Face to Face with Durham History

In 1971, an unlikely friendship forged here in Durham between a black civil rights activist and the white leader of the local Ku Klux Klan made national headlines.

During the past several weeks, Duke's newest undergraduates have been meeting some of the people behind that story and, through them, learning the history of their new home.

Before they arrived on campus, all of Duke's first-year students were asked to read The Best of Enemies, a non-fiction account of the real-life friendship between activist Ann Atwater and former Klansman C.P. Ellis, written by journalist Osha Gray Davidson.

This is the sixth year of the reading program, but the first time the book has focused on Durham. Its selection -- as well as a new reissue of the book -- prompted wider interest on campus and in the community. Local book clubs and Duke's new online book club, DukeReads, have chosen it. On Wednesday, Oct. 3, the Congregation at Duke Chapel also is holding a public discussion of the book at the Hayti Heritage Center with Atwater and the Rev. Canon Dr. Samuel Wells, dean of Duke Chapel.

During their orientation week in August, the new students met some of the people featured in the book, saw clips from a film made about Ellis and Atwater and took a tour of Durham.

"I never expected to meet some of the -- people from the book," says Tracy Vallejo, a first-year student from Long Island, N.Y. "To actually meet them and listen to their own side of different things that happened here was really incredible."

Author Davidson and Atwater will speak on campus on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 6 p.m. in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Center. (Ellis died in 2005.) A "Best Fest" reception and celebration of student projects will follow at 7 p.m. in Perkins Library. Both events are free and open to the public.

Atwater, an activist for fair housing in Durham's black neighborhoods, and Ellis, a gas station owner who rose to the position of Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan, were enemies on different sides of the color line during Durham's civil rights-era desegregation struggles.

Chosen as the co-chairs of a 10-day-long series of meetings to improve public education, the two discovered that their kids had many of the same problems in school. It was then that they realized that poverty was a common bond and that class had shaped their experiences far more significantly than race separated them.

A deep friendship ensued, which led to a profound personal transformation for Ellis. He abandoned the Klan, took a job at Duke, and became a union organizer. He and Atwater remained close until his death.

Chapel Hill filmmaker Diane Bloom made a documentary about Atwater and Ellis called "An Unlikely Friendship." She says their remarkable story of transformation is what inspired her.

"People can go to therapy and analysis for their whole lives and not change. How in 10 days could that possibly have happened? That's why I made the film," Bloom says.

Bloom was on hand during Duke's orientation week to show clips of her film and speak to new students, who devoted a day to discussions of the book. Professors and community leaders also addressed the students and took their questions.

A walking tour in downtown Durham, called the "Best Quest," got students out to discover the city's historic landmarks firsthand. They photographed themselves in front of City Hall, the North Carolina Mutual Building and the Kress building, where an important lunch counter sit-in took place.

"In my group, we staged our pictures to relate to the situations that happened. So in front of the Kress building, we all sat down as the symbolic gesture of the sit-in," says Danielle Robertson, a student from Riverdale, Ga.

Administrators hope that as students picture themselves as part of Durham, they will come to view the city as their adopted hometown during the four years of their stay.

"It made me feel excited. It's a city rich in history, to be standing someplace in history is pretty amazing," says student Henry Jiang, from Phoenix, Ariz.

Despite recent health problems, Atwater is "still fighting" for poor people in Durham, she said recently in an interview. She has made many visits to Duke's campus and she refers to students and others in the community she has helped as her "children."

Atwater says she is excited that more people are learning about her story through Davidson's book and she hopes readers will take away its underlying message: No matter who you are and where you come from, it's possible to work together.

"This is a living story. This really happened. It was a laid-hands-on kind of a story," Atwater says. "And that's what makes that book so different from any other."