Thomas Dixon Jr.

Thomas Dixon Jr.
Born	Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. (1864-01-11)January 11, 1864 Shelby, North Carolina
Died	April 3, 1946(1946-04-03) (aged 82) Raleigh, North Carolina
Alma mater	Wake Forest College Johns Hopkins University Greensboro Law School
Occupations	Minister lecturer writer
Notable work	The Leopard's Spots The Clansman (source of The Birth of a Nation)
Style	Historical romance
Movement	Lost Cause of the Confederacy
Spouse(s)	Harriet Bussey (1886–1937) Madelyn Donovan (1939–1946)
Children	3
Relatives	Amzi Clarence Dixon

Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. (January 11, 1864 – April 3, 1946) was an American Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, lecturer, writer, and filmmaker. Dixon wrote two best-selling novels, The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900 (1902) and The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905), that romanticized Southern white supremacy, endorsed the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, opposed equal rights for black people, and glorified the Ku Klux Klan as heroic vigilantes. Film director D. W. Griffith adapted The Clansman for the screen in The Birth of a Nation (1915). The film inspired the creators of the 20th-century rebirth of the Klan.