CP Ellis, former Klan member turned civil rights activist

DURHAM, North Carolina – CP Ellis, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan whose conversion into a civil rights activist was documented in a book, has died.

Ellis (78) was buried last week Saturday. He was a labour union official and at one time was Exalted Grand Cyclops of a Ku Klux Klan group in Durham.In 1971, he participated in a forum on school desegregation in Durham that also attracted Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist.During 10 days of talks the pair became the unlikeliest of friends and Ellis came to believe that whites, especially poor whites, could prosper more from the civil rights movement than segregation.Atwater and Ellis occasionally spoke together at public appearances through the years.Their friendship was the subject of the 1996 book ‘Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South’ by Osha Gray Davidson.More recently, it was featured in a documentary film ‘An Unlikely Friendship’ produced and directed by Diane Bloom of Chapel Hill.They also were interviewed twice by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Studs Terkel for his books, including in 1991 for ‘Race: How Blacks & Whites Think & Feel About the American Obsession’.- Nampa-APHe was a labour union official and at one time was Exalted Grand Cyclops of a Ku Klux Klan group in Durham.In 1971, he participated in a forum on school desegregation in Durham that also attracted Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist.During 10 days of talks the pair became the unlikeliest of friends and Ellis came to believe that whites, especially poor whites, could prosper more from the civil rights movement than segregation.Atwater and Ellis occasionally spoke together at public appearances through the years.Their friendship was the subject of the 1996 book ‘Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South’ by Osha Gray Davidson.More recently, it was featured in a documentary film ‘An Unlikely Friendship’ produced and directed by Diane Bloom of Chapel Hill.They also were interviewed twice by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Studs Terkel for his books, including in 1991 for ‘Race: How Blacks & Whites Think & Feel About the American Obsession’.- Nampa-AP