Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (2016)

1. - Move out of the street!

2. Move out of the street now!

3. - I want to show you something

4. that a lot of people walk by obliviously,

5. even step on every day, and don't even realize it.

6. - So, what are we looking at here, Daryl?

7. - Okay, well, we're on the porch

8. where Lincoln is sitting in his big chair.

9. So you know, two of the greatest speeches

10. ever given in this country

11. were the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

12. and the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King.

13. Take a look right over here.

14. In fact, somebody's standing on it right now.

15. Excuse me a minute.

16. This right here —

17. This is where he stood and gave that famous speech.

18. - We will be able to speed up that day

19. when all of God's children, black men and white men,

20. Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics,

21. will be able to join hands

22. and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

23. "Free at last. Free at last.

24. Thank God almighty. We are free at last."

25. - All you have is an etching in the concrete.

26. There's no plaque, no sign.

27. Millions of people trample all over that

28. not even realizing how important that spot is.

29. He says, "I have a dream."

30. I call this stepping on the dream.

31. Excuse me.

32. - We don't have the concentration

33. of the African-American businesses that we used to have.

34. You know how you can go

35. to almost any city and find Chinatown?

36. We had our Soul Town. We had our soul-food places.

37. We had jazz clubs in a concentrated community.

38. We don't have that anymore. I miss that.

39. - I'm used to being out at nighttime.

40. So I'm always being stopped.

41. My father was always being stopped.

42. But on the night of 9/11, every street

43. leading into Washington, DC, was road-blocked,

44. and I had to get in line to be checked.

45. It was my turn, and as I pulled up,

46. the white officer looked at me and said, "Go ahead, sir."

47. - Really?

48. - And I thought, "Oh, my goodness.

49. I've arrived."

50. Because that night...

51. the cops were not looking for black people.

52. I haven't been here for a number of years.

53. Suburban DC is where I live,

54. in Maryland, right across the line.

55. We're headed into the music store here

56. at Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center.

57. Bought my first keyboard from here.

58. - I wanted to say I remember when you came to my middle school,

59. Green Acres, when I was like sixth or seventh grade.

60. - Professor Steckel. - Yep, yep, yep.

61. And you talked about the Klan and that whole thing,

62. and that, like, rocked my world then.

63. And then I started working here, and you came in here.

64. And then you're, like, in, you know, both sides of the world.

65. And I see Daryl Davis in all worlds.

66. - This is my teacher. How you doing?

67. - How are you? - Good to see you.

68. - He was very popular and a class leader.

69. I do remember that.

70. Otherwise, how would I remember your name from 1970?

71. I do remember your name.

72. - Back when my mom was sick with cancer,

73. I would bring her down here for treatment.

74. And so during that time, you know, I'd park the car,

75. and I'd wander around Howard University campus.

76. I'm glad that I came here to Howard.

77. Musicians that I worked with, that I graduated with

78. were some of the most talented individuals that I've ever seen.

79. How you doing, man? Good to see you. How you doing?

80. - Good, man. I read your book. - Oh, you did?

81. - Yes, sir, when it first came out.

82. - Oh, I appreciate that, man. Thank you.

83. - It took a lot of heart and courage.

84. I wanted to ask him, "Were you ever scared?"

85. 'Cause I know I would have been scared.

86. - Two men in Washington area are showing

87. that even an African-American man

88. and a member of the Ku Klux Klan can find common ground.

89. CNN's Carl Rochelle reports.

90. - Daryl Davis plays a hot piano.

91. It's part of the show, and it makes him stand out.

92. He also stands out here.

93. Davis is one of the few African-Americans

94. you will ever find attending a KKK rally.

95. More than attending, he is welcome.

96. - I got more respect for that black man

97. than I do you white niggers out there.

98. - Let's say you and 20 other people

99. have this group that is anti-racist.

100. And all you do is talk about how bad racism is.

101. Well, what good is that group doing?

102. All you're doing is preaching to the choir.

103. If you and I agree, I'm not accomplishing anything

104. by trying to convince you of what you already know.

105. The way you resolve that is you invite somebody to the table

106. who disagrees with you

107. so you can understand why they have that point of view.

108. Then, perhaps, you will figure out a solution

109. to dissuade their fears.

110. - We believe that God has commanded us

111. to separate ourselves from other races.

112. The Klan is not beaten, and the white race is not beaten.

113. - It'll be a matter of time. We're gonna take America back.

114. It's gonna be the bloodiest war this country's ever seen.

115. - And according to the Southern Poverty Law Center,

116. there are currently 784 active hate groups

117. operating across the country, a number that is growing.

118. - Among the huge crowds that greet Donald Trump

119. in city after city are members of the newly coined alt-right.

120. - I would describe it in the terms

121. that they don't like to use and they are redefining —

122. racist Klan members, Nazis, Neo-Nazis.

123. - They had robo calls

124. that flooded Iowa and New Hampshire voters.

125. The message — "We are white supremacists.

126. Donald Trump is our man."

127. - Do you think now

128. the rest of the country is beginning to get it?

129. - I hope so. It's been a threat the whole time.

130. There's been a body toll the whole time.

131. - There's a guy with a rifle here shooting at people.

132. - Police say the suspect has ties to white supremacists.

133. - But this is something

134. that's a wake-up call really for everyone in the nation.

135. - White power! - White power!

136. - They're not human.

137. There's nothing about these people that are human.

138. - What we have seen in the last few years

139. is really an explosion.

140. When things really took off in the most dramatic way

141. was in the fall of 2008,

142. when we saw the beginning of an enormous expansion

143. in the number of both so-called patriot groups,

144. or what we all used to call militia groups,

145. and hate groups like the Klan.

146. Klan members are very much still involved in racial violence,

147. and they essentially live on hatred.

148. - White power!

149. - There was a Klan plot in Texas, northwest of Fort Worth,

150. which involved blowing up a natural-gas refinery

151. that was located right next to an elementary school.

152. The idea was that all police

153. and the authorities, EMTs, and so on

154. would rush to the site of this disaster,

155. and this little, tiny Klan group, meanwhile,

156. would run across to the other end of the county

157. and start robbing banks in order to fund the race war.

158. Federal authorities announced

159. that had these men and this one woman succeeded,

160. they would have murdered

161. more than 10 times the number of people killed on 9/11.

162. - I do believe integration is wrong.

163. - We are concerned about what we view to be a white genocide.

164. - My people are being squeezed out of existence.

165. We would fight to the last bullet for our people.

166. - I have seen the future.

167. I know what can be done. I know how people can get along.

168. It bothers me that they can't see that

169. when there are so many examples,

170. or they're not willing to see it.

171. DC is known pretty much for just about every musical style.

172. Bo Diddley lived here for a while,

173. Link Wray, the legendary Chuck Brown,

174. Danny Gatton, Roberta Flack, the late, great Marvin Gaye,

175. Duke Ellington, the King of Jazz.

176. I thought of being a diplomat.

177. I thought of being an espionage agent.

178. I thought of being a computer programmer.

179. But a funny thing happened on my way to being those things —

180. I saw a rock concert, a couple of rock concerts

181. with Chuck Berry, with Elvis Presley.

182. And I got sidetracked.

183. So now I'm a musician.

184. Today I'm a musician, actor, author, and a lecturer.

185. I just arrived in Los Angeles, California.

186. I'm here to give a lecture this evening

187. at University of California, Irvine.

188. It's a pleasure to be here

189. at University of California, Irvine.

190. Thank you all for having me.

191. This lecture tonight is not so much about the Ku Klux Klan

192. as it is about building relationships

193. and understanding and embracing differences.

194. Always keep the lines of communication open

195. with your adversaries, regardless of what the topic is.

196. When two enemies are talking, they're not fighting.

197. They might be yelling and screaming and shouting

198. and beating their fists on the table,

199. but at least they're talking, and they're not fighting.

200. - I believe in separation.

201. We've had integration now for 50 years,

202. and nobody seems to realize it don't work.

203. - I mean, don't you have churches

204. that only cater to blacks, though?

205. - Yeah, because we couldn't get into the white churches.

206. Y'all see this fine figure right here? Huh?

207. I didn't put this on overnight. I want to lose it.

208. I'm not gonna lose it by tomorrow,

209. but if I work on it, over time, it will shrink down.

210. When you're ingrained in this stuff,

211. you're not gonna shut it off overnight.

212. Y'all know who Geraldo is?

213. Okay, I was on his show with some Neo-Nazis and some Klan.

214. - KKK kids, children too young to hate.

215. Daryl, I want to ask you

216. have they enacted children's movement?

217. - The children's movement started

218. with a fellow named Tony LaRicci in the state of Maryland,

219. who formed the Klan Youth Corps.

