He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction.'. Like fools wed been arguing about the wrong things and hadnt been doing anything to make the school system better.. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. The Housing Authority, part of an old boy network headed by autocratic cotton mill executive Carvie Oldham, failed to enforce housing codes. Ellis (portrayed by Sam Rockwell). Ann G. Atwater was born on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina. And she was an effective boycotter, too. Today, Caitlin is married and is now known as Caitlin Clark. There certainly is no deep seated love between Mr. Ellis and myself but this school project brings out problems we all have. Her bold actions so surprised the councilmen that they had to listen to her. When Ellis, who later became a labor rights activist, died in 2005, his family asked Atwater to give the eulogy. When Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue lived in Germany, they befriended Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two daughters, Margaret and Martha. However, more prominent members of the community felt that the issue was too hot to get involved in. Ann's daughter's school catches on fire, and C.P. CP Ellis Ellis has died at age 78. She first became involved in activism after local housing advocates helped her be able to keep her home when she fell behind on rent. ELLIS (Civil Rights Advocate): I wanted to make them angry. WebKathleen had one daughter named Caitlin from her first marriage to physicist Fred Atwater, per PopSugar. Those collaborative processes involved ten days of town meetings among numerous residents, in order to hear as many voices as possible and to resolve issues related to implementation of the court order. Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. He convinced her landlord to fix her house, helped pay back her debt, and helped her find her path. we would see whose God would be the strongest, my God or his God. [10][pageneeded]. C.P. Today, Margaret resides in California, and Martha relocated to Colorado. But much rang true. That was real, said Ann-Nakia Green, Atwaters 35-year-old granddaughter. [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 member of several community groups and local Democratic Party vice president in 1968. Im not following you any further..

Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. Ahead of a retrial in 2017, Michael Peterson entered an Alford plea to a manslaughter charge and was released from prison. I didn't like the demonstrations downtown. A lock icon or https:// means youve safely connected to the official website. 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.. "He changed from a Klansman to a Christian, and they said I had sold out, that he was a n**ger lover." Yes, The Best of Enemies is based on a true story. How in the hell does people get so screwed up mentally? BLOCK: Well, what happened in the course of this meeting over 10 days that turned things around in the way that it did? She is best known as one of the co-chairs of a charrette in 1971 to reduce school violence and ensure peaceful school desegregation. 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. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. The only foods she could afford for her children were rice, cabbage, and fatback. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her father was also a deacon of the nearby church. "All of this drastically changed my life, I mean, my thinking. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. [7][pageneeded] Afterward she attended the Operation Breakthrough meeting and discussed how the poor had to work together to get the government's attention in order to help solve poverty and what her concerns were. The real Todd Peterson, Martha Ratliff,, Michael Peterson, Caitlin Atwater and Margaret (Ratliff) Blakemore. Atwater was selected as co-chair. Ellis, leader of the Durham Ku Klux Klan. As soon as he got close to me, I was going to grab his head from behind and cut him from ear to ear. I feel that when somebody calls me for some help, God wants me to go on record sayin' I tried. After the course, Atwater had found her lifes purpose. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. The circumstances in which their mother died would raise suspicions about Michael Peterson's role in Kathleen Peterson's murder ahead of his trial. It was funded by the North Carolina Fund, a statewide program to improve education. But in the early 1970s, he had a remarkable change of heart and mind, and he became a civil rights advocate. She showed that it was possible for whites and blacks, even with conflicting views, to negotiate and collaborate by establishing some common ground. This website is undergoing design changes. State Government websites value user privacy. When her job as a maid ended, she found herself living in a dilapidated house in North Durham on a While Ratliff's murder remains unsolved, Michael was convicted of Kathleen's. The Best of Enemies Civil rights activist and former Ku Klux Klansman C.P. Ann's dad had encouraged her baby's father to marry her. That first meeting marked the start of her involvement in helping the poor black community fight poverty. So I grabbed his hand and trying to show him how to clap along with us at the same time till we learned him how to clap. BLOCK: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater in Durham, North Carolina. However, the prosecution did not accuse Peterson of Elizabeth Ratliff's death at his trial. ", Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. It was during this series of meetings in the summer of 1971 that C.P. Elliss position at the margins of white society frustrated him, and looking for a scapegoat, he turned to the target provided by the Klan, as he explained in a 1980 interview with oral historian Studs Terkel: I really began to get bitter. The marriage was unhappy, and when Wilson got a job in Richmond, Virginia and asked Atwater to uproot herself again, she countered: I already followed you to Durham. 