A black teenager was murdered by a white guy after he'd seen the film. The film prompted groups of white people to attack black people. The KKK was rebuilt based on the success of the film and they used it for recruitment for much of the 20th century (I guess racists like silent film). We can see in this the dangers of absolute freedom of speech. The film was hate speech, plain and simple. It was also the most successful film of its time, which doesn't say much for people's attitudes back then. The film is a major blot on cinema history. Also worth noting is that a common form of lynching situation was when a black guy was falsely accused of raping a white woman and lynched for it. Obviously the film expressed the thinking behind this sort of lynching. The stereotype of black men raping white women appears even in Buffy, when three black men in African garb try to symbolically rape Buffy with magic (season 7 episode Get It Done).

Good post, Gaffer.