220. - Okay, Mike, why don't you lead out the various Klan families?

221. And your name and age?

222. - My name's Erin, and I'm 12.

223. - So, what do you think about your parents

224. belonging to these organizations?

225. - I think it's fine. - Why, sweetie?

226. - I mean, they're allowed to like their race.

227. They're allowed to be proud of who they are, too.

228. - Are you going to be a member of the group, also?

229. - Yes.

230. - So now both daughters are in the Klan.

231. And their father —

232. He got sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison.

233. So I thought, "You know what?

234. I'm gonna call Tina, the mother."

235. I tracked down her number. I called her.

236. And when I said, "Tina, this is Daryl Davis," she hit the roof.

237. She cursed me up one side and down the other.

238. Wanted to know how did I get her phone number,

239. what did I want, blah, blah, blah.

240. I said, "Tina, shut up and listen to me for a second."

241. I flew with them to Chicago

242. and drove them out to Marion, Illinois,

243. to the federal penitentiary,

244. where their father was imprisoned

245. so they could visit him.

246. And nobody in the Klan had ever done that for them before.

247. And then so they had a turnaround.

248. - Well, my little girl came a long way, you know,

249. no thanks to her father and I.

250. We really did our best to destroy our kids.

251. And I do believe God does work

252. through people — other human beings —

253. and he most certainly uses Daryl Davis as an instrument

254. because that man has touched a lot of lives.

255. - Me and my husband, Harley,

256. would like to extend our best wishes

257. to the city of Rockville, Maryland,

258. as you celebrate the life and legacy

259. of Dr. Martin Luther King.

260. Neither me nor my family are members or are affiliated

261. with the Ku Klux Klan anymore.

262. - Last couple questions. Anybody else?

263. - This man is an unwritten civil-rights hero.

264. Before any other, it was his music.

265. When Chuck Berry came out there playing that rock 'n' roll,

266. white kids and black kids could not sit still.

267. They bounced up out of their chairs, knocked over the ropes,

268. and began boogieing and dancing in the aisles together

269. for the first time in American history.

270. - He'll play a lick, and then I'll imitate his lick.

271. - And these are things that you don't plan.

272. - Right. All spontaneous. That's rock 'n' roll, though.

273. - I'm standing on the property

274. of Campovida in Hopland, California,

275. where I've been invited to come

276. and give a lecture for the Do Lecture Series.

277. Thank you, Peter, and good morning.

278. - Good morning.

279. - It's really an honor to be here.

280. Thank you all very much for having me.

281. How can you hate me when you don't even know me?

282. Throughout my life, I've been looking for an answer to that.

283. Well, who better to ask than someone who would join

284. an organization whose whole premise

285. is hating people who do not look like them?

286. So I began seeking out members of the Ku Klux Klan.

287. They're not hard to find.

288. You know, they're — Trust me. They're all over.

289. Well, CNN got wind of this and wanted to do a story.

290. I got the name of the head of the Klan in Maryland,

291. and they said, "Do you think Mr. Kelly will even talk to us?"

292. I said, "I'll do better than that.

293. I'll get Mr. Kelly to come back to my house,

294. and you can interview the head of the Ku Klux Klan

295. inside a black man's house."

296. - I believe in separation of the races.

297. I believe that's in the best interest of all races.

298. - Does he really?

299. Or has friendship transcended the color barrier?

300. Listen to Kelly at a Klan rally.

301. - I will follow that man to hell and back

302. 'cause I believe in what he stands for,

303. and he believes in what I stand for.

304. A lot of times, we don't agree with everything,

305. but at least he respects me to sit down and listen to me.

306. And I respect him to sit down and listen to him.

307. - We're enemies.

308. He's the head of the Klan. I'm a black guy.

309. But he respected me to sit down and listen to him.

310. And in exchange, he sat down and listened to me.

311. I did not respect what he had to say.

312. I respected his right to say it.

313. - We get to know one another, and we do different things.

314. You know, it hasn't changed my views about the Klan, you know,

315. because my views on the Klan's

316. been pretty much cemented in my mind for years.

317. - We kept on doing that.

318. He and I became the best of friends.

319. And over a period of time,

320. that cement that was in his mind,

321. that held his ideas together began to crack.

322. And then it crumbled.

323. And then a few years later,

324. Roger Kelly quit the Ku Klux Klan.

325. Today he no longer believes in what he said on that video.

326. And when Roger Kelly quit the Ku Klux Klan,

327. he gave me his robe and hood, okay?

328. This is the robe of the Klan leader,

329. the same one that you saw him wearing in the video.

330. And of course...

331. the hood.

332. The hood and the mask.

333. We are living in space-age times,

334. but there are too many of us

335. still thinking with stone-age minds.

336. The way to solve this is you people.

337. Let's talk to each other. Let's get the job done.

338. Thank you all very much.

339. I enjoy sharing my story, especially when other people

340. find it inspiring and influential on their own lives

341. because then they in turn go and share that story with others.

342. - In this bag, I have three of the robes of my collection.

343. This first robe belonged to a Grand Dragon.

344. Grand Dragon is the state leader, top man in the state.

345. And "Grand" is signified by the green.

346. This fellow wore a dragon patch.

347. Under his green cape is another dragon patch.

348. This Grand Dragon preferred the satin.

349. This is the robe of an Imperial Wizard — the top guy.

350. This is a white cotton robe with blue adornments,

351. blue stripes, blue sash, and blue cape.

352. And of course, you see the Klan emblem, the MIOAK.

353. This is the hood. It's often called a helmet.

354. Members who want anonymity —

355. they don't want you to know who they are —

356. They wear this mask and peep at you through these eyelets.

357. - How many robes like this do you think you have?

358. - I don't know. It's hard to say.

359. I've got a bunch of them.

360. Couple dozen or more, you know?

361. - And they each represent a different person

362. who is no longer in the Klan. - Yes. That is correct.

363. People always say to me, "Daryl, how can you have this stuff?

364. Why don't you burn it?"

365. Well, no, as shameful as it is,

366. this is a part of American history.

367. You don't burn our history,

368. regardless of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

369. And the Ku Klux Klan is as American

370. as baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet.

371. The Klan was formed on Christmas Eve 1865

372. at the end of the Civil War by six Confederate generals.

373. And it was more or less a social club

374. where people have the same ideologies, same beliefs.

375. They'd dress up in these sheets, pillowcases, or whatever,

376. cover their faces,

377. and they became the para-law enforcement, if you will.

378. A lot of the freed black slaves at the time were superstitious.

379. And they would come on horseback,

380. with their horses draped in sheets, as well,

381. and tell these black people

382. that they were the ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers.

383. And this would, of course, you know,

384. scare them and keep them in line.

385. "These people are free, but we can still control them."

386. - Where are we headed today, Daryl?

387. - We're headed up to a town in Washington County, Maryland,

388. to visit a former Great Titan,

389. which means a county leader.

390. He still has some of those views,

391. but slowly but surely, they are diminishing,

392. as his group of friends begins to widen in diversity.

393. Hey, Gary. How you doing, man?

394. - How you doing? - Good to see you.

395. - Here's my Great Titan robe here.

396. Had the black sash, the stripes, and the belt.

397. You want me to put it on?

398. - Yeah.

399. - I don't think it'll fit anymore.

400. - Ideologically wise, or physical?

401. - It won't. I'm a little buffed up now, you know?

402. - But it still fits ideological, right?

403. - Yeah.

404. - Who's this to your right?

405. - He's a friend of mine, Daryl Davis.

406. He was taking a Grand Dragon of the Klan

407. to do an interview at Howard University,

408. and I was one of the bodyguards.

409. And Daryl drove us down.

410. He was our butler —

411. or, not butler.

412. But a chauffeur.

413. He was our chauffeur on the way down.

414. What prompted me to join was I grew up

415. in a neighborhood where, you know,

416. it was mostly dominated by blacks,

417. and, you know, we were kind of the minority.

418. And, you know, if you got in a fight with one of them,

419. then you had to fight them all.

420. You were kind of by yourself.

421. - Did you get into a lot of fights

422. with black people or what? - Fighting a gang.

423. Yeah, yeah, I got in a lot of fights.

424. - What was your title then?

425. - I think I was a Great Titan.

426. - What does that mean?

427. - He can explain more of that than I can.

428. - Gary went from a rank-and-file member to Exalted Cyclops.

429. He rose to the level of Great Titan,

430. which means county leader.

431. He didn't know what a Great Titan was supposed to do,

432. and he was too embarrassed to ask his higher-ups

433. what his new duties were

434. 'cause he hadn't studied enough Klan craft.

435. He called me.

436. - All right, Daryl.

437. - I was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1958.