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.. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Is The Best of Enemies a True Story Dig deeper into The Best of Enemies true story by watching the Ann Atwater interview and documentary below. I didnt like them. Atwater changed history in Durham, refusing to be ignored as she demanded better schools and living conditions for black residents. From then on, she demanded to be heard. There were also unexpected revelations about Michael's sexuality and how he had come to adopt his daughters that raised questions about his supposedly happy marriage with Kathleen. Ann Atwater, interview by Sean Aery, Sallie Bingham Center for Womens History and Culture, February 1, 2006. It's just a strange thing, but it really happened. Secure websites use HTTPS certificates. As the civil rights movement increased in urgency and militancy, he believed acting as a spokesman on behalf of the Klan was crucial to upholding the Southern way of life and its natural social hierarchy. On February 1, 2007, Caitlin Atwater and Michael Peterson settled the wrongful death claim for $25 million, which was finalized on February 1, 2008. She had already been friends with the girls when their parents met and connected. Her death was investigated by the U.S. military police in Germany at the time and an autopsy concluded she had died from an intracerebral hemorrhage. If we fail, at least no one can say we didnt try. Your address? When addressing black people, the workers would holler at them across the room, What you here for? This embarrassed the black client, who was forced to explain private issues in front of a room full of strangers. In real life, the labor union (AFL-CIO) in Durham was given a grant to help mediate the problem, after which a 10-day public meeting, or charrette, was held. He moved to Richmond seeking better work and asked Atwater to join him there with their two daughters, she said no. By the end of the charrette, Ellis gave up his leadership in the KKK. 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. Like in The Best of Enemies movie, examining the fact vs. fiction reveals that he did tear up his KKK membership card in public. His action resulted in death threats and he was shunned by a significant portion of his community. On the evening of her death, the Petersons had dinner with Ratliff and her daughters. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. They presented ways to improve curriculum, in addition to making it easier for students' voices to be heard. 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. Ignoring her and the parents with her was a mistake. "The couple were married a week later.. As a chair of a housing committee, Atwater organized protests and rallies calling for better housing conditions for the poor. WebIn 1971 in Durham, North Carolina, Ann Atwater tries to get better housing conditions for poor black people, and is ignored by the all-white judge panel. 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. In particular, Kathleen's daughter Caitlin Atwater disassociated herself from the family, believing her stepfather Michael Peterson played a role in her mother's death. One of the workers said, Maam, this is the service for Clayborn Ellis. Ann Atwater and C.P. 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. It met for ten sessions. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. She and her husband relocated to Durham soon after in the hopes of better opportunities, but things shifted for the worst. I went on back out the street and went on down, right back down the street to the office, and we Xeroxed the part that told the welfare recipients their rights.. She didn't feel that she could ever achieve true closure, but she could move forward. She spoke at C.P. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the (unintelligible) a 10-day meeting. Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. A friend talked her out of trying to stab C.P., telling her, "That's what they want you to do." BLOCK: Why would C.P. Through Fuller, Ann Atwater was introduced to Operation Breakthrough. 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. Ellis did rip up his KKK card, swearing I never did go back to the Klan after I left that school program.. In researching The Best of Enemies' historical accuracy, we learned that C.P. The Best of Enemies (2019 film 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. 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. Students were getting into fights at schools over the issue. 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. The other co-chair selected was C.P. 