Editing Song of the South (section)

== Depiction of race ==
The film has sparked significant controversy for its handling of race.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Suddath|first=Claudia|url=https://entertainment.time.com/2009/12/09/top-10-disney-controversies/slide/song-of-the-south/|title=Top 10 Disney Controversies|magazine=Time|date=December 9, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/song-south-not-disney-plus-racist-streaming-1471186|title=Why "Song of the South" is not on Disney+|last=EST|first=Samuel Spencer On 11/12/19 at 10:06 AM|date=2019-11-12|website=Newsweek|language=en|access-date=2020-01-14}}</ref> Cultural historian Jason Sperb describes the film as "one of Hollywood's most resiliently offensive racist texts".<ref name="sperb">{{cite web|last=Lingan|first=John|url=https://slate.com/culture/2013/01/song-of-the-south-disneys-most-notorious-film-by-jason-sperb-reviewed.html|title=Bristling Dixie|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|date=January 4, 2013|access-date=August 21, 2013}}</ref> Sperb, [[Neal Gabler]], and other critics have noted the film's release as being in the wake of the [[Double V campaign]], a campaign in the United States during [[World War II]] to promote victory over racism in the United States and its armed forces, and victory over fascism abroad.{{sfn|Sperb|2013|p=}} Early in the film's production, there was concern that the material would encounter controversy. Disney publicist Vern Caldwell wrote to producer [[Perce Pearce]] that "the negro situation is a dangerous one. Between the negro haters and the negro lovers there are many chances to run afoul of situations that could run the gamut all the way from the nasty to the controversial."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=434}}

The Disney Company has stated that, like Harris's book, the film takes place after the American Civil War and that all the African American characters in the movie are no longer slaves.<ref name="Promotional Program Page 7" /> [[Production Code|The Hays Office]] had asked Disney to "be certain that the frontispiece of the book mentioned establishes the date in the 1870s"; however, the final film carried no such statement.<ref name="Cohen" />

[[Adam Clayton Powell Jr.]], a congressman from Harlem, branded the film an "insult to American minorities [and] everything that America as a whole stands for."<ref name="Watts 2001">{{cite book|last=Watts|first=Steven|title=The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life|year=2001|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=0-8262-1379-0|pages=276–277|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgARIndAbjAC&q=song+of+the+south}}</ref> The [[National Negro Congress]] set up picket lines in theaters in the big cities where the film played, with its protesters holding signs that read "''Song of the South'' is an insult to the Negro people" and, lampooning "Jingle Bells", chanted: "Disney tells, Disney tells/lies about the South."<ref name="Watts 2001" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Song Of South Picketed; Line at the Palace Protests Disney Portrayal |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/12/14/88393495.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 |work=The New York Times |issue=32466 |volume=96|date=14 December 1946 |language=en}}</ref> On April 2, 1947, a group of protesters marched around Oakland, California's [[Paramount Theatre (Oakland, California)|Paramount Theatre]] with picket signs reading, "We want films on Democracy not Slavery" and "Don't prejudice children's minds with films like this".{{sfn|Korkis|2012|p=69}} ''[[The Jewish Post|The National Jewish Post]]'' scorned the fact that the film's lead was not allowed to attend its premiere in Atlanta because of his race.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Biron|first=Phineas J.|date=3 January 1947|title=Jewish Post|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=JPOST19470103-01.1.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|access-date=2020-12-14|website=Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program}}</ref>

Criticisms in the Black press largely objected to the reinforcement of stereotypes, such as the subservient status of Black characters, costuming, the exaggerated dialect, and other archaic depictions of Black people.<ref name="Gevinson" />

=== Response of civil rights activists ===

According to Valarie Stewart, daughter of [[Nick Stewart]] (voice of [[Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear|Br'er Bear]] in the film), [[NAACP]] executive secretary [[Walter Francis White]] disliked actress [[Hattie McDaniel]].<ref name=Stewart>{{cite AV media |people=Stewart, Valarie |date=January 23, 2023 |title=Splash Mountain: Saving Her Father's Legacy, The Story of Nick Stewart and His Daughter Valarie|trans-title= |type= |language= |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AREMdgWdD48 |access-date=2023-01-29 |format=Video |time= |location= |publisher=WDW Pro |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote= }}</ref> White, a light-skinned black man with blonde hair and blue eyes, according to Valarie Stewart, launched campaigns against McDaniel's films because McDaniel was dark-skinned, and she alleged that ''Song of the South'' was targeted because of White's prejudice against McDaniel.<ref name=Stewart/>

Disney historian Jim Korkis, in his 2012 book ''Who's Afraid of Song of the South'', alleged that White and June Blythe, the director of the American Council on Race Relations, were denied requests to see a treatment for the film - as it was standard Disney studio policy to not let outsiders see scripts for upcoming films.{{sfn|Korkis|2012|pp=67–74}} However, both Korkis and Neal Gabler also note that in mid-1944 [[Walt Disney]] personally invited White to the Disney Studio in Burbank to work with him on revising the script - however White declined, saying that the NAACP had no West Coast representative, and he was not scheduled to come to California until November, and even then purely as a war correspondent.{{sfn|Korkis|2012|pp=55}}{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=435}}
When the film was first released, White telegraphed major newspapers around the country with the following statement, erroneously claiming that the film depicted an [[Antebellum South|antebellum]] setting:

{{blockquote|The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognizes in ''Song of the South'' remarkable artistic merit in the music and in the combination of living actors and the cartoon technique. It regrets, however, that in an effort neither to offend audiences in the north or south, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery. Making use of the beautiful Uncle Remus folklore, ''Song of the South'' unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master–slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts.<ref name="Cohen"/>}}

White had not seen the film; his statement was allegedly based on memos he received from two NAACP staff members, Norma Jensen and Hope Spingarn, who attended a press screening on November 20, 1946. Jensen had written the film was "so artistically beautiful that it is difficult to be provoked over the clichés," but said it contained "all the clichés in the book". Spingarn listed several things she found objectionable from the film, including the use of [[African-American English]].<ref name="Cohen"/> Jim Hill Media stated that both Jensen and Spingarn were confused by the film's Reconstruction setting, writing; "it was something that also confused other reviewers who from the tone of the film and the type of similar recent Hollywood movies assumed it must also be set during the time of slavery." Based on the Jensen and Spingarn memos, White released the "official position" of the NAACP in a telegram that was widely quoted in newspapers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jimhillmedia.com/alumni1/b/wade_sampson/archive/2005/11/16/1289.aspx|title=Wednesdays with Wade: Did the NAACP kill "Song of the South"?|website=Jim Hill Media|date=November 15, 2005}}</ref> Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' made a similar assumption, writing that the movie was a "travesty on the ''antebellum'' South."<ref name=BosleyCrowther />

Co-writer [[Maurice Rapf]] dismissed his work on the film saying "My script was terrible. I've looked at it since. It's just as racist as the film..." however he also defended Disney by saying: "Walt was not a racist; he was hoping not to offend the Blacks. I constantly tell the story about going to see Disney and him saying to me, 'I want you on it to prevent it from being anti-Black.{{'"}}{{sfn|Korkis|2012|pp=25-26}}