I didn't like the demonstrations downtown. After Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue divorced in 1985, Clayton and his younger brother Todd went to live with their mother. It met for ten sessions. Atwater was selected as co-chair. The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan. She showed that it was possible for whites and blacks, even with conflicting views, to negotiate and collaborate by establishing some common ground. 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. Ann Atwater, interview by Jennifer Fiumara and Mary Cleary, The Southern Oral History Program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, December 7, 1995. Today, Todd is believed to be living in Tennessee. Accuracy and availability may vary. (modern). Ann Nakia Green, Atwater's granddaughter, now lives in Texas. She became an activist with Operation Breakthrough and would later work with the United Organizations for Community improvement. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary. I know if we weren't gonna look after our children, nobody else would. Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis said of his wife, "but she endured it because I enjoyed it, see? 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. 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. Ellis had regularly been attending city council meetings, school board meetings, and county meetings to oppose civil rights changes and its activists. No. That was real, said Ann-Nakia Green, Atwaters 35-year-old granddaughter. The other co-chair selected was C.P. Ellis, leader of the Durham Ku Klux Klan. 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. C.P. 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. Ms. ATWATER: Yeah. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. Before the trial, Ratliff's body was exhumed and autopsied, at which point a second autopsy suggested that she, too, had suffered head trauma, according to CNN. Mr. C.P. It was learning more during the trial that made Atwater believe that Michael could have been involved in Kathleen's death. Ellis began to change. The kids in some of the schools were also being taught material that was a year behind what kids their same age were being taught in other schools. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. On the final night of the charrette, Ellis stood before the crowd and ripped up his Klan card. 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. Newsweek has everything you need to know. (Peterson maintains his innocence still to this day.) She married the babys father, French Wilson, but their baby died soon after birth. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. All rights reserved. Ellis, whos played by Sam Rockwell. Ann's dad had encouraged her baby's father to marry her. She organized groups of women who had to visit the welfare offices frequently and had them push for change. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Atwater told Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy that she had lost "far more than just my mother. But then if I look back at it through my Bible, through God's work, God had a plan for both of us. Like in The Best of Enemies movie, examining the fact vs. fiction reveals that he did tear up his KKK membership card in public. It seems an unlikely end for a sharecroppers daughter who had taken food from the farmers back door and who had internalized that she came second. We saw that each other, you know, was making it. 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. For more vivid tales of 20th-century race relations like the true story of The Best Of Enemies of Ann Atwater and C.P. It was the only organization in the world that would take care of the white people. By the end of the charrette, Ellis gave up his leadership in the KKK. 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. 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. C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater established during that time endured, as did Ellis change in attitude. Ann G. Atwater was born on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina. 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. The other co-chair would be C.P. "This particular night C.P. Yes. 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. She told Dateline: According to ABC News, that made Atwater view her stepfather in another light. She said, 'Now, you ain't going to take over that thing.'" As a chair of a housing committee, Atwater organized protests and rallies calling for better housing conditions for the poor. 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. Ann's granddaughter says that she's always viewed C.P. Two years later, she had another baby, whom she named Lydia, Davidson wrote. All I had was God holding my back and that's it. Ellis was a former grand exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan in Durham, North Carolina. Ann's dad had encouraged her baby's father to marry her. From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Ellis, an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan in Durham. Caitlin Atwater is Kathleen Peterson's daughter with her first husband, Fred Atwater. 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. She knew that some welfare workers were guilty of this. Such a system is still in use today. 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. They just have them. When he requested that she and the two girls come, Atwater wrote a letter saying: I already followed you to Durham. He got up in the middle of their conversation, ignoring Atwater and the crowd of black parents behind her. It wasnt until way down in the meeting," Atwater recalled in 2002 documentary film, Ann Atwater: Grassroots Organizer and Veteran of Americas Freedom Struggle, when the children got us together and said they wanted to go to school together. Ms. ATWATER: Well, thank you for talking to me. 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. 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. Caitlin Atwater would go on to become a key witness on the prosecution side during Michael Peterson's trial. Racism was instilled in Ellis from a young age. However, the prosecution did not accuse Peterson of Elizabeth Ratliff's death at his trial. Through Operation Breakthrough, Atwater was selected for the 1971 charrette or series of planning meetings over the integration of Durhams schools. 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. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her father was also a deacon of the nearby church. [2] Riddick recruited participants from all sectors of Durham. -School for Conversion Interview. is afraid that the black children will come to the white schools. [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. 