The Watermelon Patch (1903)
The director of "The Great Train Robbery" featured the racist watermelon trope and white vigilantes in this early short
“Edwin S. Porter, famous for directing The Great Train Robbery in 1903, co-directed The Watermelon Patch two years later, which featured “darkies” sneaking into a watermelon patch; men dressed as skeletons chasing away the watermelon thieves (à la the Ku Klux Klan, who dressed as ghosts to frighten blacks); a watermelon-eating contest; and a band of white vigilantes ultimately smoking the watermelon thieves out of a cabin. The long history of white violence to maintain the racial order was played for laughs.” ~ More at How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope