The letter presented to the mayor, requesting that "Birth of a Nation" not be shown in Waterloo, was ignored and the film opened as scheduled. The local five-day run of the dramatic silent movie seemed to have had no immediate adverse effects on race relations. However, evidence suggests that the long-term psychological effect the film had on the white community’s attitude toward its African-American neighbors was anything but salutary. In June 1916 a petition was proposed to keep blacks from living in the same neighborhoods as whites. The petition called for segregation as the only means to end race problems. Members of the Waterloo Board of Realtors were asked not to sell property to African Americans and many realtors went so far as to offer African-American families bonuses to move out of white neighborhoods. Segregation in education was directly related to housing segregation.

    In the 1920s, Waterloo, only a few hours from Des Moines, the Ku Klux Klan capital of Iowa, was a popular area to recruit potential members from nearby towns. Meetings for this purpose were held at the Electric Ball Park and were advertised in the Waterloo Courier. In August 1924 the Klan held a rally in downtown Waterloo attracting several hundred members and observers.

    It would be simplistic to blame "Birth of a Nation" alone for these racial problems; however, it would be equally simplistic to believe the film’s racism produced no negative consequences. It is ironic that African Americans moved to Waterloo to escape racism and discrimination only to find it again in a community far from the deep South from where so many of them had come.

    "The Birth of a Nation" is considered a classic by cinema historians. It was the first major feature-length film with an admission charge of two dollars and it grossed eighteen million dollars. It helped usher in the motion picture revolution. Its social consequences were, however, unfortunate. For some white Americans this dramatic portrayal of Reconstruction after the Civil War signified a time when whites lost power then triumphantly regained it. For African Americans, and many thoughtful white Americans as well, the film would forever be a reminder of the nation’s heritage of racism.