'Best of Enemies' tells the true story of friendship between a civil rights activist and a former KKK leader in North Carolina. Watch Taraji P. Henson talk to NBCNightlyNews about working on the upcoming film.
In 1971, black residents in Durham, North Carolina, were fighting for school integration. White families in the city pushed back, hoping to keep schools segregated. Locally, the government organized a charrette — a 10-day meeting where both sides were forced to come together and find a solution. Based on a true story, Bill Riddick was the moderator who traveled to Durham and appointed a bold civil rights leader, Ann Atwater, and a local KKK leader, C.P. Ellis, to be co-chairs of the board.
Somehow, through conversations with one another, Ellis changed his mind. At the end of the meeting he ripped up his KKK card, renounced his Klan membership and eventually became lifelong friends with Atwater. In 2005,“Ann Atwater taught me to fight for what you believe in,” Henson said. “And change is worth fighting for. Because you’re fighting for generations that [are] coming behind you. You’re fighting to make this world a better place.
Henson hopes that after watching the movie, people will feel compelled to listen to those they disagree with. Ellis has been part of other headliner stories including the attacks on the World Trade Center. She was the first person to identify the attack on the air as “Nine-Eleven." She’s reported on Hurricane Katrina, the death of Michael of Jackson and the Haiti earthquake.
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