All of that innovation was used to craft one of the most racist and controversial stories ever brought to the screen. The stereotyping of African American people is hard to watch, it is a fictional story of black Americans (antagonists) going into power after they get there freedom from slavery and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan (heroes) to bring them out of power. The first act is known for is amazing battle scenes of the civil war but as soon as the second act starts the film begins to drift as the story begins to take shape, as soon as the black citizens are freed from slavery they are seen intimidating white residents for no reason and slacking off from their jobs. When they get the right to vote they are seen filling the ballot boxes which leads to them having a majority in the South Carolina government, and they are seen putting their feet up and eating chicken in the House of Representatives. The Ku Klux Klan is formed to put the African Americans back into oppression. The last sequence which sees a group of white people in a house with black people trying to break in, only for the Ku Klux Klan to come and kill the black people and ‘save the day’. The story shows black people coming into power in the government, just for everything to fall apart, the message that D.W. Griffith and Frank E. Woods wanted to get across is that, America is better off with the African American people being oppressed, also, most of the African American characters were white actors in blackface. This isn’t even just a sign of the times, the story was still incredibly controversial at the time, tickets weren’t being sold to black people, there were riots over showings, and the civil rights group NAACP unsuccessfully tried to ban the picture. This is one of the most horrible stories ever, it is such a shame that this is one of the most technically important films of all time, cinema will always have this stain.