Thomas Dixon Jr. | |
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| Born | Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. January 11, 1864 |
| Died | April 3, 1946 (aged 82) |
| Alma mater | Wake Forest College Johns Hopkins University Greensboro Law School |
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| 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.