. It was the second organization whose purpose was to promote and protect the civil rights of the black community in the US. Du Bois was among the founders.

 

In this film, we meet Booker T. Washington, Trotter and Du Bois. We also meet some of the people who represent the other side of the conflict:

 

** Thomas Dixon, Jr. (1864-1946)

** D. W. Griffith (1875-1948)

 

Thomas Dixon, Jr. was a politician and a lawyer who represents the idea of white supremacy. He was the author of a bestseller called The Clansman which was published in 1905.

 

D. W. Griffith was a film director who made several short movies in the beginning of the 20th century. When he heard about The Clansman and when he read the book, he decided that he wanted to make a movie based on this book.

 

The movie was ready in 1915. At first, it had the same title as the book. But soon it was decided to give it another title:  

 

The Birth of a Nation. 

 

This movie was a big success for Griffith. It was shown in movie theatres.

 

The movie was even shown in the White House. It was a special screening for President Woodrow Wilson and his family and some members of his cabinet. Both Dixon and Griffith were present at the screening of the movie.

 

But not all Americans were happy about this movie. 

 

What was wrong?

 

The movie places the black community in a negative light and places the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light. The movie is a remarkable example of full-blown racism.

 

This movie ignited protest. This movie called for a vigorous response. Among those who criticized the movie we find William Trotter and W. E. B. Du Bois.

 

The conflict between William Monroe Trotter and D. W. Griffith is a good example of the deep-seated conflict between black and white in America. 

 

This is the time when the black community begins to organize itself and to establish a national network in order to promote and protect its place and its role in American society.

 

What do reviewers say about this film?

 

** On IMDb it has a rating of 73 percent, which corresponds to 3.7 stars on Amazon.

** On Amazon there are at the moment more than 40 global ratings and reviews. The average rating is 4.5 stars.

 

If you ask me, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is much more appropriate.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

PS. The Birth of a Nation is a historical drama which premiered in 2016. Written and directed by Nate Parker. Based on the story of Nat Turner who led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831.

 

This historical drama from 2016 should not be confused with the silent movie from 1915.

 

SOME REFERENCES

 

** Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter by Kerri K. Greenridge (HC 2020, PB 2021)

 

** W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography 1868-1963 by David Lewis (HC 2008, PB 2009)

 

** Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington by Robert Norrell (2009, 2011)

 

** D. W. Griffith: An American Life by Richard Schickel (1984)

 

*****

 

 The Birth of a Nation (1915)

*****

The Birth of a Movement

by Dick Lehr 

(2017)

 

 *****

 

 

Voice of Freedom (2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voice of Freedom is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in February 2021. 

 

It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience (season 33, episode 02).

 

The topic is the life and career of the famous African-American opera singer Marian Anderson (1897-1993).

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Writer and director: Rob Rapley

** Narrator: Renee Elise Goldsberry

** Excerpts from Marian Anderson’s autobiography are read by Brenda Pressley

** Run time: 100 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in this film. Here are the names (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Allida Black - historian

** Angela Brown – opera singer

** Lucy Caplan – cultural historian – Harvard University

** Alisha Lola Jones – musicologist

 

** Adriane Lentz-Smith – historian – Duke University

** Carol Oja – musicologist – Harvard University

** Jillian Patricia Pirtle – stage and opera artist

** Sharon Vriend Robinette – historian – Davenport University

 

** Kira Thurman – historian – University of Michigan

** Leslie Ueña – art historian – associate curator, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

** Denise Doring Vanburen – president general, Daughters of the American Revolution

 

In this film, we follow the life and career of Marian Anderson. We learn how her career began in the US in 1919 and how she went on an extended tour of Europe (1930-1935).

 

The European tour was a great success. When she returned to the US, she was rich and famous, but in the US, she was still a black woman; she was still a second-class citizen in her own country.

 

One episode is covered in great detail: the controversy concerning Constitution Hall and the Daughters of the American Revolution which took place in 1939.

 

Constitution Hall, which was built in the 1920s, was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution. When this organization did not use the hall, it was rented out to artists who deserved the "honor" of performing there.

 

The NAACP wanted Marian Anderson to perform a concert in this hall. However, the DAR had a whites-only policy. They refused to let Marian Anderson perform in their hall.

 

When the organization came under pressure, the leaders held a closed meeting to decide the issue. The result of a secret ballot was that 39 of 41 women supported the whites-only policy.

 

The DAR refused to give in to pressure from other groups.

 

Then there was a new development: 

 

The First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt – who was an honorary member of the DAR – made a public announcement that she had resigned her membership of the organization in order to mark her disagreement with the whites-only policy. But even this did not change the decision.

 

While Eleanor Roosevelt’s public stand was quite impressive, it was also met with some criticism. Jim Crow rules were found all over Washington, DC. In schools, in restaurants and in shops, but the First Lady had never protested against this. Why focus on just one case? Why not focus on the whole problem?

 

An alternative location was suggested:

Perhaps it was possible to hold an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial?

 

Permission was granted and the concert took place on Easter Sunday, 9 April 1939. 

 

On that day, Marian Anderson performed in front of an audience of 75,000. It was a significant moment in US history.

 

After World War Two, in the 1950s, Marian Anderson was still admired by many, but not by all. She was being criticized by the NAACP, because she accepted to perform in front of segregated audiences. 

 

The NAACP did not like that. They wanted her to refuse to do this. At first, she refused, but later she changed her mind and accepted to follow a more militant line regarding civil rights.

 

In 1963, when Martin Luther King gave his famous speech “I Have a Dream,” the mass meeting was held at the Lincoln Memorial and Marian Anderson performed here as well.

 

Voice of Freedom is a powerful film, because the life and career of a great opera singer is placed in a historical, political and cultural context.

 

The history of Marian Anderson’s life and career is in many ways also the history of the US from 1919 when her career began until 1963 when a new generation of African-Americans took charge of the civil rights movement.

 

If you are interested in the modern history of the US – in particular the question of civil rights – this film is definitely something for you.

 

It is highly recommended. 

 

I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

 

My Lord! What a Morning by Marian Anderson 

(first published in 1956) 

(reprinted in 2002 and in 2015)

 

OTHER REFERENCES

 

# 1. Books

The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial and the Concert that Awakened America by Raymond Arsenault 

(2009)

 

Marian Anderson: A Singer’s Journey by Allan Keiler 

(Hardcover 2000) 

(Paperback 2002)

 

The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman 

(2011) 

(this volume is written for young readers)

 

# 2. A documentary film

 

Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands

PBS - American Masters

Director: Rita Coburn

Run time: 113 minutes

(2022)

 

*****

 

 Marian Anderson (1897-1993)

Performing at the open-air concert 

held at the Lincoln Memorial

on 9 April 1939

 

*****