Photo from the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill Libraries, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, An official website of the State of North Carolina, Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion, N.C. She was 80. After marrying at the age of thirteen to French Wilson, Ann moved with him from the countryside to Durham in hopes of better job opportunities, as the city had large tobacco and textile industries. I didn't like them. 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. Then, when it was nearly over, Atwater and Ellis had a change of heart. They presented ways to improve curriculum, in addition to making it easier for students' voices to be heard. She showed up and sat down in the chapel, Wilson-Hartgrove said in an interview. In one meeting with a councilman, Atwater recalls that when he was not taking her seriously as she was trying to make her points, she would hit him on the head, surprising him so much that he would listen to her afterwards. An Alford plea is one where the defendant admits that the evidence against them would likely lead to a finding of guilty, but the defendant asserts their innocence. City council people, would, they was in those chairs you know they wheel around, and they would turn their backs to us and didnt wanna hear us," Atwater said in the 2010 interview with Duke University historian Robert Korstad. [4] The roof of her house was full of holes, the bathtub had fallen through the floor, and the house was so poorly wired that when the man cut off [her] lights for nonpayment, [she] could stomp on the floor and the lights would come on and [shed] stomp on the floor and theyd go off. ", Ann Atwater continued her work fighting for racial equality as a grass roots organizer, passing away in 2016. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. I began to blame it on black people. 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 the 1960s, eighty percent of black Durham residents lived in substandard housing, a figure which had remained unchanged since the 1920s. Ellis was known for making provocative and inaccurate remarks expressing his fears and resentments of blacks, such as: Blacks are taking over the city. "I just lend whatever God gives me to give out. He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction. . He was chosen to chair the meetings, along with his polar opposite, a militant African-American leader of Durham's civil rights movement, Ann Atwater. Atwater also expressed her opinions at city council meetings, which had only white members. Ellis lived across the tracks in a neighborhood nearly as destitute, but white. It was learning more during the trial that made Atwater believe that Michael could have been involved in Kathleen's death. Caitlin Atwater is Kathleen Peterson's daughter with her first husband, Fred Atwater. Ellis had an especially difficult time returning to his life post-charrette, as he had lost his effectiveness in the conservative community, which he acknowledged in a toast on the last night of the charrette. He convinced her landlord to fix her house, helped pay back her debt, and helped her find her path. She told Dateline: According to ABC News, that made Atwater view her stepfather in another light. She was also not afraid to tell anyone to go to hell if she felt like it. is the president of the KKK, and cares for his children. I didn't like the demonstrations downtown. When approached by Howard Fuller to join Operation Breakthrough, a program to help people escape poverty, Atwater found her life purpose. Fuller met with each resident enrolled in Operation Breakthrough, getting to know them personally and helping identify issues to be fixed. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. In October 2002, acting as administrator of her mother's estate, Caitlin Atwater filed a wrongful death claim in a civil case against Michael Peterson. Atwater lived in a dilapidated house on an unpaved street in Durhams Hayti district, where she struggled to support her two daughters. Mr. C.P. Poverty was still a problem in the segregated society; in 1950 28% of families lived below the designated poverty line of $3000. I didnt like the demonstrations downtown, recalled Ellis some 30 years after the charrette. One evening a housing organizer came by and asked whether she needed help to get repairs made to the house and invited her to a community meeting. Yes. Ann Atwaters life didnt start off easy. I hated her guts., BlacKkKlansman: How black detective Ron Stallworth infiltrated the Colorado Klan, Atwater countered: I hated him just as hard as he hated me. Her mother died when she was 6. WebKathleen had one daughter named Caitlin from her first marriage to physicist Fred Atwater, per PopSugar. Ann Atwater organizes neighbors after completing Community Action Training with the North Carolina Fund. 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. From then on, she demanded to be heard.