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. P. Ellis Says Klan Days Have Been Over for Awhile,, Cliff Bellarny, Bold Measure for Difficult Times,, Operation Breakthrough (Durham, North Carolina), Maegan Lobo-Berg, "The Reality of Self-Help in Durhams Operation Breakthrough", "Durham civil rights leader Ann Atwater honored with Freedom Library", "Durham civil rights activist Ann Atwater dies at 80", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ann_Atwater&oldid=1069357903, Activists for African-American civil rights, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from April 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Midnight Sun star Patrick Schwarzenegger portrays Todd Peterson in The Staircase on HBO Max. Caitlin Atwater was the daughter of Kathleen and her first husband, Fred Atwater, though she was very close with the entire Peterson family. Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan as Todd and Clayton Peterson in The Staircase on HBO Max. Fuller looked at the house and asked Atwater if shed like help in fixing it. I pulled out, I had a little small knife, pocket knife." is the president of the KKK, and cares for his children. She died in 2016 having won many awards and accolades for her work for the disadvantaged. "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. Categories: 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. 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. He stayed in touch with me; I'd call him. Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. City council members would turn their chairs away when blacks spoke. [12][pageneeded], The two antagonists eventually learned to work together and, to everyones astonishment, became good friends. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the 10-day meeting.. [8][pageneeded]. Though going through the trial was unimaginably difficult, Atwater did tell IndyWeek that it gave her a measure of understanding. [2] Riddick recruited participants from all sectors of Durham. 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. 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 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. Newsweek Yes. The program helped people gain confidence through a series of tasks to build achievement. We didnt know we had things in common., They talked about the hardships of raising children in poverty, and their efforts to emphasize that their children's potential was equal to that of middle-class children. Before Peterson's trial, the Durham court ordered the exhumation of Ratliff's embalmed body, buried in Texas, for a second autopsy in April 2003. He still got my back and He always will have it as long as I keep trusting in him." Riddick set up a meeting, which is referred to in the movie as a charrette. She was making progress. They just have them. 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. Ms. ATWATER: No, it don't when you look back at it. She was making progress. Mr. C.P. Ellis began to change. "They would turn their chairs around, and they were chairs that wheeled around. She was living in dilapidated house in North Durham on $57 a month when she became an activist. But to see--as I tell everybody, God had a hand on that because in the meetings C.P. Caitlin Atwater would go on to become a key witness on the prosecution side during Michael Peterson's trial. 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. -School for Conversion. Throughout her career she helped improve the quality of life in Durham through programs such as Operation Breakthrough (Durham, North Carolina), a community organization dedicated to fight the War on Poverty. I didn't like them. C.P. Ellis like an uncle and still keeps in touch with his family. In 1967, Atwater took a 17-week training course where she learned about tenant rights, housing codes and how to organize community protests. WebEventually Atwater divorced him and raised their two daughters on her own as a single mother. Two years later, she had another baby, whom she named Lydia, Davidson wrote. His turnabout came through a 10-day community meeting on school desegregation in 1971. Ellis described the hatred he felt toward blacks going in. 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. However, they eventually joined their father in Durham, North Carolina, and spent the rest of their younger and adolescent years there. She was 80. Following his nearly two-week long meeting with Ann Atwater, C.P. Atwater married Willie Pettiford in 1975 and eventually had two daughters, the late Lydia Green and Marilynn Turner. I didnt like the demonstrations downtown, recalled Ellis some 30 years after the charrette. This wasnt actually true there was no house waiting for her when she arrived in Durham. I didnt like integration. The other was C.P. When he requested that she and the two girls come, Atwater wrote a letter saying: I already followed you to Durham. C.P. [14] She concluded that the most effective method of getting people to listen to her was to holler at them. When she called a meeting, she meant business. Ellis have agreed to take part in these meetings, which were all about improving race relations and figuring out a way to integrate the schools? was up raging and ranting, that's when I wanted to cut his head off. 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. Ms. ATWATER: Well, thank you for talking to me. The first three episodes of The Staircase premiere on Thursday, May 5, and the remaining episodes drop weekly on HBO Max. They settled the suit for $25 million and Atwater said, according to WRAL: Atwater has suffered an unimaginable loss, but hopefully has been able to find peace in the intervening years. Atwater quickly rose to become a formidable spokeswoman for the poor in Durham. