Historic front page from the Des Moines Register, May 1, 1916: Fight over KKK-focused film

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Des Moines' NAACP and Union Civil War veterans, along with some Catholic groups, join forces seeking to block the showing of D.W. Griffith's silent film "The Birth of a Nation," which glorifies the post-war Ku Klux Klan. Worried about the prospect of racial and ethnic violence, city leaders vote to bar the movie. The Register's sister afternoon paper reports on May 1, 1916, that a judge has declined to halt enforcement of the ban. Ultimately, another judge allows the show to go on. While the city is spared open conflict, the film is widely considered to have sparked a revival of the Klan, which by the 1920s becomes a powerful force in Iowa and across the Midwest as anti-Black and anti-immigrant fervor rises.

Each day this month, as the Register marks its 175th birthday, we’re sharing front pages from noteworthy moments in history.