. Her father earned only five cents an hour; Ann and her siblings also worked on farms as children to help support the family. Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. Ellis had regularly been attending city council meetings, school board meetings, and county meetings to oppose civil rights changes and its activists. [8][pageneeded]. Historical Commission Votes to Study Relocation of Confederate Monuments, Summary of Public Hearings by the State Capitol African American Memorial Committee. Both Atwater and Ellis have since passed away, but their legacies live today through their family members. Clayton Peterson is played by Dane DeHaan, who is best known for his role as Harry Osborn/Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. City council members would turn their chairs away when blacks spoke. They hated each other. The school's Ann Atwater Freedom Library continues her work of "making surprising friendships possible".[15]. I'm Michele Norris. The movie, which tells the story of the unlikely friendship that developed between Atwater and C.P. 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. This website is undergoing design changes. Today, he lives in Maryland with his two children, according to The News and Observer. They got all the good jobs and youre all sittin here letting em do it. He said that black people should stay on the other side of the railroad because they had no business in town. She died in 2016 having won many awards and accolades for her work for the disadvantaged. Ann G. Atwater was born on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina. In July 1971, the public schools were still segregated, despite the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and 1960s federal civil rights legislation about integration of public facilities. She could also prevent Michael from ever profiting from the crime, which was one of the goals of the wrongful death lawsuit she filed against him. 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. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. So I began to admire the Klan. Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis, an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan in Durham. 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.. I know if we weren't gonna look after our children, nobody else would. -School for Conversion, Yes. 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. The unlikely friendship is remarkable, but most of all, Ann Atwaters legacy is that of a fierce defender of integration to whom the word no meant nothing. She was living in dilapidated house in North Durham on $57 a month when she became an activist. He stayed in touch with me; I'd call him. Yes. Colin Firth and Toni Colette star in HBO Max's latest true-crime drama, The Staircase, based on the 13-part documentary series of the same name by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The other co-chair was C.P. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. He moved to Richmond seeking better work and asked Atwater to join him there with their two daughters, she said no. And I had my coat on, and I took the manual off the desk and put it under my coat while she was fussing about coming there and not getting any help. Ellis began to change. That first meeting marked the start of her involvement in helping the poor black community fight poverty. 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. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. 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. Even though the Supreme Court had ruled in the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Educationcase that schools had to be desegregated, this by no means meant that there wasn't a great deal of resistance in some communities, especially in the South. The first three episodes of The Staircase premiere on Thursday, May 5, and the remaining episodes drop weekly on HBO Max. She knew that some welfare workers were guilty of this. She became an effective leader. She moved to Durham in 1953. My husband was already here, and he sent back for me and my oldest child, and he told me he had a place for us to live, Atwater explained during the oral history interview. Yes. 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.. 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. To learn more, view our full privacy policy. Ellis and his wife Mary had a son who they called Punkin'. Durham schools suffered from increasing racial tensions among students anxious about the future. had a machine gun, and he would show it to the city councilmen in the trunk of his car every morning. She credits her parents for teaching her the value of discipline and hard work, which has been the foundation for her success as a community activist. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. C.P. (Romper reached out to Michael Peterson's representatives and Netflix for additional statements.). On the evening of her death, the Petersons had dinner with Ratliff and her daughters. [3] The faucets in the bathroom were faulty, shooting out water so intensely that her kids nicknamed it Niagara Falls. That was Howard Fuller with Operation Breakthrough, a program founded in Durham in 1964 to address poverty and inequality. And me and him cried at that time, and we began to melt down towards one another. Her mother died when she was 6. Newsweek has everything you need to know. "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. Atwater had been an activist for quite some time before her role in helping to solve the problems related to the desegregation of schools, which is what's focused on in the movie. Ellis died last week in Durham at the age of 78. Born Ann George in the community of Hallsboro in Columbus County, North Carolina, she was pregnant and married at the age of 14. Civil rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer defied men and presidents who tried to silence her. Ellis quit the KKK. -The Best of Enemies book. I didn't like integration. Durham's prosperous black business sector made the city a beacon of hope for African Americans seeking to rise through self-help. Tensions steadily rose, but near the end the two had a change of heart. 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. Ellis did rip up his KKK card, swearing I never did go back to the Klan after I left that school program.. Racism was instilled in Ellis from a young age. "This particular night C.P. This wasnt actually true there was no house waiting for her when she arrived in Durham. Sadly, Elizabeth would die soon after in 1985 and Michael Peterson became the guardian of her two children. When Atwater got pregnant at 14, her father a deacon in the church grabbed his shotgun and walked to the house of the man responsible, French Wilson. C.P. In an NPR interview in 1996, C.P. They divorced. They also raised Margaret and Martha Ratliff, the daughters of their friends George and Elizabeth Ratliff. 