White Robes, Silver Screens: Movies and the Making of the Ku Klux Klan [Hardcover]

The Ku Klux Klan was reestablished in Atlanta in 1915, barely a week before the Atlanta premiere ofThe Birth of a Nation, D. W. Griffith's paean to the original Klan. While this link between Griffith's film and the Klan has been widely acknowledged, Tom Rice explores the little-known relationship between the Klan's success and its use of film and media in the interwar years when the image, function, and moral rectitude of the Klan was contested on the national stage. By examining rich archival materials including a series of films produced by the Klan and a wealth of documents, newspaper clippings, and manuals, Rice uncovers the fraught history of the Klan as a local force that manipulated the American film industry to extend its reach across the country.White Robes, Silver Screenshighlights the ways in which the Klan used, produced, and protested against film in order to recruit members, generate publicity, and define its role within American society.

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Tom Rice is a lecturer in Film Studies at University of St Andrews.

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Re-Birth:The Birth of a Nationand the Growth of the Klan
2. The Battle: Censorship, Reform, and the Klan's Campaign against the Film Industry
3. Klan Cinema: The Klan as Producer and Exhibitor
4. On Mainstream Screens: The Film Industry's Response to the Klan
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Honorable Mention, 2016 INDIEFAB Award in Performing Arts & MusicRunner-up, 2017 BAFTSS Book Prize

This book is a much-needed, courageous examination of the bewildering persistence of a racist organization and their use of moving images to build a shameful American legacy. It is a compelling read, reminding us with each page that pictures and sounds have long been integral and strategic elements not just of ambitious entertainers or l“"