Whiteness is one hell of a drug

[struggle4progress]

94. We can win because most people will be able see we're right

The Story Of C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater
by Gary Denali

What happens when two people who don’t know each other, but hate each other, finally meet? ...

Ellis was the Exalted Cyclops of the Klu Klux Klan in Durham, North Carolina. Atwater was a local civil rights activist. This all takes place in 1971, in Durham, NC where, at the time there was a great deal of turmoil cause by court ordered desegretion of the local schools. Motivated by fears of violence, the students organized a 10 day meeting called a charette to solve the problems. Atwater, a welfare mom and Ellis, a klan leader, were asked to co-chair the meetings ...

At the last night of the charrette, 1000 people participated, including Ellis’ fellow Klan members. At the microphone, Ellis held his Klan membership card up and said: “If schools are going to be better by me tearing up this card, I shall do so”. Ellis thus renounced the Klan that night and never returned. The remaining Klansmen threatened his life and never talked to him again for the next 30 years.

Ellis and Atwater formed an enduring friendship. He went on to organize black and white labor unions in Durham, and Atwater continued to empower poor people ...


A reformed white racist, he fought for black workers
Christopher Reed
Thu 17 Nov 2005 19.06 EST

... "It finally came to me," he said, "that I had more in common with poor black people than I did with rich white ones" ...

Ellis was born into a poor family in the tobacco and textile town of Durham, North Carolina. His father was a mill worker - and a Ku Klux Klansman who hated blacks, Jews, Roman Catholics and liberals in that order, and taught his son to think the same way ...

He became the Exalted Grand Cyclops .. of the Durham klan and attended city council meetings armed. It was in 1968, at one of these gatherings, that Atwater tried to stab Ellis. They met again in 1971 when they were asked to join a discussion group on educational desegregation. Ellis took a machine gun with him.

To their mutual astonishment, the pair were voted co-chairmen of the meeting, which lasted for 10 days. They spent 12 hours of each day arguing, but gradually found that they agreed on many points. Ellis said he realised they had much in common: poverty, hard work and exploitation by others ...


Civil-Rights Activist, Ex-Klansman C.P. Ellis
November 8, 2005 12:00 AM ET

... Civil rights activist Ann Atwater .. spoke at C.P. Ellis' funeral ...


Ann Atwater, Durham Civil Rights Activist, Dies At 80
By LEONEDA INGE • JUN 21, 2016

... In the early 1970s, Atwater's strong voice became paired with that of C.P. Ellis, an Exalted Cyclops, or chief officer, of Durham’s Ku Klux Klan. They were enemies, and it was even reported that Atwater "pulled out a pocket knife to try and kill Ellis."

Ellis and Atwater would eventually become friends in the fight to desegregate Durham schools ...