About the Author

About the Author

"After 134 years of nothing but violence and hatred, it's time we get to know one another on a social basis, not under a cover of darkness," explains Grammy Award winning pianist Daryl Davis of his extraordinary journey into the heart of one of America's most fanatical institutions the Ku Klux Klan.

    Having spent his early childhood in Europe and Africa, The son of a foreign service officer, Davis didn't experience racism until he returned to the'United States at age ten and was pelted with rocks, splintered bottles and debris while carrying the American flag for his all-white cub scout troop at a parade in Boston. At fifteen he was jeered at and told by another hate group he would be shipped back to Africa, and in his twenties, already an up and coming musician, Daryl was attacked by a racist cop.

    Driven by the need to understand those who, without ever having met him, hate him because of the color of his skin, Daryl decides to seek out the roots of racism.

    His mesmerizing story, told in gritty words and startling photographs, is both harrowing and awe-inspiring.

    Finding that the Klan is entrenched not only in the Deep South but in his own neighborhood, Davis sets out to meet Roger Kelly, Imperial Wizard of the Invincible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. After a cathartic first encounter at the end of which Kelly poses for pictures, as long as "we don't have to stand with our arms around each other," the two slowly form as close a friendship as a Black man and a Klansman can.

    Through Kelly and others, Davis begins to explore the Klan, gaining real insight into its workings and members' minds.

    Using music to bridge the seemingly uncrossable gulf between the Klan's hatred and the Black man's rage, Davis travels an uncharted road filled with gripping highs and lows. Among them bringing the Imperial Wizard to meet a Black woman upon whose lawn a cross burned, seeking out a self-proclaimed White Supremacist Grand Klaliff who, while claiming not to believe in violence, issues Davis a warning and predicts a race war saying, "Your uniform will be the color of your skin, " and being attacked by two Klanswomen but defended in court by one Klansman. On the one hand, spat upon, kicked and threatened, and on the other, given a standing ovation at a Klan rally and deeded robes by those who decide to leave the organization; the determined Davis journeys on...

    Davis' courageous quest into the heart of ignorance and hatred results, he believes, in a ray of hope for harmony between the races and the future of mankind.