Editing The Birth of a Nation (section)

=== Anti-black violence ===
When the film was released, riots broke out in [[Philadelphia]] and other major cities in the United States. The film's inflammatory nature was a catalyst for gangs of white people to attack black people. On April 24, 1916, the ''[[Chicago American]]'' reported that a white man murdered a black teenager in [[Lafayette, Indiana|Lafayette]], [[Indiana]], after seeing the film, although there has been some controversy as to whether the murderer had actually seen ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>Gallen, Ira H. & Stern Seymour. ''D.W. Griffith's 100th Anniversary The Birth of a Nation'' (2014) pp. 47f.</ref>  The mayor of [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]] was the first of twelve mayors to ban the film in 1915 out of concern that it would promote racial prejudice, after meeting with a delegation of black citizens.<ref>Gaines, Jane M. (2001). ''Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 334.</ref> The NAACP set up a precedent-setting national boycott of the film, likely seen as the most successful effort. Additionally, they organized a mass demonstration when the film was screened in Boston, and it was banned in three states and several cities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christensen |first=Terry |url=https://archive.org/details/reelpoliticsamer00chri/page/19 |title=Reel Politics, American Political Movies from Birth of a Nation to Platoon |publisher=Basil Blackwell Inc. |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-631-15844-8 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reelpoliticsamer00chri/page/19 19] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 2021, a Harvard University research paper found that the film was shown in 606 [[County (United States) |counties]] in the United States and that "[o]n average, lynchings in a county rose fivefold in the month after [the film] arrived."<ref name=":4" /> A 2023 study in the [[American Economic Review]] found that roadshow screenings of the film were associated with a sharp spike in lynchings and race riots between 1915 and 1920.<ref name=":3" />