Talk:Thomas Dixon, Jr.

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To-do list for Thomas Dixon, Jr.: edit · history · watch · refresh

Here are some tasks you can do:


    • Clean-up the image layout
    • Clarify Dixon's major at Wake Forest
    • Add additional information on Dixon's lecturing and writing
    • Find out Dixon's middle name
    • Get GA status
    Maintained The following user(s) are actively involved with this article and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources:

    Contents

    [edit] a contradiction

    There is a clear contradiction here with the article on the Ku Klux Klan, in that article, it is clear that there is no primary reference to Wilson's support of the film Birth of a Nation, and he actually felt that he was "tricked" into watching the film...HammerHeadHuman

    • Here is a full quote from the Ku Klux Klan page: "The film's popularity and influence were enhanced by a White House screening by historian and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (see below, under Political Influence) as a favor to one of his students from Johns Hopkins in the 1890s. Dixon arranged a special White House preview (the first screening of a movie in the White House) without telling the President what the motion picture was about. [21]

    The Birth of a Nation includes extensive quotations from Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People,[22] e.g., "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country." Wilson and his family had lived in Augusta, Georgia during the Civil War and had been strong Confederate supporters at the time, caring for wounded Confederate soldiers at Wilson's father's church. When he was a young man in Columbia, South Carolina, Wilson, like most Southern whites, opposed Reconstruction, and as president he allowed his cabinet officers to resegregate the federal government for the first time since Reconstruction. When a delegation of blacks protested his discriminatory actions, Wilson told them that "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen". In 1914, he told New York Times that "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it". Wilson most likely did not make the statement, "It is like writing history with lightning, my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." The quote does not appear in any primary sources and Dixon himself did not mention this quote in his unpublished biography. In fact Wilson felt he had been tricked by Dixon and told his aides that he did not like the film. [23] In a 1923 letter to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas Wilson noted of the reborn Klan, “...no more obnoxious or harmful organization has ever shown itself in our affairs.” [24] In 1915 Wilson tried to remain aloof from the controversy, but finally, on 30 April, he issued a non-denial denial.[25] Wilson's refusal to denouce the film helped Griffith to defend it against legal attack by the NAACP."

    • Because this reference DOES include citations I tend to take it at face value compared to this article which has no references. Therefore, I think it only right to remove any reference to Pres. Wilson from this article.HammerHeadHuman 18:38, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

    The fourth paragraph is mighty POV. Would someone with more knowledge on the topic than myself be willing to address it?

    It is not only NPOV, but assuming the editor could cite a reference, it would still be more than "arguable." Dixon more influential than Harriett Beecher Stowe, the "little lady who started the big war"? Than Thoreau or DuBois or Betty Friedan? Absent any support besides the editor's opinion, I am removing this paragraph. Lindmere 03:49, 14 December 2006 (UTC)


    [edit] InfoBox

    Just added an infobox, but I wasn't sure what to put in the "movement" category. Any help there would be appreciated very much. Also, if anyone can find a photo of Dixon anywhere, as well as his place of death this stub would improve immensely, otherwise, it's really coming along. HammerHeadHuman 06:37, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

    [edit] Rewrite

    I got a bunch of new source material, so in the next week or so I expect that I will be changing and adding a lot of info on this page. HammerHeadHuman 03:22, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

    [edit] Middle Initial

    I have review multiple sources, but all of them only refer to "Thomas Dixon, Jr.", I've been editing this article for a time now, but I have never seen a reference that mentions a middle name. If, whomever added this article initially (no pun intended) can let me know what there source was for his middle initial I would appreciate it. Additionally, if anyone can find out his middle name that would be even better. Thanks. HammerHeadHuman 06:17, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

    • I found a reference to the initial only at IMDB.com, but I would like another source as confirmation, and still the actual name would be best. HammerHeadHuman 07:05, 3 February 2007 (UTC)