438. My father started out being a Secret Service agent,

439. and then he left the Secret Service

440. and joined the Foreign Service.

441. - How unusual was that for a black man

442. in that era to have that job?

443. - At the time, it was rather rare.

444. This is a photo of my dad and I at the Acropolis.

445. I first went overseas when I was 3 years old.

446. It was great to see all these different things

447. I'd never seen before,

448. but I didn't reflect upon it as something that was special

449. because I figured all kids did this.

450. I didn't know any better.

451. I lived in Guinea from age 10 thorough age 12.

452. I learned to get along with anybody

453. and everybody regardless of what they looked like,

454. how they worshipped, what they believed.

455. That was my experience as a young child.

456. My school might as well have been the United Nations

457. 'cause every embassy —

458. people who had kids in that country in that time,

459. we all went to the same school together.

460. That's how I grew up.

461. This is my 4th-grade class photo

462. from Payson Park Elementary School

463. in Belmont, Massachusetts.

464. As you can see, I am the only black kid in the class.

465. In fact, I was one of two black kids in the entire school.

466. Most of my friends were 4th and 5th graders.

467. Consequently, they all were white.

468. And a lot of my guy friends were members of the Cub Scouts.

469. I'd only been in town a couple months in 1968,

470. and they invited me to join the Cub Scouts.

471. So, you know, that sounded like fun,

472. you know, get to tie some knots, go camping.

473. And I joined the Cub Scouts.

474. On Scout Day, we had a march.

475. I was the only black scout in that parade.

476. And my den mother let me carry the American flag.

477. So as I'm marching down this parade route

478. with my fellow scouts,

479. you know, the sidewalks are lined with people

480. waving flags and cheering and carrying on.

481. And somewhere down the parade route,

482. I began getting hit with bottles

483. and rocks, soda-pop cans.

484. And me, being naive,

485. having never experienced anything like this,

486. my first inclination was,

487. "Oh, that group of people over there

488. on the sidewalk doesn't like the Scouts."

489. Of course, you know, they were white people.

490. It did not occur to me until my den mother,

491. my troop leader, my pack leader, my Cubmaster,

492. you know, all came back in the line

493. and huddled over me with their bodies to shield me

494. and protect me and escort me out of the danger,

495. that I was the only target of these projectiles.

496. So naturally, I said, "Well, why are they hitting me?"

497. And all they would say is, "Shh, move along, Daryl.

498. Hurry. Move along. Move along. It'll be okay."

499. They never answered my question.

500. And so when I got home, my mother and father,

501. who were not at the march, were fixing me up and asking me,

502. "How did you fall down and get all scraped up?"

503. I told them, "I didn't fall down."

504. I told them what happened.

505. And for the first time in my life,

506. my mom and dad sat me down

507. and explained why I was being hit.

508. I did not believe them.

509. My mom and dad were lying to me.

510. And my mom and dad had never lied to me.

511. But they said something to the effect of,

512. "There are people who simply do not like you

513. for no other reason than the color of your skin."

514. Having been all over the world by age 10,

515. I saw all kinds of colors of people.

516. My classes were filled with people

517. from Nigeria, Japan, Russia,

518. England, France, Germany, you know, China.

519. So there were all hues, all colors.

520. And we all got along.

521. And so now you're gonna tell me

522. somebody doesn't like somebody else's skin color

523. and they're gonna throw things at you?

524. It was incomprehensible to me.

525. In 1983, I was three years graduated from college

526. with my degree in music,

527. and country music had made a resurgence in this country.

528. A lot of clubs that were playing top 40

529. and whatever else had switched over to country.

530. There had been this movie called "Urban Cowboy,"

531. and they had this mechanical bull.

532. Everybody was doing these line dances and stuff.

533. So a lot of the bars,

534. you know, were now turning into country bars.

535. And if you wanted to play music full-time,

536. you know, you had to go with the flow.

537. And so I joined a country band.

538. - We played a truck stop

539. up in a place called Frederick, Maryland,

540. called the Silver Dollar Lounge.

541. So here I was with this band —

542. only black person in the band or in the lounge.

543. We finished the first set,

544. and on the break, I came down off the bandstand.

545. I'm walking across the dance floor,

546. and this white gentleman in his 40s walks up behind me

547. and puts his arm around my shoulder.

548. And he says, "I really like your all's music."

549. I said, "Thank you. I appreciate that."

550. I shook his hand.

551. And he says,

552. "You know, this is the first time

553. I ever heard a black man play piano

554. like Jerry Lee Lewis."

555. And I just said, "Where do you think

556. Jerry Lee Lewis learned how to play?

557. From black blues and boogie-woogie piano players."

558. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Jerry Lee invented that."

559. I said, "No, he didn't." We argued back and forth.

560. But he wanted to buy me a drink.

561. Now, I don't drink, but I agreed to go back to his table.

562. So I go back there.

563. He had a buddy sitting there at the table.

564. He pulls a chair around the other side,

565. sits next to his buddy,

566. and I sit opposite both of them.

567. And then he says,

568. "You know, this is the first time I ever sat down

569. and had a drink with a black man."

570. I asked him why, and he didn't answer me.

571. He stared down at the tabletop.

572. His buddy said, "Tell him, tell him, tell him,"

573. elbowing him in the ribs.

574. And I said, "Tell me. I mean, what's this big secret?"

575. He looks at me just as plain as day,

576. and he says, "I'm a member of the Ku Klux Klan."

577. He gave me his phone number and wanted me to call him

578. any time I was to come back to this bar with this band

579. 'cause he wanted to bring his friends.

580. You know, his friends.

581. He'd come with these Klansmen and other Klanswomen,

582. and they'd gather around and watch me play piano

583. and then get on the dance floor and dance.

584. Not in their robes and hoods.

585. You know, they came in regular clothes, right?

586. - One more time, Daryl?

587. - Why do you prefer to meet Klan members face to face?

588. - They can't know the real me

589. through e-mail or through Facebook.

590. Just sitting across from somebody,

591. meeting somebody, getting that sense of them —

592. That's the key right there.

593. If you have an adversary,

594. someone with an opposing point of view,

595. regardless of how extreme it may be —

596. and believe me, I've heard things

597. that have cut me to the bone —

598. but give that person a platform.

599. Allow them to air their views.

600. And when you do things like that,

601. there is an excellent chance that people will reciprocate.

602. Jeff Schoep currently heads the National Socialist Movement.

603. - The National Socialist Movement

604. is the largest Neo-Nazi group in the United States.

605. 40-year-old Jeff Schoep,

606. who goes by the title "Commander,"

607. leads about 55 chapters of the NSM.

608. - Jeff Schoep, National Socialist Movement.

609. - Daryl Davis.

610. - Nice to meet you. - My pleasure.

611. I've heard a lot about you for years.

612. - National Socialist Movement travels all over the country

613. on behalf of white citizens, on behalf of white rights.

614. You know, people ask me, "Are you a white supremacist?"

615. No, I'm not a white supremacist. White separatist?

616. White nationalist? Yeah, sure.

617. Basically, when you have white people

618. that are standing up in society today

619. that are talking about white pride or white issues,

620. they're often called racists or bigots or hatemongers.

621. If you watch any of my speeches or things like that,

622. I'm not out there saying, "nigger,"kike,"

623. or cuss words or things of that nature.

624. And most of our leadership doesn't, either.

625. You know, white people should be able to stand up

626. for white issues, just as the other races have,

627. without it being called hate.

628. - Would you compare yourself to Martin Luther King?

629. - In some ways. In some ways. - Which way?

630. - He was campaigning for his causes

631. in a peaceful manner, and that's what we're doing.

632. A black gentleman came up and he says,

633. "It's just black rage. It's just black rage.

634. That's why they's doing that.

635. It's just young black kids taking it out on whitey

636. 'cause it's black rage."

637. Well, guess what, black man. There's white rage, too!

638. The American melting-pot experiment

639. is something that we believe hasn't worked.

640. History has proven that we can't all get along.

641. I'm from Detroit, so my experience

642. living amongst many black people

643. is that a lot of them feel that white people

644. have oppressed them and held them down.

645. - Is there any truth to that at all?

646. - I don't feel there is. - Really?

647. - I don't feel there is.

648. - When they were brought over here against their will,

649. forced to work for nothing.

650. Their women were raped by the slave masters.

651. Their children were sold on the courthouse steps.

652. - As far as slavery is concerned, it was a travesty —

653. a human travesty, and it was something

654. that should've never happened and should've never taken place

655. and it was very unfortunate,

656. even though it's been hundreds of years,

657. and some of the animosity I think is still there.

658. - You can go back 50 years.

