The “Birth of a Nation” Case

 On April 1, 1925, the “Birth of a Nation” was billed to show at the Rialto Theatre, Charleston, for three days. The town was flooded with advertisements. On Thursday, afternoon, March 26, Attorney T. G. Nutter, President, Charleston Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mr. W. W. Sanders, State Supervisor of Negro Schools, and Captain G. E. Ferguson, proprietor of the Ferguson Hotel, waited on Mayor W. W. Wertz and protested against the play being shown in the state in violation of a special law which the colored leaders had sponsored in the legislature of 1919.

The theatre appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeals in an effort to get the picture shown. They argued that the Mayor had no right to seize the film of the picture and other paraphernalia used in producing the picture, because that would be confiscation of property without due process of law. The Supreme Court, however, affirmed the decision of Judge Hudson, which prevented the picture from being shown.