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. On November 25, 1985 Elizabeth Ratliff was found dead at the bottom of her staircase with injuries to her head. But much rang true. Ellis indeed started tapping his feet and then clapping his hands along with the others. "He changed from a Klansman to a Christian, and they said I had sold out, that he was a n**ger lover." She is best known as one of the co-chairs of a charrette in 1971 to reduce school violence and ensure peaceful school desegregation. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. Atwater told Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy that she had lost "far more than just my mother. The Best of Enemies true story reveals that Ann Atwater got married at the age of 14 and moved to Durham, NC in 1953. If I told him I needed some money, he told me he needed something, we looked after each other. Michael and Kathleen Peterson raised a large, blended family with children from previous relationships. She became an activist with Operation Breakthrough and would later work with the United Organizations for Community improvement. The couple divorced, and Atwater supported herself and her two children as a maid for 30 cents an hour, before turning to Social Services for help. As an adult, he worked as a service station attendant before saving up enough money to buy a small service station in a factory town. However, Yes, this comes straight from Diane Bloom's 2002 documentary, No. Todd Peterson is the second son of Michael Peterson, from his first marriage to Patricia Sue. When asked if she believed Michael killed her mother, she said: When prompted for a possible reason why, Atwater called it "truly a culmination of a storm," that might have come from financial issues and secrets within the marriage. Ann George Atwater (July 1, 1935 June 20, 2016) was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. Through Fuller, Ann Atwater was introduced to Operation Breakthrough. Ellis were named co-chairs of the Durham, North Carolinas charrette S.O.S., Save Our Schools.. When Ellis, who later became a labor rights activist, died in 2005, his family asked Atwater to give the eulogy. Today, Caitlin is married and is now known as Caitlin Clark. Through Operation Breakthrough, Atwater was selected for the 1971 charrette or series of planning meetings over the integration of Durhams schools. She was making progress. One of the workers said, Maam, this is the service for Clayborn Ellis. Riddick set up a meeting, which is referred to in the movie as a charrette. Eventually Atwater divorced him and raised their two daughters on her own as a single mother. Ann Atwater was a pioneer of community organizing and black advocacy. She was not afraid of white school board members, nor white city council members nor the local Klan and its methods of intimidation. But my pastor was sitting there and saw me holding the knife. I didn't like integration. All I had was God holding my back and that's it. Atwater fought against the lack of respect that many whites showed blacks. Ellis. That process has been portrayed in the movies, The Best of Enemies, and An Unlikely Friendship, and in the Studs Terkel book Race: How Blacks & Whites Think & Feel about the American Obsession.. Ellis described the hatred he felt toward blacks going in. [13][pageneeded], Atwater and Ellis presented the School Board with a list of recommendations from the charrette, including giving students a larger say on education issues by expanding the board to include two students from each of the major racial groups. On the final night of the charrette, Ellis stood before the crowd and ripped up his Klan card. She hit him over the head with a telephone receiver and he sat down to listen. I didnt like them. I pulled out the knife that I kept in my handbag and opened the blade. 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. She said, "I realized there was definitely another side to him.". 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 grew up in the tobacco and textile town of Durham, North Carolina. From then on, she demanded to be heard. Kevin Washington, C.P. How in the hell does people get so screwed up mentally? Atwater promoted unity of the working-class African Americans through grassroots organizations. When Atwater had first met C. P. Ellis at a previous Durham city council meeting, she felt great resentment toward him. After their second daughter, Marilyn, was born, he left the family and moved to Richmond for a better job, according to Davidson. Jim Thornton/The Herald Sun Collections/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill LibrariesAnn Atwater and C.P. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her father was also a deacon of the nearby church. And she was an effective boycotter, too. The charrette was held for 10 days from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. Whatever the leaders chose on school integration would become a binding decision that Durhams City Council would have to follow. Over the course of the 10 days that they co-chaired the committee on school desegregation, Ann Atwater and C.P. She was taught that whites were better and that their needs came before hers. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the (unintelligible) a 10-day meeting. Yes, The Best of Enemies is based on a true story. If we fail, at least no one can say we didnt try. The enmity was mutual, and the charrette seemed stuck. They just have them. His turnabout came through a 10-day community meeting on school desegregation in 1971. Breakthrough was a project designed to alleviate poverty by teaching residents how to address its root causes, and by organizing the community to create a social security net. The Staircase on HBO Max delves deep into the story of Michael Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife Kathleen Peterson on December 9, 2001. After the course, Atwater had found her lifes purpose. She began to represent poor people with housing problems, and would go door-to-door telling others of her own previous housing problems and how she was able to resolve them. Though going through the trial was unimaginably difficult, Atwater did tell IndyWeek that it gave her a measure of understanding. WebAnn Atwater Born: July 1, 1935 Growing up as the youngest of nine children, Ann started working on the family farm in Columbus County, N.C., before she can remember. But Atwater's husband struggled financially, and became alcoholic and abusive. Civil rights activist and former Ku Klux Klansman C.P. Like all historical fiction, the 2019 film The Best of Enemies takes a bit of license with reality. I pulled out, I had a little small knife, pocket knife." He struggled to make ends meet and provide for his family. The two