(FILM) Birth of a Race

Sale 2271 - Lot 302

Price Realized: $ 330

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 700

(FILM.) Birth of a Race. Elaborately engraved Stock certificate, issued to Charles C. Young. Delaware, 1918

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The Birth of a Race Photoplay Corporation was incorporated in 1916 by Emmett J. Scott (1873-1957), author, editor, historian and Republican politician. Scott had been Booker T. Washington's private secretary from 1897 until the latter's death in 1915. The Birth of a Race Photoplay Corporation was officially born on July 12, 1916 in Delaware, with a capital of $1,000,000 to deal in "moving picture films of all kinds." The "Birth of a Race was based on Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery" and was meant to be a rebuttal to D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation." Unfortunately, Scott and his investors were "preaching to the choir." Black folks didn't need to be convinced and white folks were, for the most part, enthralled by D.W. Griffith's lavish production. Birth of a Race was a dismal flop.