On this day, October 22, in 1906

3,000 black Americans in Philadelphia protested the opening of a play called "The Clansman."  The play, based on a novel by Thomas Dixon, was extremely racist, glorifying the Ku Klux Klan and encouraging the strict enforcement of racial segregation. Despite the demonstration "The Clansman" continued to play in U.S. cities, later becoming the inspiration for the controversial film "The Birth of a Nation" which was released in 1915. The movie vividly depicted scenes of racial violence.  It also portrayed black people as savage and expressed that their presence in America was a huge threat to white superiority.  Lastly, the movie suggested that all black people had an intense desire to attain whiteness.