themselves. In 1971, the Durham City Schools faced considerable turmoil because of court-ordered desegregation. The state AFL–CIO received $78,000 in grant money by the Department of HEW to address the school system's racial policies. A community organizer, Bill Riddick, motivated by fears of violence among the students, organized a series of community meetings called a charrette, where the entire community came together to try to solve this problem. The first step was to create a steering committee that was representative of the community. Riddick invited Ann Atwater, an African American civil rights activist, and the segregationist Ellis to co-chair the meetings. Ideological change After 10 days of talks, Ellis and Atwater became friends, and Ellis came to believe that whites, especially poor whites, could prosper more from the civil rights movement than from segregation. Atwater and Ellis came to know each other as individuals instead of as stereotypes. They came to see how they, as poor people, were both oppressed and that their children faced many of the same issues. It was during this time that they cried together. During the charrette, gospel music was performed. Ellis could be seen clapping his hands and stomping his feet to the music. Atwater told how she had to teach Ellis how to clap because "White folks clap an odd beat". On the last night of the charrette, 1,000 people participated, including some of Ellis's fellow Klan members. At the microphone, Ellis held his Klan membership card up and said: "If schools are going to be better by me tearing up this card, I shall do so." Ellis thus renounced the Klan that night and never returned to it. The remaining Klansmen threatened his life and refused to talk to him again for the next 30 years. Ellis and Atwater formed an enduring friendship. Ellis, having only an eighth-grade level education, went on to participate in a program called PEP (Past Employment Progress) and received his diploma. He also became heavily involved in union organization and was voted business manager of the union with a tally of 134 votes to 41 votes for the competition. His conversion to advocacy for desegregation is conveyed in the book by Osha Gray Davidson, The Best of Enemies (1996), in the documentary An Unlikely Friendship, in an interview with Studs Terkel recorded in Terkel's book American Dreams (1980), in the 2011 play The Best of Enemies by