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. 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. is the president of the KKK, and cares for his children. Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. At one school meeting, a school board member got up in the middle of a conversation as she was making demands for school improvements. Ellis came to realize that blacks were not suppressing poor whites, and that the two groups shared problems. [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. Because the white councilmen did not want to listen to a black woman talk, they turned their chairs away from her. After the course, Atwater had found her lifes purpose. While Ratliff's murder remains unsolved, Michael was convicted of Kathleen's. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the (unintelligible) a 10-day meeting. I pulled out the knife that I kept in my hand bag and opened the blade. was up raging and ranting, that's when I wanted to cut his head off. 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. However, they eventually joined their father in Durham, North Carolina, and spent the rest of their younger and adolescent years there. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. Born to sharecroppers on July 1, 1935, in Hillsboro, North Carolina, her meager beginnings were compounded when she found herself pregnant at age 14. A housing organizer came by one evening to ask if she needed help to get repairs. Ann Atwater, a black civil rights activist, talks about her friend. Following his nearly two-week long meeting with Ann Atwater, C.P. Revelations about Margaret and Martha's birth family also made Atwater doubt Michael's innocence, according to CBS News. Initially, they didn't even speak to one another. She made dresses out of flour and rice bags for her daughters to wear. I didnt like integration. Considering their history of mutual animosity, Atwater and Ellis were reluctant to work with the other, but both knew that to have their opinion represented, they must participate. So I began to admire the Klan. Ellis stood up and ripped apart his Klan membership card. Copyright 2005 NPR. "I just lend whatever God gives me to give out. She was making progress. I feel that when somebody calls me for some help, God wants me to go on record sayin' I tried. The two became lifelong friends, often appearing together in interviews and documentaries. 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. And we showed that towards each other up until we went into the 10-day meeting.. The Best of Enemies true story reveals that Ann Atwater got married at the age of 14 and moved to Durham, NC in 1953. Kevin Washington, C.P. And me and him cried at that time, and we began to melt down towards one another. Ellis told an NPR interviewer that Atwater was an effective boycotter, making progress and he hated her guts. The other co-chair was C.P. 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. Yes. 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. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. BLOCK: Ann Atwater joins us from her home in Durham to share her memories of C.P. I didn't like Ann boycotting stores. Such struggles helped shape Atwater as an activist. Most of Michael Peterson's children stood by their father but stepdaughter Caitlin Atwater believed he was guilty of killing her mother, Kathleen Peterson. C.P. ELLIS (Civil Rights Advocate): I wanted to make them angry. 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. In 1967, Atwater took a 17-week training course where she learned about tenant rights, housing codes and how to organize community protests. Bill Riddick, a professor and consultant, was contracted by union organizers to help solve the crisis. How in the hell does people get so screwed up mentally? One of the workers said, Maam, this is the service for Clayborn Ellis. C.P. He struggled to make ends meet and provide for his family. City council members would turn their chairs away when blacks spoke. I tried to find somebody. So, where are Michael Peterson's children now? I didn't like them. It was revealed over the course of the trial that Michael was bisexual and had been corresponding with a male sex worker, even making plans to meet up. The experience inspired her to become involved in housing advocacy herself. Do you look back, and does it make sense to you? After their second daughter, Marilyn, was born, he left the family and moved to Richmond for a better job, according to Davidson. 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. Atwater was an unlikely civil rights activist. 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. She married Willie Pettiford in 1975, and became a deacon at the Mount Calvary United Church of Christ. "We were chosen to be co-chairs to integrate the school system peacefully," said Atwater (School for Conversion). But Atwater's husband struggled financially, and became alcoholic and abusive. You gotta have somethin to look at to hate. Her mother died when she was 6. Ellis were named co-chairs of the Durham, North Carolinas charrette S.O.S., Save Our Schools.. When Atwater had first met C. P. Ellis at a previous Durham city council meeting, she felt great resentment toward him. The Society's Olivia DeJonge portrays Caitlin Atwater in HBO Max's The Staircase. And when I'd walk up to the school building, I had my white Bible in my hand. The other was C.P. And that plan was to put us there to make sure that this school integration would be done peacefully, and that's what happened. They also raised Margaret and Martha Ratliff, the daughters of their friends George and Elizabeth Ratliff. Ellis indeed started tapping his feet and then clapping his hands along with the others. Sitting down with his nemesis, he realized that his struggles were her struggles too, and that they shared a fundamental commonality of experience. Ann Atwater in an image from the 2002 documentary. Fuller looked at the house and asked Atwater if shed like help in fixing it. He grabbed my hand and said, Dont give them the satisfaction. . Ellis, who died of Alzheimer's in 2005, became a champion of union and labor organizations, working as an AFL-CIO organizer. But the job didnt last, and Atwater went to the Department of Social Services to apply 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. "The city council people didn't want to look at us because we were black," said Ann. Sadly, Elizabeth would die soon after in 1985 and Michael Peterson became the guardian of her two children. I hated her guts. had a machine gun, and he would show it to the city councilmen in the trunk of his car every morning. Ann George Atwater (July 1, 1935 June 20, 2016) was an American civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Operation Breakthrough helped people define and accomplish a series of tasks in order to build a pattern of achievement. 