She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. C.P. 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.. The film tells the story of Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) and Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. They became particularly close following George's death. I hated her guts.. In July 1971, the public schools were still segregated, despite the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and 1960s federal civil rights legislation about integration of public facilities. Yes. -School for Conversion Interview. It wasnt until way down in the meeting," Atwater recalled in 2002 documentary film, Ann Atwater: Grassroots Organizer and Veteran of Americas Freedom Struggle, when the children got us together and said they wanted to go to school together. (modern). For example, when addressing a white person, the welfare worker would politely call the person over to the desk and there privately ask Your name? The strikes left 34 people injured, including three children, and caused widespread damage. we would see whose God would be the strongest, my God or his God. And he wasn't clapping his hands even along with us; he would clap an odd beat. Her pastor was there, grabbed the hand holding a knife and stopped her. 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. Ellis. Unlikely Friendship He was blind, deaf, and suffered from an intellectual disability. Im not following you any further. Soon, she divorced him. Caitlin Atwater was the daughter of Kathleen and her first husband, Fred Atwater, though she was very close with the entire Peterson family. Yes, The Best of Enemies is based on a true story. Atwater, who died in 2016 at the age of 80, defied stereotypes. Atwater initially declined to serve as co-chair, but reluctantly agreed to work with Ellis. When her job as a maid ended, she found herself living in a dilapidated house in North Durham on a Eventually Atwater divorced him and raised their two daughters on her own as a single mother. Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media. Civil-Rights Activist, Ex-Klansman C.P. Ellis : NPR Today, Todd is believed to be living in Tennessee. City council people, would, they was in those chairs you know they wheel around, and they would turn their backs to us and didnt wanna hear us," Atwater said in the 2010 interview with Duke University historian Robert Korstad. After Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue divorced in 1985, Clayton and his younger brother Todd went to live with their mother. In 1967, Ann Atwater, a black civil rights advocate and community organizer, arrived for an appointment with a white school board member in Durham, N.C. As Atwater was making demands for improvements to the local schools, the white school board member made one very serious mistake. The Best of Enemies true story reveals that Ann Atwater got married at the age of 14 and moved to Durham, NC in 1953. Ignoring her and the parents with her was a mistake. When Ellis, who later became a labor rights activist, died in 2005, his family asked Atwater to give the eulogy. It was at this house in Durhams Hayti District where she met Howard Fuller, the man that would help her reach her destiny as a pioneering advocate. Atwater lived in a dilapidated house on an unpaved street in Durhams Hayti district, where she struggled to support her two daughters. She showed up and sat down in the chapel, Wilson-Hartgrove said in an interview. Story of unlikely friendship in Durham hits "And then he sat down and I snatched the phone out the wall, and we sat down and we had a meeting.. He renounced his Klan membership, became lifelong friends with Atwater and went on to organize black and white labor unions. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction.'. Ellis described the hatred he felt toward blacks going in. In the movie, it's hard to tell if they're trying to kill the woman or frighten her, but there's no mention of the shooting in either the documentary or. Ann Atwater organizes neighbors after completing Community Action Training with the North Carolina Fund. She was living in dilapidated house in North Durham on $57 a month when she became an activist. Seeing photographs of that convinced Atwater that her mother's death was not just an accident. Secure websites use HTTPS certificates. She became an effective activist and leader when advocating for black rights, such as better private housing. On the evening of her death, the Petersons had dinner with Ratliff and her daughters. So I began to admire the Klan. In the early 1950s, Atwater and her daughter moved to Durham to join Wilson. A friend talked her out of trying to stab C.P., telling her, "That's what they want you to do." I hated her guts., BlacKkKlansman: How black detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated the Colorado Klan, Atwater countered: I hated him just as hard as he hated me. Me and him was over there mad with each other, but we wasn't getting anything done that the children wanted. Ellis was a former grand exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan in Durham, North Carolina. 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. It was funded by the North Carolina Fund, a statewide program to improve education. Ellis died in 2005 and Atwater was asked to deliver the eulogy. On February 1, 2007, Caitlin Atwater and Michael Peterson settled the wrongful death claim for $25 million, which was finalized on February 1, 2008. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. Dig deeper into The Best of Enemies true story by watching the Ann Atwater interview and documentary below. "He changed from a Klansman to a Christian, and they said I had sold out, that he was a n**ger lover." Riddick set up a meeting, which is referred to in the movie as a charrette. She was a poor black woman raising children alone in the South in the mid-20th century. Atwater said that she refused to go to the first meeting, but her boss in the housing authority told her she'd lose her job if she didn't show up. (Peterson maintains his innocence still to this day.) He was upset and I was upset, and he was cussin' and callin' all black folks n**gers and I was callin' all white folks crackers, and I couldn't stand white folks anyway." She died in 2016 having won many awards and accolades for her work for the disadvantaged. Ann mar- Any discussion of the matter ended bogged down in a bureaucratic cycle of commissions, committees, councils, boards of inquiry, official investigations, delegations, panels a endless substitution of talk for action. Atwater, emboldened by community organizer Howard Fuller, discovered a passion for housing reform and a natural talent for leadership first with Operation Breakthrough, then as chairwoman for the United Organizations for Community Improvement. Ann Atwaters life didnt start off easy. For more vivid tales of 20th-century race relations like the true story of The Best Of Enemies of Ann Atwater and C.P. Clayton Peterson is played by Dane DeHaan, who is best known for his role as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It's just a strange thing, but it really happened. -School for Conversion, Yes. The two were thrown together in 1971 as co-chairs of a charrette, a series of long and intense meetings between a diverse group of people. But much rang true. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary. "She didn't particularly like the Klan," C.P. By the end of the charrette, Ellis gave up his leadership in the KKK. Fuller looked at the house and asked Atwater if shed like help in fixing it. Ellis and his wife Mary had a son who they called Punkin'. Michael had adopted the girls after their mother (and his good friend), Elizabeth Ratliff, died in a fall down the stairs. Hatin America is hard to do because you cant see it to hate it. is afraid that the black children will come to the white schools. However, more prominent members of the community felt that the issue was too hot to get involved in. Ann Atwater, in an interview with the Carolina Times, expressed this sentiment: Mr. Ellis has the same problems with the schools and his children as I do with mine and we now have a chance to do something for them. Caitlin Atwater's quotes on Michael Peterson's, Caitlin Atwater was the daughter of Kathleen, Michael could have been involved in Kathleen's death, Atwater view her stepfather in another light. The Best of Enemies Kathleen Peterson He moved to Richmond seeking better work and asked Atwater to join him there with their two daughters, she said no. 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. I did lose my family and my home." Civil rights activist and former Ku Klux Klansman C.P. ELLIS (Civil Rights Advocate): I wanted to make them angry. In an NPR interview in 1996, C.P. Durham schools suffered from increasing racial tensions among students anxious about the future. Ellis lived across the tracks in a neighborhood nearly as destitute, but white. "We went to the schoolhouse and we found out that the teachers there were out of their field," recalled Atwater. Like in The Best of Enemies movie, examining the fact vs. fiction reveals that he did tear up his KKK membership card in public. And she was an effective boycotter, too. When he requested that she and the two girls come, Atwater wrote a letter saying: I already followed you to Durham. Mr. C.P. Copyright 2005 NPR. Atwater was selected as co-chair. She became an effective leader. Atwater was an unlikely civil rights activist. Despite that, the couple's five children (four of whom were Michael's, all from previous relationships) stood by their dad until some information came to light that changed Kathleen's daughter's mind. Today, Margaret resides in California, and Martha relocated to Colorado. She turned those chairs back around to force them to face her. Ann George Atwater (July 1, 1935 June 20, 2016) was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. Ms. ATWATER: Well, in the first five days of the meetings, we had a choir come in, a gospel choir, a church choir--to come in and do some singing. "All of this drastically changed my life, I mean, my thinking. Ellis, an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan in Durham. The children got them together and told them they wanted to go to school together. As far as he was concerned, it was the savior of the white people. Civil rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer defied men and presidents who tried to silence her. Before the trial, Ratliff's body was exhumed and autopsied, at which point a second autopsy suggested that she, too, had suffered head trauma, according to CNN. [12][pageneeded], The two antagonists eventually learned to work together and, to everyones astonishment, became good friends. Ann Atwater Both Atwater and Ellis have since passed away, but their legacies live today through their family members. "[11] Atwater and Ellis came to realize some commonalities, among them that their children were ostracized because of the parents' working together. "I never did go back to the Klan after I left that school program," Ellis said. She organized groups of women who had to visit the welfare offices frequently and had them push for change. Though going through the trial was unimaginably difficult, Atwater did tell IndyWeek that it gave her a measure of understanding. In 1971, as tensions rose over school integration, union organizers in Durham called in Bill Riddick, a professor and consultant, to lead the effort to resolve the issue.
Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. "They said I sold out because I worked with a Klansman," recalled Atwater. Ann Atwater was used to struggling, but she hit some truly hard times. If we fail, at least no one can say we didnt try. Yes. She became an expert on housing policies; she copied and handed out welfare regulation manuals so that people could learn their rights, such as asking landlords to fix substandard conditions. 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.. The real Todd Peterson, Martha Ratliff,, Michael Peterson, Caitlin Atwater and Margaret (Ratliff) Blakemore. Ellis' funeral on Saturday. "The couple were married a week later.. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the 10-day meeting.. Ellis said of his wife, "but she endured it because I enjoyed it, see? Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. The poor blacks of Durham had to fight both racial and class divisions: one against the whites who claimed superiority and another against the wealthier blacks who did not want to associate themselves with the lower class. Moving past race, they began to focus on other issues, such as the academic quality of Durhams schools. 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.. [1] In the documentary An Unlikely Friendship, Atwater recalled that while working on a white owner's farm, she was given food only through the back door and after the white workers had eaten. She was a woman who found and used the power of her voice. To learn more, view our full privacy policy. Yes. After that, Atwater went door to door telling people how they could get their landlords to fix their houses. But both Ann Atwater and C.P. The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan. He goes from being a leader of the Ku Klux Klan to being a union organizer for both blacks and whites, a civil right advocate. The two realized they had been arguing about the wrong things, that they had the same hopes for their children and a lot in common as poor people. Racism was instilled in Ellis from a young age. Some people may not have liked that she was demanding and outspoken, but those qualities enabled her to be a successful activist and organizer. She married Willie Pettiford in 1975, and became a deacon at the Mount Calvary United Church of Christ. Ellis, who died of Alzheimer's in 2005, became a champion of union and labor organizations, working as an AFL-CIO organizer. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. When Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue lived in Germany, they befriended Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two daughters, Margaret and Martha. Atwater, the daughter of sharecroppers and a single mother of two, moved to Durham when she was about 18 and spent most of her life fighting for the rights of black and impoverished citizens in Durham. She spoke at C.P. WebDid Ann Atwater's husband leave her to raise their children alone? 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. Yes. When approached by Howard Fuller to join Operation Breakthrough, a program to help people escape poverty, Atwater found her life purpose. Ms. ATWATER: Well, thank you for talking to me. Ellis. ", Ann Atwater continued her work fighting for racial equality as a grass roots organizer, passing away in 2016. Born Ann George in the community of Hallsboro in Columbus County, North Carolina, she was pregnant and married at the age of 14. Ellis and Atwater spoke together about their experience at events around the country, and at C.P. Poverty was still a problem in the segregated society; in 1950 28% of families lived below the designated poverty line of $3000. Jeter Downs needs to play to develop. She was making progress. He grew up in the tobacco and textile town of Durham, North Carolina. Ellis died last week in Durham at the age of 78. People worked at job-training, took after-school tutoring, or became educated as to their rights. Ann Atwater was used to struggling, but she hit some truly hard times. 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. Ann Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. BLOCK: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater in Durham, North Carolina. [2], After Atwater co-led the charrette, she continued to work with the poor and middle-class black community in Durham. Kathleen's body was found at the foot of the stairs, with trauma to her head that indicated she may have been struck. The pair weren't the first choices. And that plan was to put us there to make sure that this school integration would be done peacefully, and that's what happened. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. Then, when it was nearly over, Atwater and Ellis had a change of heart. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. It was the only organization in the world that would take care of the white people. All rights reserved. The next day Atwater and Fuller went to Atwater's landlord to demand repairs for her house and, to Atwater's surprise, her landlord agreed to fix some of the problems. As seen in The Staircase documentary on Netflix, Clayton's first son Dorian visits Michael Peterson in prison as a baby and towards the end of the documentary, his wife Becky is seen pregnant with their second child, Lucien. We are going to have to lay aside our differences and work together. At this point, the couple had another daughter, Marilyn. In researching The Best of Enemies' historical accuracy, we learned that C.P. They divorced. Breakthrough was a project designed to alleviate poverty by teaching residents how to address its root causes, and by organizing the community to create a social security net. She moved to Durham in 1953, where her husband, William French, had relocated. If the footage from the later episodes of Netflix's The Staircase from 2012 and 2016 are anything to go by, they are still close with Michael Peterson. Two years later, they had a daughter named Lydia. She had little faith that hed be able to get her landlord to do anything, but she agreed to go with him to a meeting for his organization.
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