The Best of Enemies

Race and Redemption in the New South

By: Osha Gray Davidson

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

C. P. Ellis grew up in the poor white section of Durham, North Carolina, and as a young man joined the Ku Klux Klan. Ann Atwater, a single mother from the poor black part of town, quit her job as a household domestic to join the civil rights fight.

During the 1960s, as the country struggled with the explosive issue of race, Atwater and Ellis met on opposite sides of the public school integration issue. Their encounters were charged with hatred and suspicion. In an amazing set of transformations, however, each of them came to see how the other had been exploited by the South's rigid power structure, and they forged a friendship that flourished against a backdrop of unrelenting bigotry.

Rich with details about the rhythms of daily life in the mid-20th-century South, The Best of Enemies offers a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds. By placing this very personal story into broader context, Osha Gray Davidson demonstrates that race is intimately tied to issues of class and that cooperation is possible - even in the most divisive situations - when people begin to listen to one another.

©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Osha Gray Davidson

Whatta story!

I watched the film which holds the same title as this biography and felt like it didn’t give the whole story. This audiobook, however, provides all the necessary backstory and details a person needs to understand Ellis and Atwater’s complicated relationship.

Surprisingly, the last two chapters seem to be what the motion picture was based on which beautifully wraps up how and why Ellis changed to become a better man.

It’s definitely worth the listen.

One of the most important books you will ever read

In this divisive time, the lesson of this book that all people have an inherent dignity, should be trumpeted in every corner of the planet.

i found it to be very educational.

I learned from the author a very balanced picture of the proceedings. Watch the movie too.

If you have seen the movie this is better by far!

I’ve seen the movie several times as I find the story moving and up lifting. I believe in this story even more today than when it happened. We are all the same when you get right down to it! This just proves it! I now have both the book and the movie and watching the two main characters with each other shows how true we are all the same!

Compassion

A history lesson to be sure. A constant struggle of how the rich marginalize the poor.