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. Durham schools suffered from increasing racial tensions among students anxious about the future. 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. Tensions steadily rose, but near the end the two had a change of heart. WebKathleen had one daughter named Caitlin from her first marriage to physicist Fred Atwater, per PopSugar. He still got my back and He always will have it as long as I keep trusting in him." Caitlin Atwater's quotes on Michael Peterson's involvement in Kathleen's death explain what eventually made her question what happened the night her mother died. The children got them together and told them they wanted to go to school together. 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 to see--as I tell everybody, God had a hand on that because in the meetings C.P. She did. "We went to the schoolhouse and we found out that the teachers there were out of their field," recalled Atwater. Clayton Peterson is the oldest son of Michael Peterson from his first marriage to Patricia Sue, an elementary school teacher at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Grfenhausen, Germany. -The Best of Enemies book. Welfare was only providing $57 a month, and she was leasing a dilapidated house where she was $100 behind her rent. 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. Atwater said that she refused to go to the first meeting, but her boss in the housing authority told her she'd lose her job if she didn't show up. The two were fiercely dedicated to improving the prospects of their people, Atwater as a militant activist for housing reform, and Ellis as the Exalted Cyclops of Durhams Ku Klux Klan. 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. Change did not come easily or suddenly, and the two faced ostracism, even death threats; C.P. Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. Riddick set up a meeting, which is referred to in the movie as a charrette. At this point, the couple had another daughter, Marilyn. Civil rights activist and former Ku Klux Klansman C.P. 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 attended a Durham premiere of the film in March 2019 and answered media questions on the red carpet. But my pastor was sitting there and saw me holding the knife. They presented ways to improve curriculum, in addition to making it easier for students' voices to be heard. The school's Ann Atwater Freedom Library continues her work of "making surprising friendships possible".[15]. 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, Ellis told NPR in a 1996 interview. 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. Theres no room with the Nationals. Categories: "They said I sold out because I worked with a Klansman," recalled Atwater. His action resulted in death threats and he was shunned by a significant portion of his community. Caitlin Atwater was the daughter of Kathleen and her first husband, Fred Atwater, though she was very close with the entire Peterson family. Ellis has died at age 78. He convinced her landlord to fix her house, helped pay back her debt, and helped her find her path. Ann Atwater and Claiborne P. Ellis had much in common, although it would take years of battling each other across the racial divide before they were able to see their similarities. She was a poor black woman raising children alone in the South in the mid-20th century. 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. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. Ms. Atwater, Mr. Ellis there saying he hated your guts going into these meetings. The Best of Enemies fact-check revealed that Ann credited God with giving her the strength to help so many people. After that, Atwater went door to door telling people how they could get their landlords to fix their houses. Two years later, they had a daughter named Lydia. 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. Ms. ATWATER: No, it don't when you look back at it. 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. State Government websites value user privacy. She organized protests for better housing, boycotts and educated citizens about their rights. The circumstances in which their mother died would raise suspicions about Michael Peterson's role in Kathleen Peterson's murder ahead of his trial. However, she says that they had to teach him how to clap his hands in rhythm and not on an odd beat. 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. ", Ann Atwater continued her work fighting for racial equality as a grass roots organizer, passing away in 2016. 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.. 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. I didn't like them. Ellis was the son of a millworker and was raised in poverty. 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. They wanted their children to attend schools free of violence. Today, Caitlin is married and is now known as Caitlin Clark. Atwater lived in a dilapidated house on an unpaved street in Durhams Hayti district, where she struggled to support her two daughters. Ellis. NBC News reported that after seeing Kathleen's autopsy photos, Atwater called Margaret and said: The sisters stopped speaking after that. And she was an effective boycotter, too. Atwater found her niche. 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. [10][pageneeded]. -School for Conversion. Like Ann Atwater, Claiborne Paul Ellis was raised in a life of poverty. 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. I knew what happened to my mom." 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. I had to hate somebody. That first meeting marked the start of her involvement in helping the poor black community fight poverty. When approached by Howard Fuller to join Operation Breakthrough, a program to help people escape poverty, Atwater found her life purpose. The defense team claimed Kathleen was aware of Michael's sexuality and was fine with it, but Atwater did not believe her mother would have been accepting. Ellis did rip up his KKK card, swearing I never did go back to the Klan after I left that school program.. He moved to Richmond seeking better work and asked Atwater to join him there with their two daughters, she said no. Todd Peterson is the second son of Michael Peterson, from his first marriage to Patricia Sue. 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.

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