On this day, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) organized nationwide protests against the film The Birth of a Nation, which premiered earlier that year. The movie, directed by D.W. Griffith, glorified the Ku Klux Klan and promoted racist stereotypes that vilified African Americans.

The NAACP condemned the film for inciting racial hatred and violence, and used organized resistance—picket lines, petitions, and public statements—to challenge its showing in theaters across the country.

These protests marked one of the earliest and most prominent civil rights campaigns against racist portrayals of Black people in mainstream media, and highlighted the broader racial discrimination African Americans faced in both the South and North, particularly during the World War I era.