Ellis quit the KKK. Her bold actions so surprised the councilmen that they had to listen to her. Her first baby died soon after birth. Like all historical fiction, the 2019 film The Best of Enemies takes a bit of license with reality. Jim Thornton/The Herald Sun Collections/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill LibrariesAnn Atwater and C.P. 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. Kathleen Peterson And I had my coat on, and I took the manual off the desk and put it under my coat while she was fussing about coming there and not getting any help. Operation Breakthrough helped people define and accomplish a series of tasks in order to build a pattern of achievement. Ann Atwater is best known for her work in civil rights, and for her unlikely friendship with Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. Ellis. Atwater married Willie Pettiford in 1975 and eventually had two daughters, the late Lydia Green and Marilynn Turner. However, her husband soon left her, and she was faced with raising their two children on her own. 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. was sitting there, and first he started clapping his hands. The children got them together and told them they wanted to go to school together. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And she was an effective boycotter, too. It was revealed over the course of the trial that Michael was bisexual and had been corresponding with a male sex worker, even making plans to meet up. However, Yes, this comes straight from Diane Bloom's 2002 documentary, No. The first three episodes of The Staircase premiere on Thursday, May 5, and the remaining episodes drop weekly on HBO Max. Ms. ANN ATWATER (Civil Rights Activist): Yes, he did, and I hated him just as hard as he hated me. He credited his meetings with Ann Atwater as being the reason he was able to shed his racism. [3] The faucets in the bathroom were faulty, shooting out water so intensely that her kids nicknamed it Niagara Falls. He went on to organize labor unions for both blacks and whites. Despite the suspicions surrounding their mother's death, Margaret and Martha Ratliff continued to support Michael Peterson, believing he did not kill Kathleen. Riddick set up a meeting, which is referred to in the movie as a charrette. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. Functionality of the site should not be affected, but things may look different. Though going through the trial was unimaginably difficult, Atwater did tell IndyWeek that it gave her a measure of understanding. I began to blame it on black people. Im not following you any further. Soon, she divorced him. The other was C.P. Clayton Peterson was sentenced to four years in prison for a failed attempt to firebomb the Duke University Administration Building, reports Metro.US. 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. A lock icon or https:// means youve safely connected to the official website. After Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue divorced in 1985, Clayton and his younger brother Todd went to live with their mother. Accuracy and availability may vary. The Best of Enemies (2019 film He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction.'. Atwater was an unlikely civil rights activist. Today, Caitlin is married and is now known as Caitlin Clark. WebAtwater lived in a dilapidated house on an unpaved street in Durhams Hayti district, where she struggled to support her two daughters. In 1967, Atwater took a 17-week training course where she learned about tenant rights, housing codes and how to organize community protests. is the president of the KKK, and cares for his children. From then on, she demanded to be heard. [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. Kathleen's body was found at the foot of the stairs, with trauma to her head that indicated she may have been struck. 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. 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. We looked at each other. Ellis lived across the tracks in a neighborhood nearly as destitute, but white. The purpose of this charrette was to discuss school desegregation, a still contentious issue, and to draw up a series of recommendations to present to the school board. The Best of Enemies fact-check revealed that Ann credited God with giving her the strength to help so many people. Hatin America is hard to do because you cant see it to hate it. The committee met for 12 hours daily over 10 days to find a solution for the Durham school desegregation problem, which would be binding on the city. He worked in the tobacco factory and she as a domestic, but he turned to drink. She organized her community to rail against the citys repressive and reprehensible policies towards black housing, often peacefully in pickets and marches and city council meetings, but she was not averse to more violent tactics, as when she participated in the bombing of the Housing Authority. She was making progress. Durham's prosperous black business sector made the city a beacon of hope for African Americans seeking to rise through self-help. Ellis, read about Malcolm Xs brutal assassination and Americas struggle for civil rights. 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. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the (unintelligible) a 10-day meeting. -School for Conversion Interview. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary. [13][pageneeded], Atwater and Ellis presented the School Board with a list of recommendations from the charrette, including giving students a larger say on education issues by expanding the board to include two students from each of the major racial groups. www.schoolforconversion.orgAnn Atwater organizes neighbors after completing Community Action Training with the North Carolina Fund. Ellis had regularly been attending city council meetings, school board meetings, and county meetings to oppose civil rights changes and its activists. He renounced his Klan membership, became lifelong friends with Atwater and went on to organize black and white labor unions. "All of this drastically changed my life, I mean, my thinking. She showed up and sat down in the chapel, Wilson-Hartgrove said in an interview. CP Ellis She married Willie Pettiford in 1975, and became a deacon at the Mount Calvary United Church of Christ. Dig deeper into The Best of Enemies true story by watching the Ann Atwater interview and documentary below. The real-life story of Atwater is featured in the movie The Best of Enemies, starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, which opens in theaters Friday. Ellis a couple of years before we worked together to integrate Durhams schools, Atwater wrote in a 2013 column in the Durham Herald-Sun titled What Forgiveness Costs., We were at a meeting downtown together, and he kept yelling n---- this and n---- that. It met for ten sessions. It was the only organization in the world that would take care of the white people. So I told C.P. 