The Texas A&M University Libraries Diversity Advancement Committee will host author, musician and activist Daryl Davis on Tuesday, April 10. Davis’s talk is titled “Klan We Talk” and will be presented in Evans Library Room 204E, 1-3 p.m.
A Q&A session will follow his presentation.
Prior to his speaking engagement on campus, a documentary about Davis’s work, Accidental Courtesy, will be featured in Evans Library, Room 204E on April 5 at 1 p.m. The documentary follows Davis from Memphis to Alabama to Ferguson, Missouri as he meets with current and former Ku Klux Klan members as well as members of Black Lives Matters. Accidental Courtesy can also be seen on iTunes and Netflix.
Daryl Davis is the author of Klan-Destine Relationships which focuses on his experience with members of the Ku Klux Klan. For more than two decades, Davis has been meeting and befriending members of the KKK with some leaving the Klan after spending time with Daryl. He has collected the hoods and the robes of the white men who have left the Klan after spending time with him.
He is also an accomplished blues and R&B musician. His first encounter with a Klansman was after he played a gig in Frederick, Maryland. Despite their different beliefs, Davis became friends with the Klansman and they continued to meet every time Davis was in town to play a gig. Daryl plays in his self-titled Daryl Davis Band and has performed with B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Muddy Waters.
His work in race relations has received praise from CNN, NBC, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun, among others. He has been a recipient of several awards including the Elliott-Black Award presented by the American Ethical Union and the Bridge Builder Award presented by the Washington Ethical Society.
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For More Information Contact: Joshua Russell, Texas A&M University Libraries, joshuar2010@library.tamu.edu
