N.A.A.C.P. May Protest Showing of Film

A repeat of the 1952 conflict over the showing of the movie Birth of a Nation may be in the offing, despite the efforts of the University and John B. Prizer, Jr. '63, president of Ivy Films.

Ivy Films plans to show the movie on Nov. 15 as part of its fall series.

Prizer, other Ivy Films officials, and Dean Watson were scheduled to meet with representatives from the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples, first on Oct. 5, and then last Wednesday.

Both times the NAACP representatives failed to appear. The meeting has now been set for next Wednesday.

Post-Civil War

Birth of a Nation, the 1915 D. L. Griffith film classic starring Lillian Gish, purports to tell the story of the South's post-Civil War struggles against carpetbaggers from the North.

When the Harvard Liberal Union and the Society for Minority Rights sponsored a showing of Birth of a Nation, in 1952, it was the first public exhibition of the film in the Boston area in 36 years. Since 1952, Ivy Films has apparently planned to show it on several occasions, Prizer said yesterday, but has always run into some sort of difficulty.

Anti-Negro Attitude

Objections to the film have historically been based on its anti-Negro attitude. Birth of a Nation is sympathetic to the South, and glorifies the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

The most vehement objections to the film are directed at a scene in which a Negro unsuccessfully attempts to rape a white woman. The shock of the attack drives the girl to suicide, and the Klan avenges her death.

Exhibition Protested

In 1952, the NAACP and other Negro groups vigorously protested exhibition of to film, even though it was presented as an example of anti-Negro propaganda and the proceeds were donated for Negro schools.

The Cambridge Civic Unity Committee and Judge Walter E. Hammond, a Law School graduate, were called in to rule on the film. Hammond said that he found the movie in "very poor taste," but defended its showing on the grounds of freedom of expression. The Cambridge City Council censured Harvard, but did not prohibit the presentation.

Prizer said yesterday that he scheduled Birth of a Nation during the summer without ever seeing it, and that he was unaware of its anti-Negro bias at the time. He said he selected the film because it is one of the most talked about of all motion pictures, and because its technical innovations are still used today.

Civic Unity Committee

Although Prizer has a letter from the Civic Unity Committee saying that the group has no objections to this fall's showing of Birth of a Nation, he expects action from the NAACP. "The NAACP is a pressure group," he said. "Some Negroes will complain about the showing, and the NAACP will have to go on record as having done something about it."

Prizer approached the NAACP early in August in an attempt to head off controversy and to give his reasons for presenting the film.

"I want to establish the precedent that Harvard College can show Birth of a Nation as often as it wants to," Prizer said. "Every film student should see it several times."