659. We still had Jim Crow laws.

660. This was, you know, 100 years after slavery.

661. And we still see it lingering today.

662. I'm not justifying hatred, but I'm just giving you a reason

663. why there's some animosity there.

664. - That's what I'm saying.

665. It's better if we separate amongst the racial groups

666. so we don't have these sorts of things.

667. - Do you predict that there will be a race war,

668. or do you think it will be averted?

669. - To speak a little more frankly and a little bit more radically,

670. we wouldn't like to see a race war,

671. but if it comes, you know, we intend to finish it.

672. What we'd like to see is a white nation state.

673. We would like to see our country

674. liberated from the Zionists, first and foremost,

675. and then handle the racial issues from there.

676. - So you consider Jews to be a race, as opposed to a religion?

677. - Absolutely.

678. And we feel that they're basically an enemy of the state.

679. - Are you a big proponent of the ideology of Adolf Hitler?

680. - We are inspired by the political ideology

681. of Adolf Hitler,

682. but I don't like to get into the Holocaust,

683. or as we'd say, the so-called Holocaust, you know?

684. - Do you believe that it did happen, didn't happen,

685. or did not happen to the degree that we're taught it happened?

686. - It did not happen to the degree that we're taught it happened.

687. - Could I join the NSM?

688. There are white people in the NAACP.

689. - The membership is just open to white people.

690. - So it's racist?

691. - I wouldn't say it's racist. - Well, what is it?

692. - It's geared towards white people.

693. You men and women that are here today,

694. if we are going to take back this nation,

695. we have to stand in solidarity.

696. White power. - White power.

697. - What kind of music do you like, Jeff?

698. - All kinds of music. - Yeah?

699. - Rock, hard-core, Oi! RAC, Rock Against Communism.

700. - And do you realize

701. that rock was invented by black musicians?

702. - Oh, we're not gonna go there. - Oh, yes, we are.

703. Oh, yes, we are. Yes, my brother.

704. We're going there.

705. Well, who invented rock, then?

706. - Elvis Presley.

707. You're not being serious, right?

708. - Why not? - I know a man as intelligent

709. as you are, and trust me,

710. I'm one of the biggest Elvis fans you'll ever meet,

711. but Elvis Presley himself

712. would say he did not invent rock 'n' roll.

713. He attributed it to people like Chuck Berry

714. and Fats Domino and the blues.

715. - You're a musician, so you probably know

716. some more things about music

717. than I do as far as going back and all that,

718. but I think it's irrelevant.

719. You know, whoever created the music,

720. if music is good, music is good.

721. It doesn't matter who created it, does it?

722. - Well, it matters that credit is given

723. where credit is due 'cause, you know,

724. you're trying to give credit

725. to the white forefathers of this country.

726. What difference does it make? I'm here now.

727. Ben Franklin's not sitting here. - No.

728. - Abraham Lincoln's not sitting here.

729. I don't give a... about Abraham Lincoln or Ben Franklin.

730. I'm just saying, like you're saying,

731. "What difference does it make?"

732. - I know black people invented peanut butter, and I like that.

733. - What was his name?

734. Come on, come on, come on, come on.

735. - Was it Carver? - First name?

736. - George Washington Carver.

737. - My man. My man!

738. - My name is Mark Potok.

739. I'm a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center

740. in these offices.

741. We are now in Montgomery, Alabama.

742. The Center was formed in 1971, and essentially,

743. the idea of the Center was that it would continue

744. the work of the Civil Rights movement,

745. which, in a kind of formal sense,

746. ended with the assassination of Martin Luther King in '68.

747. The center really is best known for its suits

748. against Klan groups and other related hate groups.

749. - I'm trying to get into the minds of people like that

750. by actually not putting them,

751. you know, on the spot following the research,

752. but in social situations.

753. Like, I am a professional musician.

754. I would invite them to my gigs to see my band play,

755. try to sit down, have dinner with people.

756. And through that process,

757. some of them have rethought their ideology.

758. Of course, there will be those who will go to their graves

759. being hateful and being violent

760. and who will never leave, you know, that ideology.

761. - Our intention is, if possible, to destroy these groups.

762. If that's not possible, to marginalize them politically.

763. - But I come from more of a thing of trying to understand

764. and trying to set an example and trying to explain things

765. and see if they can't take a stand themselves,

766. to redirect their thinking

767. and perhaps rehabilitate their own ideology.

768. - We've helped a lot of people out of groups,

769. but we don't go in and have coffee

770. with a Klan leader at all.

771. I mean, my experience has been that by and large,

772. people come out of these groups when they're ready to.

773. - Frank Ancona is the president and Imperial Wizard

774. of the True Invisible Empire Traditionalist American Knights

775. of the KKK.

776. - The Klan, being a Christian organization,

777. our belief is that for America to survive,

778. it needs to be under white Christian rule.

779. - We're on our way right now to see Frank Ancona,

780. who is the Imperial Wizard

781. of the Traditionalist American Knights

782. of the Ku Klux Klan,

783. which is currently the largest Ku Klux Klan organization

784. in our country.

785. Hey, Frank. How you doing, man? Good to see you.

786. - How are you? - All right. Great. Have a seat.

787. - All right.

788. - I've known Frank for a little over three years now.

789. I consider Frank to be my friend.

790. - I consider Daryl to be my friend, as well.

791. We met through — Someone was wanting to do an interview,

792. so I think we talked for a few months even

793. before the interview. - Yeah, we did.

794. - Had a lot of good conversations with each other.

795. I felt like, "Hey, this is somebody I can relate to."

796. I joined because of the heritage, the history.

797. I like the fraternal brotherhood aspect of it,

798. you know, the mysteriousness of the Klan.

799. We're called the Traditionalist American Knights

800. because we are an American organization.

801. We believe in traditional American values.

802. - You made a statement to me —

803. "The crow and the eagle don't fly together,

804. but yet they're both birds."

805. How far does the TAK go?

806. Where is the separation?

807. We can go to school together. We can work jobs together.

808. We can play together in the park.

809. - As far as reproducing, we believe —

810. - Miscegenation.

811. - Right. We don't believe in the mixing of the races.

812. There's, you know, a story about the Tower of Babel,

813. where God kind of spread them out,

814. all each with their own tribe, culture, race.

815. So, I mean, we believe there's a Biblical principle to it.

816. I raise my children as far as Christian beliefs.

817. I don't push Klan doctrine on them.

818. You know, I don't — That's — That's their decision.

819. You know, if they ask me a question about it,

820. I'll answer it.

821. I got a daughter that's 12 years old.

822. She's got no interest in it.

823. She's into playing her XBox and going shopping at the mall.

824. - Now, explain why some Klan groups

825. will accept Neo-Nazis into their group,

826. and some Klan groups, you know, reject Neo-Nazis.

827. - Really, we don't believe in the same thing.

828. I mean, the Nazis basically want a white homeland.

829. That's not the mission of the Klan.

830. Nazism, socialism — That's anti-American.

831. We're supposed to support the US Constitution.

832. We believe in the free exercise of our rights.

833. Daryl had been interviewed by different media personalities.

834. He actually came to the defense of

835. Traditionalist American Knights on a couple things.

836. So I wanted to present this

837. Certificate of Friendship to Daryl.

838. - Thank you very much.

839. It says, "Traditionalist American Knights

840. of the Ku Klux Klan Certificate of Friendship

841. presented to Daryl Davis in recognition

842. for his friendship and contributions

843. to the Traditionalist American Knights

844. in demonstrating true friendship."

845. While I don't necessarily agree with his separatist ideology,

846. I consider Frank Ancona to be a friend of mine.

847. Actually, I consider him to be a very good friend of mine.

848. I've been into his home.

849. I've met his wife and daughter.

850. And we've had great conversations

851. for several years now.

852. - Whatever the man may say at the dinner table,

853. however nicely he treats his kids and his dog,

854. the fact is he is pouring hatred

855. out there into the public square,

856. which goes way beyond Frank Ancona.

857. - I don't know if my point's pointing.

858. Don't want to be limp.

859. Ah.

860. The hood is supposed to symbolize the head of a dove.

861. And then the cape symbolizes the wings.

862. - I mean, you know, look, I think you're working

863. on a retail strategy.

864. We're working on the wholesale strategy.

865. - Mm-hmm. - You know, we can't wait around.

866. - I understand that. - And maybe Frank Ancona

867. will find redemption, and good for him.

868. I'm not motivated by personal hatred of Frank Ancona.

869. There's a larger poison at work here than just the question of,

870. "Is Frank Ancona personally a bad man?"

871. This is the charter of the United Klans of America,

872. which was one of the most dangerous Klan groups,

873. most violent Klan groups

874. during the Civil Rights movement between 1954 and 1968.

