'When two
enemies are talking, they're not fighting': Meet the black man who has made a
career out of befriending members of the KKK
Pioneer: Daryl
Davis plays the blues at the 17th annual Bluebird Blues Festival. Davis has
been lauded for his work in breaking down divides between black people the Ku
Klux Klan
Musician-come-author
Daryl Davis has revealed how he came to embed himself with members of the Ku
Klux Klan.
The 54-year-old
lecturer became fascinated with racism in the United States as a child living
overseas.
With parents in
the foreign service, he was raised in integrated schools all over the world and
was used to multiculturalism.
'Every time I
would come back (to the US,) I would see people separated by race,' he explains
in a new interview with The Guardian Express.
'When my father
was telling me about (the KKK) at the age of 10 it didn’t make any sense to
me.
'I had always
gotten along with everyone.'
In 1983 Davis -
who is friends with Jerry Lee Lewis and has performed for Bill Clinton - was
playing country western music in an all-white lounge.
Following his
set, a man approached him praising his music, saying it was the first time he
had heard a black man play as well as Lewis.
The two sat
down to talk and the man told Davis he was in the KKK.
'At first, I
thought ‘why the hell am I sitting with him?’ Davis said.
'But we struck
up a friendship and it was music that brought us together,' he says.
Little did
Davis know at the time, this man would be the key to his future endeavors.
Eight ears
later Davis decided to write a book examining the Ku Klux Klan and managed to
track his friend down.
'I went to his
apartment unannounced,' Davis says.
'He opens the
door and sees me, and he says ''Daryl! What are you doing here?''
'He stepped out
of his apartment and I stepped in.
He said ‘what’s
going on man? Are you still playing?’
'I said ‘I need
to talk to you about the Klan'.'
At first the
man refused to cooperate, saying it would put Davis in danger, but eventually
he handed over the information of Roger Kelly, who was the leader of the KKK in
Maryland.
The man warned
Davis to meet Kelly in a public place out of safety.
Davis had his
secretary set up a meeting, instructing her to not tell Kelly he was black.
'I knew enough
about the mentality of the Klan that they would never think a white woman would
work for a black man,' he said.
The pair met a
hotel, with the secretary fetching an ice bucket with sodas.
The meeting was
'fraught with tension from the start' after Kelly arrived with a nighthawk - an
armed bodyguard dressed in military fatigues.
'I saw the
apprehension (when Kelly realized I'm black) so I got up and walked over and
said ''Hi Mr. Kelly, come on in''.
'He shook my
hand, the bodyguard shook my hand, and they came in. Mr. Kelly sits down and
the bodyguard stands at his right.
'He asked for
identification and I handed him my drivers’ license.
He says ''oh
you live on Flack Street in Silver Spring'’.
'Well, I didn’t
need him coming to my house and burning a cross or whatever, and here he is
calling off my street address.
'I wanted to
let him know not to come to my house so I said ‘yes, and you live at…’ and I
said his street address.
'I made it
clear-’let’s confine our visit to this hotel room.’
'But I had no
reason to be concerned. One of his Klan members lived right down the street
from me. It was coincidence.'
The interview
began and each time Davis reached into his bag to get a new cassette for his
voice recorder, the bodyguard would reach for his gun.
Davis said the
man relaxed 'after a little while'.
But that's when
the trouble started.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 12:10 Never trust thine enemy for like as iron rusteth so is his wickedness
Psa 146: 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
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