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. And the house was so poorly wired that when the man cut off my lights for nonpayment of [the] light bill, I could stomp on the floor and the lights would come on and Id stomp on the floor and theyd go off.. 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. 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. I almost killed C.P. Ellis, a local Klan leader, focuses on a 10-day charrette, a community meeting that was organized in 1971 to grapple with the issue of school desegregation. She survived on $57 a month from a welfare check, and struggled to pay rent, as she gained only occasional domestic work in white homes. She said, I know. He said, It is private. She said, I know. He said, Family only. She said, He was my brother. ", The last survivor of a slave ship has been identified, and her story is remarkable, Missouri v. Celia, a Slave: She killed the white master raping her, then claimed self-defense, Harriet Tubman made men pay for underestimating her, When Portland banned blacks: Oregons shameful history as an all-white state, Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more, Ann Atwaters amazing rise from advocate for the poor to Best of Enemies stardom. In 1971 Atwater was asked to co-chair a group looking for answers for the problems of desegregation of Durham Schools. Then, when it was nearly over, Atwater and Ellis had a change of heart. She organized protests for better housing, boycotts and educated citizens about their rights. Ellis came to realize that blacks were not suppressing poor whites, and that the two groups shared problems. He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction. . The Best of Enemies true story reveals that Ann Atwater got married at the age of 14 and moved to Durham, NC in 1953. Michael had adopted the girls after their mother (and his good friend), Elizabeth Ratliff, died in a fall down the stairs. 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. Yes. BLOCK: Ann Atwater joins us from her home in Durham to share her memories of C.P. Ann Atwater in an image from the 2002 documentary. Ellis were the best choices to present a variety of viewpoints from opposing sides, so they had them chair the meeting together. Enemies' daughter is ordained minister in We were at a meeting downtown together, said Ann Atwater years later, and he kept yelling nigger this and nigger that. 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. At this point, the couple had another daughter, Marilyn. Caitlin Atwater is Kathleen Peterson's daughter with her first husband, Fred Atwater. They divorced. 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. Atwater had made Ellis begin to question his way of thinking toward blacks. Poverty was still a problem in the segregated society; in 1950 28% of families lived below the designated poverty line of $3000. Ellis formed a lifelong friendship. Ellis was the Grand Cyclops of the Durham chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, raised in a poor white family that taught him to hate black people. According to PopSugar, she has twins and lives in northern Virginia. Revelations about Margaret and Martha's birth family also made Atwater doubt Michael's innocence, according to CBS News. She became an effective leader. BLOCK: You know, it seems like such an unlikely transformation. Ellis stood up and ripped apart his Klan membership card. Ann Atwater Pushed To Integrate Her Citys Schools And Got A Klansman Named C.P. In the 1960s, eighty percent of black Durham residents lived in substandard housing, a figure which had remained unchanged since the 1920s. All I had was God holding my back and that's it. Courtesy of STXfilmsAnn Atwater in an image from the 2002 documentary An Unlikely Friendship. Today, Todd is believed to be living in Tennessee. Ellis, whos played by Sam Rockwell. He invited Atwater to a meeting and to join. To learn more, view our full privacy policy. 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. She married the babys father, French Wilson, but their baby died soon after birth. She was also not afraid to tell anyone to go to hell if she felt like it. They don't have any evidence to some of the things that they do and some of the opinions they make. We didnt have to worry about any air, because the cracks were all along the house, Atwater later recalled, you could just stand on the outside and look on the inside, you didnt have to go to the window. SCOTUS Now Just Another Congressional Committee, Trump Ramps up Attacks on DeSantis: 'Dropping Like a Rock', Russian Strikes on Pavlohrad Aim to Hamper Ukraine's Counteroffensive, Greg Abbott Criticized for Response to Texas Shooting: 'A New Low', Democrat Sold First Republic Stock, Bought JP Morgan Before Collapse, Conservative Influencers Struggle With Countering Biden's Messaging. She seems an unlikely activist and hero. 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. Like Ann Atwater, Claiborne Paul Ellis was raised in a life of poverty. 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 told Dateline: According to ABC News, that made Atwater view her stepfather in another light. He renounced his Klan membership, became lifelong friends with Atwater and went on to organize black and white labor unions. Ellis lived across the tracks in a neighborhood nearly as destitute, but white.