became lifelong friends, often appearing together in interviews and documentaries. Ellis and Ann Atwater established during that time endured, as did Ellis change in attitude. She made no bones about taking them out if necessary. Categories: Like his older brother Clayton, Todd Peterson stood by his father's side during the trial and today. Elliss funeral in 2005, Ann Atwater delivered his eulogy. Ann Atwater, interview by Sean Aery, Sallie Bingham Center for Womens History and Culture, February 1, 2006. [8][pageneeded]. He had similar feelings, saying, "It was impossible. She was a woman who found and used the power of her voice. In the movie, it's hard to tell if they're trying to kill the woman or frighten her, but there's no mention of the shooting in either the documentary or. Diane Fanning in her book Written in Blood: A True Story of Murder and A Deadly 16-Year Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart, details how Todd Peterson allegedly told police officers that he believed Kathleen Peterson's death to be alcohol-related. In the end, Ellis repudiated racism and the Klan and they became lifelong friends. [8], From 2006 until her death, Atwater worked with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove at the School for Conversion as a "freedom teacher," mentoring young people and activists in community organizing and fusion politics. I did lose my family and my home." His action resulted in death threats and he was shunned by a significant portion of his community. This article was published more than4 years ago. Ann Atwater was used to struggling, but she hit some truly hard times. Ellis Says Klan Days Have Been Over for Awhile,, This page was last edited on 1 February 2022, at 22:25. 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. The Best of Enemies fact-check revealed that Ann credited God with giving her the strength to help so many people. BLOCK: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater in Durham, North Carolina. 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. "The city council people didn't want to look at us because we were black," said Ann. She became an expert on housing policies; she copied and handed out welfare regulation manuals so that people could learn their rights, such as asking landlords to fix substandard conditions. They also proposed major changes in the school curriculum, such as more instruction on dealing with racial violence, creation of a group to discuss and resolve problems before they escalated, and expansion in choices of textbooks to include African-American authors. Midnight Sun star Patrick Schwarzenegger portrays Todd Peterson in The Staircase on HBO Max. According to NBC News, Atwater called Kathleen and Michael "the most ideal parents" and she was thrilled by their marriage because it meant "a permanent sleepover" with Michael's adopted daughters, Margaret and Martha. [citation needed], One tactic Atwater used to tackle this problem was using the power of numbers. Ms. ATWATER: Well, some of the people in City Hall was Klansmen as well, and they had him put out there so he could disrupt everything that everybody was trying to do. She didnt know you could ask for repairs. 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. How could I work with her? 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. As far as he was concerned, it was the savior of the white people. Ann actually gave Ellis' eulogy when he passed away. Ellis. 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. "And we had to go up and knock them back around so that would let them know that we are human and well talk to them.. I didnt like Ann boycotting stores. [5][pageneeded] She joked in a later interview that the house didn't need windows because she could see everyone on the streets through the cracks in the wall.[6]. She showed that it was possible for whites and blacks, even with conflicting views, to negotiate and collaborate by establishing some common ground. To her knowledge, making demands from a landlord was unheard of and she had no idea that she had the right to do so. Atwater initially declined to serve as co-chair, but reluctantly agreed to work with Ellis. That path involved a 17-week training course, where Ann Atwater learned the ropes of community organizing and the ins and outs of tenant rights along with the citys housing code. The real-life story of Atwater is featured in the movie The Best of Enemies, starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, which opens in theaters Friday. She became an effective activist and leader when advocating for black rights, such as better private housing. I didnt know who to blame. Conservative town leaders were largely receptive to his message. So, where are Michael Peterson's children now? 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. 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. I hated her guts. Ann Nakia Green, Atwater's granddaughter, now lives in Texas. 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. She had little faith that hed be able to get her landlord to do anything, but she agreed to go with him to a meeting for his organization. No. For instance, the film never mentions Ellis KKK-inspired hatred of Catholics. Ellis, Ann Atwater's voice was deep and powerful, and she had the ability to energize her audience. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. As a result, there was no one to direct the Klan's Youth Corp and the program disbanded. But to see--as I tell everybody, God had a hand on that because in the meetings C.P. As seen in The Staircase on HBO Max, Todd Peterson was the first person to see his father in the immediate aftermath of Kathleen's body being discovered. I had to hate somebody. She grew to love fostering communities, teaching them how to take care of themselves, and not put up with the injustices they faced in their daily lives. He was blind, deaf, and suffered from an intellectual disability. Ellis. Some people may not have liked that she was demanding and outspoken, but those qualities enabled her to be a successful activist and organizer. She first became involved in activism after local housing advocates helped her be able to keep her home when she fell behind on rent. BLOCK: Why would C.P. The program helped people gain confidence through a series of tasks to build achievement. Ann's daughter's school catches on fire, and C.P. Fuller looked at the house and asked Atwater if shed like help in fixing it. Revelations about Margaret and Martha's birth family also made Atwater doubt Michael's innocence, according to CBS News. They decided to integrate the schools. His relationship with Ann Atwater, who attended his funeral, became the subject of a book and a documentary film, and was the favourite of all the interviews conducted by Studs Terkel.
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