25 Picket Griffith's 'Birth of Nation' as 'Despicable Racist Propaganda'

Twenty-five members of a local branch the NAACP picketed the Brattle Street Theatre last night to protest the showing of D. W. Griffith's classic moving film Birth of a Nation.

A flyer handed out by the pickets decried the film as "despicable" anti-Negro racist propaganda," and urged that it be banned in Massachusetts. The picket signs read "Offensive to Negro Actress" and "This is Boston--Not Mississippi."

Produced in 1914, the film is considered a milestone in motion-picture history. It was the first feature-length movie produced in this country, and employed many photographic techniques which have since become a standard part of motion-picture vocabulary.

Griffith was a Southerner, the son of a Confederate colonel, and his film has strong racist overtones.

George Roberts, President of the South Middlesex Branch of NAACP, explained yesterday that his organization's regional office had protested showings of the picture in all parts of the country for several years. "We object to the way the movie depicts us," Roberts said, "and we hope to persuade people not to see it."

Inside the Theatre many viewers hissed the blatantly anti-Negro scenes in the film.

Joy Pratt, a vice-president of Brattle Films, said last night that "It is silly, after all these years, to think that the film presents a political philosophy."

"Griffith's ideas were politically naive," she continued, "but the movie is a master-piece. It brought the motion-picture industry out of the nickelodeon stage. We are presenting it as an artistic document."

"It would be equally silly to say that we shouldn't show Sergei Einstein's Potempkin on the grounds that it idealiezs a Socialist rebellion," Mrs. Pratt added.

The picture was shown Sunday without picketing, and an attendant at the Brattle's box office said that last night's demonstration had not affected sales. "The pickets are a very nice group," he added, "and very orderly. They're nicer than a lot of our customers."