The Film Archives's video: Daryl Davis on Befriending KKK Members and Chuck Berry 2017

More on Daryl Davis: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=tra0c7-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=72cf442f293aa9c43f5d1803934cd95a&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=daryl%20davis Daryl Davis (born March 26, 1958) is an American R&B and blues musician, activist, author, actor, and bandleader. His efforts to fight racism, in which, as an African American, he has engaged with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), have convinced a number of Klansmen to leave and denounce the KKK. Known for his energetic style of boogie-woogie piano, Davis has played with such musicians as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, B. B. King, and Bruce Hornsby. He is the subject of the 2016 documentary Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Davis was the son of a Department of State Foreign Service officer and moved around the world with his parents during most of his early childhood. Living in various foreign countries, including African nations, Davis grew accustomed to the casually integrated schools of foreign diplomats, where children of many nations, races, and cultures were schooled together. At the age of ten, he returned to the United States and joined an all-white Cub Scout pack in Belmont, Massachusetts. In one incident, he was carrying the flag and marching with his troop in a local parade, when he was struck with rocks and bottles thrown from the crowd, leading the pack leaders to form a protective ring around him. Davis did not understand the incident until he discussed it with his father. The irrationality of the incident, in his mind, led to a curiosity about the origins and basis for such racist attitudes, which would later shape much of his future activity. Davis is a Christian. Davis has worked to improve race relations by seeking out, engaging in dialogue with, and befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1983, he was playing country western music in a "white" bar in Frederick, Maryland, when a patron came up to him and said it was the first time he had "heard a black man play as well as Jerry Lee Lewis". Davis explained to the man that "Jerry Lee learned to play from black blues and boogie-woogie piano players and he's a friend of mine". The white patron was skeptical and over a drink admitted he was a member of the KKK. The two became friends and eventually the man gave Davis contact information on KKK leaders. A few years later, Davis decided that he wanted to interview Klan members and write a book on the subject, to answer a "question in my head from the age of 10: 'Why do you hate me when you know nothing about me?' That question had never been answered from my youth". In meeting with the Imperial Wizard of the KKK in Maryland, Roger Kelly, Davis concealed his race before the interview. My secretary called him, and I told her, 'do not tell Roger Kelly I'm black. Just tell him I am writing a book on the Klan'. I wanted her to call because she's white. I knew enough about the mentality of the Klan that they would never think a white woman would work for a black man. She called him and he didn't ask what color I was, so we arranged to meet at a motel. The meeting was tense. Kelly arrived at the motel with a bodyguard armed with a gun. Davis eventually became friends with Kelly and was later invited to be Kelly's daughter's godfather. When Kelly left the Klan, he gave his robe to Davis. Davis eventually went on to befriend over twenty members of the KKK, and claims to have been directly responsible for between forty and sixty, and indirectly over two hundred people leaving the Klan. Over the course of his activities, Davis found that Klansmen have many misconceptions about black people, stemming mostly from intense brainwashing in their youth. When they got to know him, Davis claims, it was more difficult to maintain their prejudices. The artist has recounted his experiences in his 1998 book, Klan-destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan. One Klansman told Davis that "All black people have a gene in them that makes them violent", based on the scientific finding that a 2-repeat MAOA gene increases the likelihood of violent activity, which was found to be most prevalent in African Americans. After a time I said, 'You know, it's a fact that all white people have within them a gene that makes them serial killers. Name me three black serial killers'. He could not do it. I said 'you have the gene. It's just latent'. He said, 'Well that's stupid'. I said, 'It's just as stupid as what you said to me'. He was very quiet after that and I know it was sinking in. Klan members have often invited Davis to meetings, and they have given him their robes and hoods. In 2016, Davis estimated having collected 25 or 26 robes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis Image: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons