11/24/2023 0 Comments Roger kelly and daryl davisSome of these Klansmen became close friends of Davis’s – the aforementioned Silver Dollar patron included – their long conversations untangling a knot of hate that had coiled for decades. As his music career continued to flourish, Davis also became enmeshed in quite arguably the world’s strangest side hustle – meeting with KKK members of various ranks and attending so-called cross lighting rallies. What began as a hobby gradually transformed into a calling. It is an important anecdote as it marks a catalytic moment in which Davis’s trajectory pivoted from working musician to race relations crusader. This is a story Davis shares on lecture stages and in classrooms – both nationally and globally. He didn’t answer at first but eventually admitted that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.” Then he said, ‘You know, this is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a black person.’ I was instantly curious and thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ So I asked him why. “I don’t drink so I had a glass of cranberry juice and then he took his glass and cheered me. “So he asks me to join him for a drink,” he continues. Then I told him that Jerry Lewis is a good friend of mine and well, he didn’t believe that either, but he was fascinated.” “I explained to this older white guy that Jerry Lee Lewis was influenced by the same black boogie-woogie and blues piano players as I was,” Davis says with a chuckle. The Diversity Lecture Series is sponsored by the Student Center/Student Activities and Disability Services Offices.More curious than offended, Davis used this encounter as an opportunity for friendly discourse rather than outrage. “Chances are they will reciprocate.” Kelly has since quit the Klan and gave his robes, masks and hoods to Davis, which he showed the crowd. Davis ended his lecture by playing a song on a keyboard similar to what he played the night he met the first Klansmen. Davis told the audience to challenge those who disagree with them politely but firmly. While Kelly told CNN he believed in “separation of the races” despite his friendship with Davis, he told Klan members at a rally shown in the clip that he respected Davis because he listened to him. CNN found out about their friendship at a rally and did a story on them, which resulted in Davis getting a deal to publish Klan-Destine Relationships. They also became friends, with Kelly eventually visiting Davis in his home without a bodyguard and Kelly inviting Davis to Klan rallies. “In my meeting with Roger Kelly, I learned that ignorance breeds fear,” Davis said. He wanted to interview Roger Kelly, Maryland’s Grand Dragon at the time and who later became Imperial Wizard. They became friends, with the man coming to see Davis’ band whenever they played at the lounge.Įight years later, Davis decided to begin work on a book about the KKK and called his friend for help. After inviting Davis over to his table for a drink, he said, “This is the first time I’ve had a drink with a black guy.” Davis asked him why, and the man said he was a member of the KKK. The man came over and said, “This is the first time I’ve heard a black man play like Jerry Lee Lewis.” He didn’t believe Davis when he said Jerry Lee Lewis learned his piano-playing style from black musicians. Black men wrote the other two from the perspective of escaping a lynching.Īn accomplished blues and R&B musician who graduated from Howard University with a degree in music, Davis told how his music brought him into contact with a Klan member and eventually launched his research for his book Klan-Destine Relationships.Īs a pianist in a country western band, Davis met the man when he played at what he called an all-white lounge in Frederick, Maryland. He noticed that white men wrote all but two books about the Ku Klux Klan. “I knew then that you are not born with this ideology,” he said. Rather than be traumatized by the incident, Davis said he began reading every book that he could find on people of any race who thought their skin color made them superior. But it was 1968, a “very turbulent year” in the Civil Rights Movement. “It was incomprehensible to me that someone who never met me…would want to hurt me.”Įven when his parents told him that white people were throwing things at him because he was black, Davis said he didn’t believe them. “My first inclination was they were angry at the Cub Scouts,” Davis said. Cub Scouts, he was pelted with rocks, bottles and other things as he walked with his troop in a Patriots Day parade from Lexington to Concord. Daryl Davis’ quest to find out why some people think they are superior to others simply because of their skin color began in 1968, he told a rapt audience of students, faculty, staff, and community residents at Worcester State University on Wednesday, February 22. That was when, as a member of the Belmont, Mass.
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