While previous IMDb reviews of The Birth of a Race are based on a brief ten-minute excerpt, this one is based on the full ninety-minute feature, which slumbers in the archives of the Library of Congress. The film begins as a biblical epic, and a saucy one at that: there are numerous shots of bare-breasted nubiles at the court of Pharaoh. Eat your heart out, Cecil B. DeMille! The parting of the Red Sea is depicted by a title card - this is a pretty low budget film - and Jesus finally puts in an appearance at the 47:41 mark. Blessed with some unnaturally long eyebrows, he lectures to men of all races, but the crowd remains largely segregated throughout - and how a group of Asian attendees got to ancient Israel is not explained. Crucifixion is followed in short order by the arrival of Columbus in America, where he brings the gospel to the savages, after which Paul Revere alerts the locals to the arrival of the British Army and the Emancipation Proclamation is described as 'the last link in the chain of human equality'. Intended as a riposte to The Birth of a Nation, The Birth of a Race now plays more like a liberal apologetic - though it does anticipate the future integration of the armed forces.
Review of The Birth of a Race