875. This charter was surrendered

876. to the Southern Poverty Law Center

877. at the conclusion of our civil case against the UKA.

878. - This went to become known as the Million Dollar Quartet —

879. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins,

880. Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley.

881. I've had the pleasure of meeting all four of these gentlemen.

882. We're here in Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee,

883. where a lot of famous people

884. were put on the map right here in this studio.

885. During the daytime, they have tourists here,

886. but in the evenings,

887. musicians come in and actually record here,

888. so they can say they recorded in the same space

889. as some of these great legends.

890. - Ready?

891. We're standing in front of the Lorraine Motel

892. in Memphis, Tennessee,

893. the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

894. - These cars were actually as they were, you know,

895. when Dr. King was here. - Uh-huh.

896. - We've kept the room exactly as it was —

897. both rooms, actually —

898. exactly as it was on April 4, 1968.

899. - You know, I was 10 years old

900. when the assassination took place.

901. And I was watching "Bewitched."

902. All of a sudden, in the middle of this program

903. that I'm entranced in watching,

904. "Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep."

905. And the words "Special Bulletin" appears.

906. And this guy comes on saying, you know,

907. "We are interrupting this program

908. to bring you this special announcement."

909. - Good evening.

910. Dr. Martin Luther King,

911. the apostle of nonviolence in the Civil Rights movement,

912. has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.

913. - Initially, I could not understand,

914. "Why couldn't it wait until the 6:00 news,

915. like everything else?"

916. Maybe my father would know who he is.

917. And I told him about this guy who came on TV

918. and said that somebody named Martin Luther King

919. had just been assassinated.

920. And my father's head fell into his hands.

921. And I'd seen my mom cry.

922. I'd never seen my father cry, but he cried then.

923. And I didn't get it. I didn't understand it.

924. And then my father explained to me who Martin Luther King was

925. and that my father had marched with Martin Luther King

926. and all the great things that he had done.

927. And so almost instantly, this guy became a hero to me.

928. And I learned very quickly, you know,

929. who he was, his significance,

930. and his importance not just in my life

931. but in a lot of people's lives

932. and what he was trying to accomplish

933. in bringing our society together.

934. Because of the people like the ones who threw rocks at me,

935. these same kinds of people threw bombs inside his house

936. and his churches where he would preach.

937. - Well, you know, it's really important

938. that it not just be considered history.

939. This is not a history museum,

940. although we have history chronicled in it.

941. - Right.

942. - It is a museum that talks about

943. what was going on during a period

944. that was one of the most significant

945. in American history

946. and that it parallels what's going on today.

947. We're still fighting to vote. - Yes, we are.

948. - We're celebrating 50 years of Selma

949. and passing of the Voting Rights Act,

950. and we still have folks that cannot vote.

951. That's why when we talk about the Civil Rights movement,

952. we don't talk about it in the past.

953. - So what's gonna happen when Obama gets out of office?

954. Are we only gonna study Obama in the month of February

955. because he's black? Put him in the February box?

956. - The National Civil Rights Museum

957. is 365, 24/7 black history,

958. in the context of it being American history.

959. This country is what it is,

960. and it's been through a lot of growth.

961. - But it can change, yes. - Yes.

962. - It's come a long ways, but it still has a long ways to go.

963. - An awful long way, as news will tell you.

964. - Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back!

965. - Hey! Hey!

966. - What aspects of his dream

967. would you say have become reality,

968. and which ones still need to be realized?

969. - Oh, wow. That's a huge question.

970. - It is. - How long is this documentary?

971. - It's a living documentary.

972. - Right, it's got to be. It must be —

973. It's gonna be like "Roots."

974. You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream.

975. - Right. - And that's so true,

976. if you understand what that dream was about.

977. - I'm standing here on the tomb of a murderer

978. and a coward and a terrible general.

979. He was also a slave trader

980. who went on to murder his slaves instead of freeing them,

981. like all other Confederate generals did

982. at the end of the Civil War.

983. His name was Nathan Bedford Forrest,

984. who went on to become the first Grand Wizard

985. of the Ku Klux Klan.

986. Now, is there a place

987. for Nathan Bedford Forrest besides hell?

988. Yes, there is.

989. You know, perhaps in a museum or in the history books.

990. But I don't think he should be somewhere,

991. you know, where you honor somebody.

992. I wouldn't have a problem leaving the name

993. as Confederate Park

994. and having all the Confederate stuff

995. placed right here,

996. you know, rather than scattered all over town.

997. It's sort of like, you know, going to see

998. an internment camp in Germany or something.

999. - The director of the Ku Klux Klan

1000. is hoping the remains of a Confederate general

1001. will be relocated from Memphis to Arkansas.

1002. General Nathan Bedford Forrest

1003. is believed to have started the KKK.

1004. Now, in recent weeks, a statue that sits

1005. atop the remains of Forrest and his wife

1006. had "Black Lives Matter" spray-painted on it.

1007. The Memphis city council has voted

1008. to remove the remains and statue,

1009. but KKK director Tom Robb is concerned

1010. they could still be damaged if they stay in Tennessee.

1011. - We feel this would be a proper place,

1012. in a Christian setting.

1013. - Robb says the relocated remains could potentially end up

1014. just a few yards in front of the main office.

1015. But he says relocating those remains outside of the city,

1016. let alone the state, could be a long shot.

1017. - But then miracles do happen.

1018. - Thomas Robb has the oldest Klan group in the country currently.

1019. He believes in white supremacy.

1020. He also believes in white separatism.

1021. He knows the history of the Klan,

1022. which is why he's gotten his image away from them,

1023. but yet he still maintains the name Ku Klux Klan

1024. because it draws attention to him.

1025. - I'll defend my race, my faith,

1026. and my homeland, come what may.

1027. White people did dominate this country,

1028. control this country, created this country,

1029. were the architects of the country.

1030. They want to preserve their neighborhoods,

1031. their ethnic identity —

1032. all those things that they can identify with as a people.

1033. - Now, I guess, in your opinion, you would call it being defiled

1034. if you were to have black blood in you,

1035. or if your daughter or one of your family members

1036. were to have some black blood in them.

1037. - I would consider it probably

1038. a further erosion of white people

1039. towards the ultimate conclusion of white genocide.

1040. - You know Daryl's wife is white?

1041. - I'm aware of that. - How do you feel about that?

1042. - I certainly find it reprehensible.

1043. - What is reprehensible about it? - Pardon?

1044. - What is reprehensible about it? She loves me.

1045. I love her. - Whatever.

1046. You know, I'm not gonna try to argue —

1047. even discuss it, argue, but the point is,

1048. you know, you're a black man.

1049. You see the world from a different world view than I do.

1050. - But apparently, she and I see the same world view.

1051. - Well, I'm telling you the way I see it.

1052. - I've heard you use the term "genocide,"

1053. but I understand you don't believe the Holocaust happened.

1054. - Are you talking about the Holocaust of the Russian people?

1055. - I just read that you —

1056. - I mean, 63 million Russian Christian Ukrainians

1057. were killed and murdered by the Soviets in 1912.

1058. Are you talking about that Holocaust?

1059. - I read that you awakened to the myth of the Holocaust

1060. at like around age 13.

1061. - Oh, yeah, I don't think the Holocaust happened.

1062. - What would you say to people like me

1063. who will say to you that, yes, white people came here,

1064. they took over this land from the Native Americans,

1065. they built this country on the backs of my ancestors,

1066. on the backs of black slaves.

1067. So now where's my place in this country?

1068. - Well, first off,

1069. I would like to hear some words of appreciation.

1070. Think of the thousands of farm boys

1071. who died in some battlefield in the Civil War

1072. and spilled their blood

1073. that eventually purchased the freedom of the African slave.

1074. And I never heard anybody say thank you.

1075. I'd like to hear that to begin with.

1076. And then I would like to hear some appreciation

1077. for the millions of dollars that are spent every year

1078. on public housing, for healthcare,

1079. and for all the other things

1080. that the black community benefits from.

1081. What you benefit from here in this country is much better

1082. than what you'd be receiving if you lived in Kenya or Rwanda.

1083. - You came here voluntarily, okay?

1084. - Right. - I came here by force.

1085. - I can't help it if my ancestors

1086. could stand on the shoreline of England

1087. and envision ships

1088. and went back into the woods and cut down timber

1089. and made ships and sails and conquered a new land.

1090. I can't help it that my ancestors could visualize

1091. and see new lands beyond the horizon.

1092. The moment — the very, very, very split second

1093. you become proud, you become a conqueror again!

1094. - Sitting here next to me is Rachel Pendergraft,

1095. the daughter of Pastor Tom Robb.

1096. Rachel is the highest-ranking woman

1097. in what you would call

1098. the Ku Klux Klan out of all the factions.