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. ", Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. I hated her guts. Trump's latest attack addresses DeSantis' overseas trips to the U.K., Israel, Florida's Covid-19 record, and polling support for the 2024 Presidential race. I didnt like Ann boycotting stores. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. She was a fierce fighter for rights for poor African Americans who shook up the white power establishment in Durham, N.C. in the 1960s. Tensions steadily rose, but near the end the two had a change of heart. People worked at job-training, took after-school tutoring, or became educated as to their rights. One day we were working with a welfare problem, people werent getting the type help that they were supposed to get from the welfare department, so I took one of the ladies and went down to the Department of Social Services, Atwater recalled in a 2010 interview. Ann Atwater was born in 1935 in Hallsboro, North Carolina as one of nine children to parents who were sharecroppers; her father was also a deacon of the church. Activist Ann Atwater Do you look back, and does it make sense to you? To manage the transition to racial integration, councilman Bill Riddick called a charrette. Eventually Atwater divorced him and raised their two daughters on her own as a single mother. Atwater was an unlikely civil rights activist. One day when Atwater went to the welfare office to see if she could get $100 to pay her overdue rent and avoid eviction, she happened to meet Fuller. But then if I look back at it through my Bible, through God's work, God had a plan for both of us. Kevin Washington, C. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. The other co-chair selected was C.P. We looked at each other like fools wed been arguing about the wrong things and hadnt been doing anything to make the school system better., They started talking. But when she arrived in Durham, with her baby girl on her hip, a small suitcase and a shopping bag full of the babys clothes, her husband was not at the bus station, and he did not have a place for the family to live. How in the hell does people get so screwed up mentally? Copyright 2005 NPR. Change did not come easily or suddenly, and the two faced ostracism, even death threats; C.P. Ann George Atwater (July 1, 1935 June 20, 2016) was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. Ellis told an NPR interviewer that Atwater was an effective boycotter, making progress and he hated her guts. Yes, The Best of Enemies is based on a true story. Sitting down with his nemesis, he realized that his struggles were her struggles too, and that they shared a fundamental commonality of experience. "So that's when me and him decided that we would work for the cause and stop fussin' and arguin' because one was black and one was white. Ellis was known for making provocative and inaccurate remarks expressing his fears and resentments of blacks, such as: Blacks are taking over the city. I tried to find somebody. She even experienced racism in that moment, when a funeral home worker doubted she knew the deceased. Welfare was only providing $57 a month, and she was leasing a dilapidated house where she was $100 behind her rent. His action resulted in death threats and he was shunned by a significant portion of his community. Ellis (portrayed by Sam Rockwell). [2], After Atwater co-led the charrette, she continued to work with the poor and middle-class black community in Durham. Michael had adopted the girls after their mother (and his good friend), Elizabeth Ratliff, died in a fall down the stairs. Yes. She could also prevent Michael from ever profiting from the crime, which was one of the goals of the wrongful death lawsuit she filed against him. Atwater fought against the lack of respect that many whites showed blacks. Initially, they didn't even speak to one another. Because the white councilmen did not want to listen to a black woman talk, they turned their chairs away from her. Ann She was a poor black woman raising children alone in the South in the mid-20th century. As seen in The Staircase on HBO Max, Todd Peterson was the first person to see his father in the immediate aftermath of Kathleen's body being discovered. Considering their history of mutual animosity, Atwater and Ellis were reluctant to work with the other, but both knew that to have their opinion represented, they must participate. Durham schools suffered from increasing racial tensions among students anxious about the future. The defense team claimed Kathleen was aware of Michael's sexuality and was fine with it, but Atwater did not believe her mother would have been accepting. Ellis was the son of a millworker and was raised in poverty. She grew to love fostering communities, teaching them how to take care of themselves, and not put up with the injustices they faced in their daily lives. Groups, Social Justice. Ann Atwater State Government websites value user privacy. Like in The Best of Enemies movie, examining the fact vs. fiction reveals that he did tear up his KKK membership card in public. Ultimately, the school board disregarded the proposals put forth by the charrette, but the friendship C.P. I pulled out the knife that I kept in my hand bag and opened the blade. She told Dateline: According to ABC News, that made Atwater view her stepfather in another light. Ann Atwater, interview by Jennifer Fiumara and Mary Cleary. By the end of the charrette, Ellis gave up his leadership in the KKK. Ellis like an uncle and still keeps in touch with his family. Ellis, an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan in Durham. And that plan was to put us there to make sure that this school integration would be done peacefully, and that's what happened. 