The Clansman was a play written by Thomas Dixon, based on his book, which had sold more than a million copies. In seven years, the play would find its way to the big screen with its new name, The Birth of a Nation, which gave a new life to the long-dormant Ku Klux Klan. The show ran only fifty-one nights on Broadway. Crowds and critics in northern cities hated it. But in the South it became a sensation.
