His turnabout came through a 10-day community meeting on school desegregation in 1971. So what I did, when he went to get up, I hit him over the head with the receiver of the telephone," Atwater recalled in a 2010 interview. He got up in the middle of their conversation, ignoring Atwater and the crowd of black parents behind her. She began to represent poor people with housing problems, and would go door-to-door telling others of her own previous housing problems and how she was able to resolve them. She survived on $57 a month from a welfare check, and struggled to pay rent, as she gained only occasional domestic work in white homes. "And we had to go up and knock them back around so that would let them know that we are human and well talk to them.. Despite the suspicions surrounding their mother's death, Margaret and Martha Ratliff continued to support Michael Peterson, believing he did not kill Kathleen. The other was C.P. Ellis has died at age 78. Seeing photographs of that convinced Atwater that her mother's death was not just an accident. No. Ellis died in 2005 and Atwater was asked to deliver the eulogy. BLOCK: Why would C.P. ", Ann Atwater continued her work fighting for racial equality as a grass roots organizer, passing away in 2016. Today, Caitlin is married and is now known as Caitlin Clark. That first meeting marked the start of her involvement in helping the poor black community fight poverty. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her father was also a deacon of the nearby church. [2] Riddick recruited participants from all sectors of Durham. So I began to admire the Klan. However, her husband soon left her, and she was faced with raising their two children on her own. Ann Atwater Poverty was still a problem in the segregated society; in 1950 28% of families lived below the designated poverty line of $3000. Daves Hot Chicken will have you begging for more, and maybe for mercy, Josiah Gray finishes April with a flourish as Nats avoid a series sweep, The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South, Durham Herald-Sun titled What Forgiveness Costs.. Ellis died last week in Durham at the age of 78. She learned to take second place.[2]. This will be the first time two completely different sets of philosophies have united to work for this goal of better schools. And the funny part about it, we stayed friends all these years. Ellis and Atwater spoke together about their experience at events around the country, and at C.P. I began to blame it on black people. Ellis indeed started tapping his feet and then clapping his hands along with the others. Ellis formed a lifelong friendship. -School for Conversion Interview. One evening a housing organizer came by and asked whether she needed help to get repairs made to the house and invited her to a community meeting. In examining The Best of Enemies' historical accuracy, we learned that Ann Atwater was ridiculed by some in her community over the fact that she had worked with C.P. Her mother died when she was 6. We were at a meeting downtown together, said Ann Atwater years later, and he kept yelling nigger this and nigger that. Atwater married Willie Pettiford in 1975 and eventually had two daughters, the late Lydia Green and Marilynn Turner. Photo from the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill Libraries, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, An official website of the State of North Carolina, Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion, N.C. Im not following you any further. Soon, she divorced him. And he wasn't clapping his hands even along with us; he would clap an odd beat. Do you look back, and does it make sense to you? Sitting down with his nemesis, he realized that his struggles were her struggles too, and that they shared a fundamental commonality of experience. There certainly is no deep seated love between Mr. Ellis and myself but this school project brings out problems we all have. The other co-chair selected was C.P. Ellis, leader of the Durham Ku Klux Klan. They raised him until approximately age 11, when he was placed in an institution. At one point, she said, "We went in the office and cried because we were doing things the wrong way just because one was black and one was white.. Then, when it was nearly over, Atwater and Ellis had a change of heart. Atwater disliked the lack of respect many whites showed for blacks. According to NBC News, Atwater called Kathleen and Michael "the most ideal parents" and she was thrilled by their marriage because it meant "a permanent sleepover" with Michael's adopted daughters, Margaret and Martha. "He changed from a Klansman to a Christian, and they said I had sold out, that he was a n**ger lover." Born Ann George in the community of Hallsboro in Columbus County, North Carolina, she was pregnant and married at the age of 14. After the course, Atwater had found her lifes purpose. She said, I know. He said, It is private. She said, I know. He said, Family only. She said, He was my brother. ", The last survivor of a slave ship has been identified, and her story is remarkable, Missouri v. Celia, a Slave: She killed the white master raping her, then claimed self-defense, Harriet Tubman made men pay for underestimating her, When Portland banned blacks: Oregons shameful history as an all-white state, Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more, Ann Atwaters amazing rise from advocate for the poor to Best of Enemies stardom. Ellis was the Grand Cyclops of the Durham chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, raised in a poor white family that taught him to hate black people. Ellis said of his wife, "but she endured it because I enjoyed it, see? In real life, the labor union (AFL-CIO) in Durham was given a grant to help mediate the problem, after which a 10-day public meeting, or charrette, was held. She spoke at C.P. She was living in dilapidated house in North Durham on $57 a month when she became an activist. Clayton Peterson is the oldest son of Michael Peterson from his first marriage to Patricia Sue, an elementary school teacher at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Grfenhausen, Germany. We looked at each other. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the 10-day meeting.. Her death was investigated by the U.S. military police in Germany at the time and an autopsy concluded she had died from an intracerebral hemorrhage. Copyright 2005 NPR. Like fools wed been arguing about the wrong things and hadnt been doing anything to make the school system better.. Ann Atwater After Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue divorced in 1985, Clayton and his younger brother Todd went to live with their mother. She was the star of her class, Davidson wrote, and when the training was over, she could [as she herself put it] kill anybody that wasnt already dead.. But the job didnt last, and Atwater went to the Department of Social Services to apply for help. Yes, The Best of Enemies is based on a true story. "This particular night C.P. Ms. ANN ATWATER (Civil Rights Activist): Yes, he did, and I hated him just as hard as he hated me. For food, she and her daughters could only afford rice, cabbage, and gravy while she made her daughters clothes out of the bags the rice came in. As the civil rights movement increased in urgency and militancy, he believed acting as a spokesman on behalf of the Klan was crucial to upholding the Southern way of life and its natural social hierarchy. www.schoolforconversion.orgAnn Atwater organizes neighbors after completing Community Action Training with the North Carolina Fund. Atwater changed history in Durham, refusing to be ignored as she demanded better schools and living conditions for black residents. Atwater was selected as co-chair. Diane Fanning in her book Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and A Deadly 16-Year Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart, details how Todd Peterson allegedly told police officers that he believed Kathleen Peterson's death to be alcohol-related. She was a poor black woman raising children alone in the South in the mid-20th century. The pair weren't the first choices. Secure websites use HTTPS certificates. A friend talked her out of trying to stab C.P., telling her, "That's what they want you to do." Conservative town leaders were largely receptive to his message. As a result, there was no one to direct the Klan's Youth Corp and the program disbanded. "They said I sold out because I worked with a Klansman," recalled Atwater. As seen in The Staircase on HBO Max, Caitlin's opinion changed after she saw autopsy pictures showcasing the severity of Kathleen Peterson's injuries and after learning of Michael Peterson's bisexuality. For more vivid tales of 20th-century race relations like the true story of The Best Of Enemies of Ann Atwater and C.P. C.P. For instance, the film never mentions Ellis KKK-inspired hatred of Catholics. Before Peterson's trial, the Durham court ordered the exhumation of Ratliff's embalmed body, buried in Texas, for a second autopsy in April 2003. BLOCK: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater in Durham, North Carolina. Born to sharecroppers on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina, her meager beginnings were compounded when she found herself pregnant at age 14. was up raging and ranting, that's when I wanted to cut his head off. Yes. BLOCK: Well, what happened in the course of this meeting over 10 days that turned things around in the way that it did? -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. I knew what happened to my mom." However, they eventually joined their father in Durham, North Carolina, and spent the rest of their younger and adolescent years there. The film tells the story of Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) and Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. Yes. By the end of the charrette, Ellis gave up his leadership in the KKK. Claiborne Paul Ellis, union organiser, born January 8 1927; died November 3 2005, A reformed white racist, he fought for black workers, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. Ellis, whos played by Sam Rockwell. But in the early 1970s, he had a remarkable change of heart and mind, and he became a civil rights advocate. Ann's daughter's school catches on fire, and C.P. Jim Thornton/The Herald Sun Collections/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill LibrariesAnn Atwater and C.P. "All of this drastically changed my life, I mean, my thinking. If I told him I needed some money, he told me he needed something, we looked after each other. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. It seems an unlikely end for a sharecroppers daughter who had taken food from the farmers back door and who had internalized that she came second. Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner portrays Margaret Ratliff in HBO Max's The Staircase and The Stand's Odessa Young takes on the role of Martha Ratliff. They also raised Margaret and Martha Ratliff, the daughters of their friends George and Elizabeth Ratliff. Ellis came to realize that blacks were not suppressing poor whites, and that the two groups shared problems. Ann Atwater, interview by Sean Aery, Sallie Bingham Center for Womens History and Culture, February 1, 2006. By 1967 she was employed by the United Organization for Community Improvement and was chair of the Housing Committee. In the end, Ellis repudiated racism and the Klan and they became lifelong friends. According to PopSugar, she has twins and lives in northern Virginia. Atwater had been an activist for quite some time before her role in helping to solve the problems related to the desegregation of schools, which is what's focused on in the movie. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. Michael and Kathleen Peterson raised a large, blended family with children from previous relationships. She said, "I realized there was definitely another side to him.". Here we are, two people from the far end of the fence, having identical problems, except her being black and me being whiteThe amazing thing about it, her and I, up to that point, [had] cussed each other, bawled each other, we hated each other. When her job as a maid ended, she found herself living in a dilapidated house in North Durham on a [8], From 2006 until her death, Atwater worked with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove at the School for Conversion as a "freedom teacher," mentoring young people and activists in community organizing and fusion politics. Durham Civil Rights activist Ann Atwater best known for the relationship she forged with her biggest enemy, a member of the Ku Klux Klan has died.
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