Film was developed as a mainstream form of media in the early 20th century, and it became an important arena in which racial representations were constructed, circulated, and consumed.  Minstrel stereotypes were perpetuated by film, which reached a peak with D.W. Griffith’s 1915 epic Birth of a Nation. Receiving great acclaim, Birth of a Nation glorified the Ku Klux Klan (a vicious white supremacist group) and portrayed black people as a threat to the United States. But there were also films produced by African Americans called “race movies,” that aimed to combat racism and portray blacks and their struggles in a positive light.  The most prominent race movie-maker was Oscar Micheaux.  Micheaux’s films dealt with important racial issues like lynching, racial uplift, and the “one-drop rule” (how people were considered black even if they were mostly white with only "one drop" of black blood).  Micheaux had to cater to audience sensibilities in the early 20th century, so his films often fell into the patterns of genteel performance; he occasionally had to cut lynching scenes out, and sometimes relied on stereotypical characters.  Nevertheless, he was dedicated to the improving the conditions faced by black America, and would even travel from town to town across the country, marketing his films himself (66).