1099. - Even though I have the position I do,

1100. I consider myself a stay-at-home mom.

1101. I home-schooled three children. I have six grandchildren.

1102. This is a situation — white genocide —

1103. that men and women both need to work on together

1104. and help protect our children, our families.

1105. - Have you seen the new Disney princess movie?

1106. - No.

1107. - It's called "The Princess and the Frog."

1108. The princess is a black,

1109. so that is good for all the black kids out there,

1110. but the prince is white.

1111. It is all about how race mixing is good.

1112. But race mixing is wrong.

1113. - If all the people mix all up,

1114. there won't be any more white kids.

1115. - So don't race-mix.

1116. Be white and proud and tune in next week.

1117. - Like Pastor Robb said, it's not all doom and gloom.

1118. We do have a powerful message for our people.

1119. I mean, who really cares about race mixing

1120. if we're not God's divinely appointed authority on Earth?

1121. I mean, who would really care?

1122. It's bringing like-minded people together.

1123. And so one of the ways that we do that is with billboards.

1124. - I have no problems with your billboard —

1125. White Pride Radio. - Right.

1126. - And I've said that on national media before.

1127. - I can't have a community to my own.

1128. I can't have a church to my own.

1129. I can't have a club to my own.

1130. I can't have a golf course to my own.

1131. I can't have anything that I can say is mine —

1132. my people — without them saying,

1133. "You've got to accept me."

1134. - Okay, so what can we all do together as a nation —

1135. all of us — blacks and whites, to get your vision?

1136. - Help save the white race. - Help save the white race.

1137. - Absolutely.

1138. - Tom Robb will tell you that he's not my friend.

1139. He'll make that very clear to you.

1140. I am Tom Robb's friend.

1141. And I feel that one day he will come around.

1142. - There is growing outrage tonight

1143. after an unarmed African-American teenager

1144. was shot and killed by police

1145. in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.

1146. - Why can't we fix it

1147. and make a dialogue, instead of that happening?

1148. Why don't they come and walk with us?

1149. This is their everyday life, and they mad.

1150. They're mad. I'm mad. We should all be mad, man.

1151. We should all be angry because of what's going on right now.

1152. - We're standing here in Ferguson, Missouri,

1153. right in front of the Ferguson City Police Department.

1154. As we know, Ferguson was the center

1155. of the media controversy and violence here

1156. just a few months ago.

1157. A black man by the name of Michael Brown,

1158. who was unarmed, ended up being shot

1159. and dying right there on the street,

1160. and his body was left there for four hours.

1161. All of this was not about Michael Brown,

1162. or Darren Wilson, for that matter.

1163. It was about decades of police abuse.

1164. We've seen many of these incidents

1165. throughout the country.

1166. - 321. We have shots fired.

1167. We have one suspect down.

1168. - I felt safer with the Klan.

1169. When I see a Klansman walking towards me

1170. in a robe and hood, I know what he stands for.

1171. When I see a police officer

1172. in a uniform with a badge and gun,

1173. I know what they're supposed to stand for.

1174. There's certainly many, many honest,

1175. decent police officers throughout our country,

1176. but there is a percentage who are bad cops.

1177. Good cops need to stop obeying that code of silence.

1178. It says a lot to how far we have not come.

1179. - Is that a friend of yours? - That was my son.

1180. - It was your son?

1181. - This afternoon, we met Tracy Martin at the crime scene.

1182. He says his 17-year-old son,

1183. Trayvon Martin, was shot to death.

1184. - He walked out the house to go to the store.

1185. He was going to the store.

1186. - Police in South Carolina are looking for a gunman

1187. following a shooting at a church

1188. in downtown Charleston Wednesday night.

1189. The shooter walked into the Emanuel AME Church

1190. and opened fire.

1191. - Here is the situation in Dallas, Texas.

1192. We have had 11 police officers hit by gunfire

1193. during an otherwise peaceful protest.

1194. - We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers

1195. do an incredibly hard and dangerous job

1196. fairly and professionally.

1197. We also know that centuries of racial discrimination —

1198. They didn't simply vanish with the end of lawful segregation.

1199. As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools.

1200. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods

1201. offer no prospect for gainful employment.

1202. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental-health programs.

1203. And if we cannot even talk about these things —

1204. If we cannot talk honestly and openly

1205. not just in the comfort of our own circles,

1206. but with those who look different than us

1207. or bring a different perspective...

1208. then we will never break this dangerous cycle.

1209. - This is #LunchBagBmore,

1210. and we get solicitations from around the community.

1211. This is going on about seven months,

1212. and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

1213. Last time we did 700 lunches.

1214. - We're here at St. Vincent's Church in Baltimore

1215. right off of Lexington Street and Front Street.

1216. And we're handing out clothes

1217. and food to the homeless and to the needy.

1218. We've made several hundred lunches

1219. and gotten donations of clothes and different items —

1220. toiletries, toys, et cetera.

1221. Want some lunch?

1222. Here, have a bag.

1223. - Thank you. - You're welcome.

1224. - It seems like the uprising

1225. really brought everyone together in Baltimore.

1226. - Mm-hmm. - So this is, like,

1227. an extension of that, how it continues on.

1228. - That's the last one I got there.

1229. - Aw! - But I'll get some more, though.

1230. Okay.

1231. Michael Wood is a very honest individual.

1232. He was not liked by the Baltimore City Police

1233. because he didn't play the good ol' boy network game.

1234. - I want police to actually find ways,

1235. when they see a drug dealer on the corner,

1236. to figure out what the root cause is.

1237. He doesn't want to be on that corner.

1238. Drug dealer's probably the worst job.

1239. Cops are looking for you. Robbers are looking for you.

1240. Other drug dealers are looking for you.

1241. So it's the worst job in the world.

1242. They don't want that job.

1243. So actively find a way to solve that problem.

1244. So if he can't get a job because he's got a felony conviction,

1245. we need to find a way — an employer that will take him —

1246. or we need to fight and say,

1247. "Look, we can't put felony convictions on applications

1248. because it's sowing the seeds of crime."

1249. - I think the story says you're, like, the only black Klansman.

1250. - No, that story's wrong. I'm not in the Klan.

1251. There are no black people in the Klan.

1252. If there were, there wouldn't be a Klan.

1253. Now, what I do is I meet with them,

1254. sit them down and talk with them

1255. and interview them and find out, you know,

1256. what's going on up here,

1257. and as a result, some of them have become friends of mine,

1258. good friends of mine,

1259. and some of them have ended up leaving the Klan

1260. and now I own their robes and hoods.

1261. - Oh, wow. - Yeah.

1262. - What do you do with them?

1263. - I have a collection of them.

1264. One day I'm gonna open up a museum.

1265. - Really?

1266. I think it's interesting and even provocative.

1267. I know a lot of people are mad

1268. that a black man has the Klan robes.

1269. - Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?

1270. It's better that I have them than they have them.

1271. - Yeah.

1272. - The police culture's amok.

1273. It's gone so far that the idea

1274. right now is that if an officer is afraid,

1275. then he can do whatever he wants.

1276. He can kill at that moment.

1277. - As long as he uses that phrase, "I feared for my life."

1278. - Right, and we have a society

1279. that has determined that we should fear the black man.

1280. - Where does that culture

1281. come from initially in the police department?

1282. - It's that us-versus-them.

1283. You are superior because you are that thin blue line.

1284. The legal system and the culture

1285. are designed that these people are never wrong.

1286. In Maryland, the literal perception

1287. is that the city police —

1288. their purpose is to control the monkeys

1289. and keep them contained

1290. within the confines of Baltimore.

1291. That is how people in the suburbs see city residents.

1292. So how do I get a cop that comes from that environment

1293. to sit down and talk

1294. and to actually see that person as a human being?

1295. - First thing you would do is invite that person to the table

1296. and see what he or she would say.

1297. And say, "Look, if somebody is willing to talk to you

1298. and learn something from you,

1299. don't you think that you have

1300. a responsibility to reciprocate?"

1301. I've been in 53 different countries.

1302. I've been exposed to many, many different cultures, races,

1303. religions, socioeconomic statuses, et cetera.

1304. I looked at the Ku Klux Klan as simply just another culture.

1305. I didn't look at them the same way

1306. I might have looked at them had I grown up in this country

1307. and had to fight bigotry, you know, my whole life.

1308. Robert White got busted for assault

1309. with intent to murder two black men with a shotgun.

1310. He went on to become a very good friend of mine.

1311. - Will you come to my wedding? - Sure, I'll be at your wedding,

1312. if you want me there. - Why would you —

1313. Why would you go to his wedding

1314. if you don't believe in the mixing of races?

