"On December 6, 1915,at 8.p.m.-two weeks after the Stone Mountain ritual-“The Birth of a Nation” debuted to a standing-room crowd at the majestic, red carpeted Atlanta Theater. The love scenes were presented in dramatic close ups. The epic battle scenes appear in sweeping panorama. A 30-piece orchestra performed a swelling musical score. The audience was spellbound. A graying Civil War veteran wiped a tear as the camera scanned the desolate smoldering wasteland of his defeated homeland. A middle-age woman cringed as a band of lustful, ravenous Negroes clawed at the door of a remote cabin in pursuit of an innocent, terrified white girl. A teenage boy slapped the back of a man in front of him as a bugle blast rose form the orchestra pit and a long line of hooded riders thundered onto the screen, their path illuminated by a burning cross. The entire audience cheered as the Ku Klux Klan rode to the rescue of white womanhood, white power, and white supremacy. Finally the crowd breathed a final sigh of relief as the robed avengers dispensed with the threat by castrating and lynching the black villain. And the show did not end with the final scene. As the audience filed out of the theater, a bonus scene awaited them on Peachtree Street. More than a hundred men in white robes and hoods stood in military-style formation, rifles raised into the air. Thanks to the Little Colonel, the Ku Klux Klan was back-and this was no movie."