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.. This website is undergoing design changes. Yes. I did lose my family and my home." 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. Ms. ATWATER: Well, thank you for talking to me. Poverty was still a problem in the segregated society; in 1950 28% of families lived below the designated poverty line of $3000. In October 2002, acting as administrator of her mother's estate, Caitlin Atwater filed a wrongful death claim in a civil case against Michael Peterson. Ms. ATWATER: Yeah. But to see--as I tell everybody, God had a hand on that because in the meetings C.P. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. When Atwater had first met C. P. Ellis at a previous Durham city council meeting, she felt great resentment toward him. They ended up living in one small bedroom shared with another man who slept in one bed while Atwater, her husband and the baby slept in another. When her job as a maid ended, she found herself living in a dilapidated house in North Durham on a Over 10 days, the opposing sides met and tension grew. The enmity was mutual, and the charrette seemed stuck. [2] Riddick recruited participants from all sectors of Durham. They presented ways to improve curriculum, in addition to making it easier for students' voices to be heard. He invited Atwater to a meeting and to join. In the end, Ellis repudiated racism and the Klan and they became lifelong friends. The strikes left 34 people injured, including three children, and caused widespread damage. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. The two became lifelong friends, often appearing together in interviews and documentaries. Yes. He grew up in the tobacco and textile town of Durham, North Carolina. 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 had already been friends with the girls when their parents met and connected. Ann Atwater was a pioneer of community organizing and black advocacy. I always said if they'd said something to me, I was going to knock the hell out of them with my Bible. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. Michael and Kathleen Peterson raised a large, blended family with children from previous relationships. Ann G. Atwater was born on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina. Ann Atwater and C.P. On the evening of her death, the Petersons had dinner with Ratliff and her daughters. She wrote in a column that a couple of years before that committee she nearly slit his throat at a city meeting after he repeatedly used the n-word. She did. Ellis To Join Her In The Fight, A foodie, wanderlust victim, professional Francophile, and history nerd, Andrew Milne is a freelance writer who has worked at outlets like Bon Apptit and Food Network, and currently runs content at, The True Story Of Bathsheba Sherman, The Murderous Ghost From 'The Conjuring', The True Story Of Frank Lucas, The Harlem Drug Lord Who Built A Heroin Empire, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch, Jim Thornton/The Herald Sun Collections/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries, Ann Atwater and C.P. From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. We saw that each other, you know, was making it. A friend talked her out of trying to stab C.P., telling her, "That's what they want you to do." I pulled out the knife that I kept in my handbag and opened the blade. Ellis were the best choices to present a variety of viewpoints from opposing sides, so they had them chair the meeting together. They wanted their children to attend schools free of violence. 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. I didnt know who to blame. For Ellis, it finally came to me that I had more in common with poor black people than I did with rich white ones., When the children got us together and said they wanted to go to school together. She was not afraid of white school board members, nor white city council members nor the local Klan and its methods of intimidation. There certainly is no deep seated love between Mr. Ellis and myself but this school project brings out problems we all have. Civil rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer defied men and presidents who tried to silence her. It was funded by the North Carolina Fund, a statewide program to improve education. 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. "I haven't been the same since I left that school program," he said years later. Instead, they spent the first bit of their married life sharing a single room with another man, with him in one bed while Atwater and Wilson shared the other with their baby. Over the course of the 10 days that they co-chaired the committee on school desegregation, Ann Atwater and C.P. City council members would turn their chairs away when blacks spoke. At one school meeting, a school board member got up in the middle of a conversation as she was making demands for school improvements. Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. After that, Atwater went door to door telling people how they could get their landlords to fix their houses. Ellis had epiphanies. Such struggles helped shape Atwater as an activist. Ann Atwater, interview by Sean Aery, Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, February 1, 2006. Ellis died in 2005 and Atwater was asked to deliver the eulogy. She was making progress. Yes. Atwater lived in a dilapidated house on an unpaved street in Durhams Hayti district, where she struggled to support her two daughters. Secure websites use HTTPS certificates. He struggled to make ends meet and provide for his family. [9] Atwater mobilized poor blacks in Durham to help them stand up for themselves. He had similar feelings, saying, "It was impossible. [citation needed], One tactic Atwater used to tackle this problem was using the power of numbers. 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. The movie, which tells the story of the unlikely friendship that developed between Atwater and C.P. Ann mar- Kevin Washington, C.P. After their second daughter, Marilyn, was born, he left the family and moved to Richmond for a better job, according to Davidson. She organized protests for better housing, boycotts and educated citizens about their rights. They also raised Margaret and Martha Ratliff, the daughters of their friends George and Elizabeth Ratliff. 