1315. - Well, in terms of the wedding,

1316. if he wants me there, just because it's Daryl.

1317. - As a result of our friendship, he left the Klan.

1318. This is his Klan robe — his Grand Dragon robe.

1319. His day job was this.

1320. This is his jacket.

1321. Baltimore City Police Officer.

1322. And I'm glad that I have this stuff

1323. because it shows that people can, indeed, change.

1324. It also shows what a lot of people don't believe.

1325. - Systemic racism in America invades hiring.

1326. It invades education.

1327. It invades policing.

1328. It invades residency.

1329. So every lane is important,

1330. and every lane needs to be fought.

1331. - We will fight for Freddie Gray all night, all day!

1332. - Take back... - Baltimore!

1333. - Take back... - Baltimore!

1334. - Daryl Davis. - Tariq Touré.

1335. - My pleasure. - Kwame Rose.

1336. - My pleasure. Daryl Davis.

1337. - I'm a 21-year-old college dropout.

1338. Most people know me from April.

1339. During the Baltimore uprising,

1340. I'm the guy that confronted Geraldo Rivera.

1341. Because you're not here reporting

1342. about the boarded-up homes

1343. and the homeless people under MLK.

1344. You're not reporting

1345. about the poverty levels up and down North Avenue.

1346. You're here for the black riots.

1347. - He got Geraldo on the run, y'all.

1348. - Since the death of Trayvon Martin,

1349. there's been a trending hashtag on social media

1350. That's kind of put in the spotlight the fact

1351. that police have been killing unarmed black people.

1352. We got to talk about how we got to end white supremacy,

1353. how we got to build independent black institutions,

1354. and how we all relate to that.

1355. - This country is built off economics,

1356. so if we're not talking about getting our wealth back

1357. or building our wealth,

1358. then we really ain't talking about anything.

1359. We can go all through the rhetoric, all the history.

1360. It doesn't work for me.

1361. - Okay, so, in kind of a roundabout way,

1362. you're more into segregation than integration.

1363. - No, but do we need to separate our dollars

1364. and fund our own stuff and fund our own institutions

1365. and to fund our own businesses?

1366. Absolutely. Because so far,

1367. our dollars just going up like a mushroom cloud.

1368. - I know you know a little bit about Daryl.

1369. What's your perspective on his work?

1370. - I would just want to know what the end goal is.

1371. For the layman on the projects

1372. who is receiving all the ills of white supremacy

1373. and that hate, right, on a day-to-day level,

1374. how do they begin to even think

1375. about that conversation that you're engaging in?

1376. - My end goal is to bring people together, okay?

1377. Bring white supremacists together with their nemesis.

1378. Unless we learn how to get along with one another,

1379. this country is a melting pot —

1380. - But why I got to get along with them?

1381. - Pardon me?

1382. - Why I got to get along with them?

1383. - Because they are our fellow Americans.

1384. We all have to live in this country together, okay?

1385. We do.

1386. Otherwise we're gonna end up self-destructing.

1387. - So what is this museum? Who is it for?

1388. - For people like you. - Oh, no, I'm good.

1389. - Oh, yeah, no, you're not good.

1390. - You ever heard of something called intergenerational trauma?

1391. - Intergenerational trauma? - Yeah.

1392. - No, explain it to me. - It's trauma passed on

1393. from generations through images,

1394. symbols, different things like that.

1395. So I have a daughter. She's one years old.

1396. However, whenever the museum gets built, let's say she's 15.

1397. - Okay. - It's no way in hell

1398. I'm bringing her there

1399. so she can re-live that and see all of that.

1400. No, not at all.

1401. What's the point?

1402. - Because in order to know where you're going,

1403. you have to know where you came from.

1404. - White folks need to go see that.

1405. - How many robes have you collected?

1406. - Roughly, I'd say maybe 25, 26.

1407. - How long you been doing that for?

1408. - Since about 1990. - And you only got 26 robes?

1409. - You only got 25 robes? - You're asking about robes.

1410. You didn't say Klan memorabilia. I got tons of stuff.

1411. - So since 1990, which is longer than I've been alive,

1412. you've been trying to infiltrate the Klan.

1413. But what does that do for people?

1414. - Well, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what it does.

1415. The state of Maryland had a large Klan organization.

1416. - Mm-hmm. - When the Imperial Wizard,

1417. which means the national leader —

1418. When he turned in his robe to me,

1419. the Maryland Ku Klux Klan fell apart.

1420. Today there is no more Ku Klux Klan —

1421. - I beg to differ. - Let me finish.

1422. Today — Well, you can't because I got the facts, okay?

1423. Today there is no more Ku Klux Klan

1424. in the state of Maryland.

1425. - Infiltrating the Klan ain't freeing your people.

1426. - I disagree with you. - I don't see how.

1427. - What about Timothy McVeigh?

1428. - I don't — He's in jail.

1429. - Oh, he is? - Wasn't he killed?

1430. Something like that. So what?

1431. - Obviously you're very uneducated about it.

1432. - And you uneducated about the reality

1433. that most of the people that look like you.

1434. - Every day on the hour,

1435. young black men and women are being snatched...

1436. - On the minute.

1437. - ... and kidnapped off the streets.

1438. They're ruining people's lives, right?

1439. Not rehabilitating them

1440. and sending them right back into the same neighborhoods

1441. that are already screwed up, anyway.

1442. So when you say, "Oh, well, we need to be worried

1443. about somebody blowing some of them up," no!

1444. Somebody's getting locked up right now that's 16 years old

1445. that never may see the light of day again

1446. just because they look like my skin or Kwame's skin

1447. or your skin, for that matter.

1448. So we're talking about the energy

1449. that you putting into all them years?

1450. That's a whole lot of years to be doing that, to be studying.

1451. It sound like a fetish.

1452. - Befriending a white person

1453. who don't have to go through the same struggles

1454. as you, me, someone in the barbershop,

1455. or their father, that's not an accomplishment.

1456. That's a new friend. That's somebody you can call.

1457. - And this is coming from a dropout.

1458. - Dude, you don't tell Steve Jobs he ain't successful.

1459. He ain't had no college degree.

1460. Bill Gates ain't got no college degree.

1461. But, listen, the way I — - I'm done.

1462. - You being disrespectful now.

1463. - You can be in the streets building with people, right?

1464. So stop wasting your time

1465. going into people's houses that don't love you,

1466. a house where they want to throw you under the basement.

1467. - So you believe that nobody can change?

1468. - No, I believe you believe the wrong people can change.

1469. - What do you mean, "The wrong people can change"?

1470. - White supremacists can't change.

1471. - You don't believe they can change?

1472. - No, white supremacists can't change.

1473. But I can change your mind 'cause you look like me.

1474. You ain't doing nothing but collecting something

1475. that's gonna build your own credibility.

1476. You nothing but a pimp in a pulpit.

1477. - And you're nothing but ignorant.

1478. Hey. I'm Daryl Davis.

1479. - Sorry, Daryl, but after that, I can't shake your hand right now.

1480. - Okay, that's fine. - I just want to be —

1481. I'm not trying to be disrespectful,

1482. but I just want to say a couple things

1483. to you about the interactions that I just saw.

1484. First of all, man, you an old head like me.

1485. I remember the day when Martin Luther King was shot.

1486. I was 6 years old.

1487. And on that day, I realized I was black.

1488. Not my skin color, but I realized

1489. what it meant to be black.

1490. I realized that I could die

1491. because I got this skin color right here.

1492. That's insane that we live in this world,

1493. that we live in this country

1494. where your skin color determines your longevity.

1495. For you to come to Baltimore

1496. and disrespect some of the people

1497. who are on the front line here in Baltimore

1498. in the way that you did is reprehensible.

1499. Just like the young man said to you,

1500. you could have done a whole lot more work

1501. in the black community

1502. from the '90s to now to move our people forward,

1503. rather than coming in here and trying to uplift somebody

1504. that you got a hood off of their head.

1505. They still wear those hoods.

1506. And while you were saying the KKK doesn't exist,

1507. I looked up the KKK in Maryland,

1508. and there is a Klan group in Maryland

1509. right now still very active.

1510. You look it up yourself.

1511. So I'm saying you talking —

1512. You calling somebody ignorant —

1513. You might want to check your own ignorance around this

1514. before you start calling my young men in Baltimore,

1515. who are out here putting their lives on the line.

1516. Kwame marches hard with me in Baltimore.

1517. Kwame gets arrested in Baltimore.

1518. Where were you when the marches were going on?

1519. You were sitting with your Klan people

1520. and disrespecting my people.

1521. If you can't respect black people

1522. and respect my people for doing the work

1523. that they're doing, take your ass,

1524. and you hang out with them.

