The Audacity of Talking About Race With the Ku Klux Klan
When musician Daryl Davis first met a member of the Ku Klux Klan he was the only black man in a country band. They were playing a gig at an all-white venue in Frederick, Maryland. After their set, a member of the audience approached Davis to compliment his piano skills, saying he’d never heard a black pianist play like Jerry Lee Lewis. “Who do you think taught Jerry Lee Lewis to play that way?” Davis replied. They hit it off. The patron wanted to buy Davis a drink, and soon after he observed that he’d never in his life had a drink or conversed with a black man.
“Why is that?”
“I’m a member of the Ku Klux Klan.”
At first Davis thought he was joking. But the man pulled out his wallet and produced his Klan card. Later he wrote down his phone number. He asked Davis to call him the next time he played the Silver Dollar Lounge. He’d come out to watch.
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That meeting happened in 1983. It has.
