Mixed Messages: D.W. Griffith and the Black Press, 1916-1931

This article investigates the reception of D.W. Griffith's films in the black press, from the premiere of Intolerance (1916) to that of Abraham Lincoln (1930), with particular attention to the Baltimore Afro-American, California Eagle, Chicago Defender, and New York Age. These newspapers targeted a mass audience, and their weekly publication schedules allowed them a more sustained engagement with Griffith and his films than that of monthly journals. While they protested The Birth of a Nation whenever it was exhibited from the late 1910s through the early 1930s, they took a different view of many of Griffith's other films, promoting his new features as exciting entertainment or even as having social value.