1525. Freddie Gray is dead. Tyrone West is dead.

1526. Anthony Anderson is dead.

1527. All that... you talking about — these KKK hoods —

1528. Who gives a...?

1529. I don't give a... about you or your KKK hoods.

1530. Don't come to Baltimore doing this... again.

1531. Don't come back here! - Oh, I can't talk now?

1532. - You can talk, but don't talk that... to me!

1533. - Then why don't you sit down and be quiet and let me talk, man?

1534. - Get the... out of my face! - You see how you are?

1535. You're showing your own ignorance, man.

1536. - Don't disrespect black people.

1537. You got some black in you,

1538. but you sound like you should have a hood on.

1539. - You said you'd let me talk, and you walk away.

1540. So you're showing —

1541. - Don't call me ignorant. - Then what are you showing?

1542. - Don't come here calling my people that!

1543. - I just did.

1544. - Then don't... with my people, man.

1545. - You don't talk to the white supremacists like that!

1546. - You don't know. You don't know what I do.

1547. You don't know what I do. - But let me tell you something.

1548. Walk where we come from, and you gonna have some feelings.

1549. - Let's walk together.

1550. - You wasn't there, and we not gonna walk now!

1551. - All of you, if you didn't know him, you know him now.

1552. - This man hate himself, for real.

1553. - If y'all follow this dude, y'all part of the problem.

1554. - Do you feel disconnected from black millennials

1555. or from that age group?

1556. - I've met people like him before and have had confrontations

1557. with people like him before, not many.

1558. A Klansman hates a white person who "sells out,"

1559. so to speak, more so than they hate a black person.

1560. Just like the young boy hated me more

1561. than he hated some white guy

1562. because he feels that I sold out my own race.

1563. He was very definite that white people could not change.

1564. How is he gonna advance any agenda in this country,

1565. as diverse as it is?

1566. You see where those people are standing right there

1567. on this first tier, the black people?

1568. - Oh, okay, yeah.

1569. - Right there where they're standing

1570. is where Martin Luther King gave his speech,

1571. "I Have a Dream."

1572. - Gonna take a picture of that.

1573. I'm Scott Shepherd. I'm a reformed racist,

1574. a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

1575. - Scott Shepherd can relate to members of the Ku Klux Klan.

1576. - I was full of anger, full of hate.

1577. - He was one of them for 21 years.

1578. He even ran for office,

1579. appearing on national talk shows as a racist.

1580. - I'll be apologizing the rest of my life, but that's okay.

1581. I was born and raised in Indianola, Mississippi,

1582. which was a hotbed of racial turmoil and friction.

1583. The issues of my dad's alcoholism

1584. played a big part in my life.

1585. There were some incidents of violence

1586. that would instill PTSD in a solder.

1587. And that affected me growing up, you know.

1588. It left me with low self-esteem,

1589. and I projected this hatred that I had for myself

1590. and this anger out towards people of color.

1591. At the age of 16, I entered the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

1592. and lived a life as a racist.

1593. They fed me the spiel.

1594. "We can take you in, give you a sense of family

1595. and belonging, protect you,"

1596. 'cause they play on fear.

1597. - How did you feel to get that call?

1598. - Important.

1599. - And that's the idea, right? - Exactly.

1600. - What was their goal? - White supremacy

1601. by any means necessary, including murder.

1602. They destroyed my family.

1603. My older sister — She called me on the phone,

1604. and she asked me what I thought I was doing.

1605. I wasn't raised this way.

1606. Do they have the spot marked?

1607. - Huh? - Do they have it marked?

1608. - Barely. Barely.

1609. - Hmm. - Right here.

1610. - You wouldn't even be able to see it if you didn't know it.

1611. - Exactly. That's him right there.

1612. There's the monument. - Mm-hmm.

1613. - That's where you're standing right here.

1614. Let me show you. Here he is.

1615. That's the back of him.

1616. You see the pool? - Mm-hmm. You can see it.

1617. - Uh-huh. - Yeah.

1618. Seen that many of times on TV.

1619. - Would you snap a picture of my friend and I?

1620. - My change of heart was in Nashville, Tennessee.

1621. I was at a restaurant, had a few drinks.

1622. Police pulled me over, and they got me,

1623. and I failed a sobriety test

1624. and that threw me into the court system.

1625. I was forced into a rehab to get out of trouble.

1626. I said, "Yeah, I'm gonna go to rehab."

1627. Take the paperwork to the judge, have the charges dropped,

1628. and go on with my racist life.

1629. It didn't happen that way.

1630. I went in that rehab one person and came out another.

1631. I was forced to take a cold, hard look in the mirror,

1632. and I saw the problem.

1633. The problem was Scott Shepherd.

1634. When she was on her deathbed,

1635. I was talking to my sister, and she said,

1636. "Do you ever regret some of the things you've done?"

1637. I said, "Every day."

1638. And she said, "Well, you know,

1639. you can use your past to help people."

1640. I opened up a blog.

1641. Once you hit that "publish" button, it's out there.

1642. I was scared to death what people were gonna say or think.

1643. And I was totally surprised by the outpouring of love

1644. and support that I got.

1645. It gets emotional, you know, for me

1646. because I fell for that crap.

1647. It's very easy to do when you're in the mind frame

1648. that I was at 16, 17 years old.

1649. - Do you think any of this, going in that direction,

1650. was your way of showing rebelliousness?

1651. - Extreme rebellion because I was raised by a black lady.

1652. I went without seeing her for years and years and years.

1653. - You couldn't face her. - Exactly.

1654. Ironically, you know, when I got out of the movement

1655. and stuff, went to her house, her arms were open.

1656. - As they always were. - Right.

1657. I saw Daryl on the Discovery Channel.

1658. He was making friends with Klansmen,

1659. and I thought he was a crackpot.

1660. I looked him up on Facebook or by e-mail,

1661. and we've been friends ever since.

1662. - I didn't mean to put you in back of the bus, Daryl.

1663. - Me and Rosa Parks, right?

1664. - It looks smaller than what it does on TV, doesn't it?

1665. - Yeah.

1666. - It's just slightly bigger than Graceland.

1667. - Basically, Daryl can probably accomplish more than I could.

1668. I never thought I'd stand here

1669. in front of this house with a black man.

1670. - There you go.

1671. With a black man inside the house, right?

1672. - Right, with a black man inside the house.

1673. - Yeah, yeah.

1674. So, you know, it is possible that change can occur.

1675. - Obama lives upstairs?

1676. - I'm not sure where his room is.

1677. - I bet them windows are bulletproof, aren't they?

1678. - Mm-hmm.

1679. How we all doing this evening?

1680. All right.

1681. - When you have an alcohol or drug problem,

1682. the alcohol and drugs are not the problem.

1683. They're just the symptom.

1684. There's a deeper problem.

1685. And that's the same way with racism.

1686. That's just a symptom.

1687. I didn't have to address racism.

1688. I just had to address those issues, you know, within myself.

1689. - DC is very festive around the holidays.

1690. Of course, we have the National Christmas Tree.

1691. I really, really have a strong kinship with Scott.

1692. He has seen the light,

1693. and he feels the need to give back.

1694. I think one day Frank Ancona will leave the Klan.

1695. And I think one day

1696. I'm gonna be hanging this robe up in my museum.

1697. - Frank, how do you feel about that?

1698. Would you like to see

1699. Daryl's blue shirt hanging in your museum?

1700. - Actually, I wouldn't mind giving him

1701. one of our Traditionalist American Knights T-shirts.

1702. - I appreciate that. Thank you.

1703. I don't know where I would wear it, but, you know...

1704. - Right.

1705. - The friends that I've made I continue to keep.

1706. - I never set out to convert anybody.

1707. I just set out to get that answer to my question,

1708. "How can you hate me when you don't even know me?"

1709. And in my quest to have that answer,

1710. they couldn't answer it.

1711. And some of them ended up converting themselves.

1712. - Actually changing people's minds and hearts —

1713. I think that's a testament to his character

1714. and the power of what he was doing.

1715. - Can you get a picture of Mike and I?

1716. - Yeah, that would be awesome, dude.

1717. - I do think that white supremacy is the main problem

1718. and privilege is the main problem.

1719. And if we can get past that, then we can focus on

1720. all the nuances of how to make it beautiful.

1721. - I will say this —

1722. For people coming out of the movement,

1723. role models, I think, are incredibly important.

1724. - I have seen things change. I have seen people change.

1725. And that inspires me. I've changed.

1726. I would hope that by the time I'm gone,

1727. things like this will not be as prevalent.

1728. - But if they are,

1729. perhaps this film will encourage others to do the same

1730. and to do a better job, you know,

1731. than I've been able to do.