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. 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. She was one of those legendary black women in the South who was simply fearless when facing white oppression. Ann Atwater Civil-Rights Activist, Ex-Klansman C.P. Ellis : NPR Ann Atwater Theres no room with the Nationals. And the funny part about it, we stayed friends all these years. To her knowledge, making demands from a landlord was unheard of and she had no idea that she had the right to do so. -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 had made Ellis begin to question his way of thinking toward blacks. At this point, the couple had another daughter, Marilyn. [12][pageneeded], The two antagonists eventually learned to work together and, to everyones astonishment, became good friends. As a chair of a housing committee, Atwater organized protests and rallies calling for better housing conditions for the poor. Two years later, they had a daughter named Lydia. BLOCK: Why would C.P. The only foods she could afford for her children were rice, cabbage, and fatback. On November 25, 1985 Elizabeth Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of her staircase with injuries to her head. 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. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. However, she says that they had to teach him how to clap his hands in rhythm and not on an odd beat. Is The Best of Enemies a True Story Ellis' funeral on Saturday. She showed him her house and he invited her to his program. One of the workers said, Maam, this is the service for Clayborn Ellis. The couple divorced, and Atwater supported herself and her two children as a maid for 30 cents an hour, before turning to Social Services for help. Ellis, "and I particularly didn't want it at the time, but then I knew we were going to have to be at one school and the children had to get the best education they could. Ellis. 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. Ellis was a former grand exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan in Durham, North Carolina. Racism was instilled in Ellis from a young age. BLOCK: Ann Atwater joins us from her home in Durham to share her memories of C.P. I pulled out, I had a little small knife, pocket knife." This will be the first time two completely different sets of philosophies have united to work for this goal of better schools. Revelations about Margaret and Martha's birth family also made Atwater doubt Michael's innocence, according to CBS News. When her job as a maid ended, she found herself living in a dilapidated house in North Durham on a welfare check of $57 a month. They just have them. As a result, there was no one to direct the Klan's Youth Corp and the program disbanded. "The couple were married a week later.. To learn more, view our full privacy policy. Atwater told Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy that she had lost "far more than just my mother. Ellis stood up and ripped apart his Klan membership card. Ms. Atwater, Mr. Ellis there saying he hated your guts going into these meetings. Atwater quickly rose to become a formidable spokeswoman for the poor in Durham. 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. He organized a federally-funded sit-down which would rule on the issue one way or another, held for 10 days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Atwater was chosen as one of the charrettes leaders. She hit him over the head with a telephone receiver and he sat down to listen. But my pastor was sitting there and saw me holding the knife. was up raging and ranting, that's when I wanted to cut his head off. 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. Ann's granddaughter says that she's always viewed C.P. Aiden Shaw Makes His Return In 'And Just Like That' Season 2, 15 Movies On Netflix About Mothers & Daughters Thatll Make You Emotional, Beef Captures Our Toxic Tendency To Confuse Love With Sacrifice, What Parents Are Talking About Delivered Straight To Your Inbox, By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. He moved to Richmond seeking better work and asked Atwater to join him there with their two daughters, she said no. Bill Riddick, a professor and consultant, was contracted by union organizers to help solve the crisis. WebKathleen had one daughter named Caitlin from her first marriage to physicist Fred Atwater, per PopSugar. [5][pageneeded] She joked in a later interview that the house didn't need windows because she could see everyone on the streets through the cracks in the wall.[6]. I hated her guts.. Caitlin Atwater is Kathleen Peterson's daughter with her first husband, Fred Atwater. It's just a strange thing, but it really happened. (Peterson maintains his innocence still to this day.) She became an activist with Operation Breakthrough and would later work with the United Organizations for Community improvement. The film tells the story of Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) and Ku Klux Klan leader C.P. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. But Atwater's husband struggled financially, and became alcoholic and abusive. Civil rights activist and former Ku Klux Klansman C.P. -School for Conversion. When Kathleen Peterson was found dead in her home on December 9, 2001, suspicions naturally turned to the only other person in the house at the time: her husband Michael Peterson. And then starting into the next week, we talked to the youth, and we found out that the children was the ones suffering. According to PopSugar, she has twins and lives in northern Virginia. Fuller looked at the house and asked Atwater if shed like help in fixing it. Up to that point, we didnt know each other. Ann's daughter's school catches on fire, and C.P. How could I work with her? He convinced her landlord to fix her house, helped pay back her debt, and helped her find her path. 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. This article was published more than4 years ago.
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what happened to ann atwater daughters