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To her knowledge, making demands from a landlord was unheard of and she had no idea that she had the right to do so. BLOCK: Civil rights activist Ann Atwater in Durham, North Carolina. I didnt like them. Welfare was only providing $57 a month, and she was leasing a dilapidated house where she was $100 behind her rent. The other co-chair selected was C.P. [9] Atwater mobilized poor blacks in Durham to help them stand up for themselves. From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. 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. Ann Atwater and C.P. [2], After Atwater co-led the charrette, she continued to work with the poor and middle-class black community in Durham. She was living in dilapidated house in North Durham on $57 a month when she became an activist. However, more prominent members of the community felt that the issue was too hot to get involved in. This website is undergoing design changes. Caitlin Atwater was the daughter of Kathleen and her first husband, Fred Atwater, though she was very close with the entire Peterson family. [8][pageneeded]. BLOCK: Well, Ann Atwater, thanks very much for talking with us. Peterson was the last person to see her alive. To learn more, view our full privacy policy. WebKathleen had one daughter named Caitlin from her first marriage to physicist Fred Atwater, per PopSugar. 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. She said, I know. He said, It is private. She said, I know. He said, Family only. She said, He was my brother. ", The last survivor of a slave ship has been identified, and her story is remarkable, Missouri v. Celia, a Slave: She killed the white master raping her, then claimed self-defense, Harriet Tubman made men pay for underestimating her, When Portland banned blacks: Oregons shameful history as an all-white state, Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more, Ann Atwaters amazing rise from advocate for the poor to Best of Enemies stardom. She died in 2016 having won many awards and accolades for her work for the disadvantaged. She was born in Hallsboro, N.C., the daughter of sharecroppers. Ellis came to realize that blacks were not suppressing poor whites, and that the two groups shared problems. Ellis were the best choices to present a variety of viewpoints from opposing sides, so they had them chair the meeting together. They just have them. She seems an unlikely activist and hero. Born Ann George in the community of Hallsboro in Columbus County, North Carolina, she was pregnant and married at the age of 14. Ellis has died at age 78. "We've made it through these years, together 30 years, and we're still friends," Ann said in the documentary. WebDid Ann Atwater's husband leave her to raise their children alone? Two years later, they had a daughter named Lydia. 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. 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. Despite the suspicions surrounding their mother's death, Margaret and Martha Ratliff continued to support Michael Peterson, believing he did not kill Kathleen. 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. Todd Peterson is the second son of Michael Peterson, from his first marriage to Patricia Sue. 25 Of Our Favorite Mothers Day Episodes From 'The Golden Girls' to 'Rugrats', It's Official! Two years later, she had another baby, whom she named Lydia, Davidson wrote. Durham schools suffered from increasing racial tensions among students anxious about the future. In real life, the labor union (AFL-CIO) in Durham was given a grant to help mediate the problem, after which a 10-day public meeting, or charrette, was held. That first meeting marked the start of her involvement in helping the poor black community fight poverty. 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. Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media. C.P. Change did not come easily or suddenly, and the two faced ostracism, even death threats; C.P. I began to blame it on black people. Ellis, an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan in Durham. Atwater told Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy that she had lost "far more than just my mother. Accuracy and availability may vary. Her parents were sharecroppers, and her father was also a deacon of the nearby church. Yes. Ann's dad had encouraged her baby's father to marry her. Michael had adopted the girls after their mother (and his good friend), Elizabeth Ratliff, died in a fall down the stairs. She was a woman who found and used the power of her voice. Copyright 2005 NPR. 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. Do you look back, and does it make sense to you? On the final night of the charrette, Ellis stood before the crowd and ripped up his Klan card. Ann actually gave Ellis' eulogy when he passed away. If I told him I needed some money, he told me he needed something, we looked after each other. Ellis, Ann Atwater's voice was deep and powerful, and she had the ability to energize her audience. Any discussion of the matter ended bogged down in a bureaucratic cycle of commissions, committees, councils, boards of inquiry, official investigations, delegations, panels a endless substitution of talk for action. Atwater, emboldened by community organizer Howard Fuller, discovered a passion for housing reform and a natural talent for leadership first with Operation Breakthrough, then as chairwoman for the United Organizations for Community Improvement. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. It's just a strange thing, but it really happened. Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan as Todd and Clayton Peterson in The Staircase on HBO Max. was sitting there, and first he started clapping his hands. 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. -An Unlikely Friendship Documentary, Yes. [1] In the documentary An Unlikely Friendship, Atwater recalled that while working on a white owner's farm, she was given food only through the back door and after the white workers had eaten. Initially, they didn't even speak to one another. The school's Ann Atwater Freedom Library continues her work of "making surprising friendships possible".[15]. Ann's granddaughter says that she's always viewed C.P. 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. I hated her guts. BLOCK: Why would C.P. She said that after "all was said and done, I felt confident that I knew what happened. Ellis had a change of heart after a 10-day forum on integration of schools in Durham, N.C. Atwater, who died in 2016 at the age of 80, defied stereotypes. She had already been friends with the girls when their parents met and connected. She and Ellis continued their friendship to the end of their lives. While Ratliff's murder remains unsolved, Michael was convicted of Kathleen's. I didnt like integration. A housing organizer came by one evening to ask if she needed help to get repairs. She didn't feel that she could ever achieve true closure, but she could move forward. People worked at job-training, took after-school tutoring, or became educated as to their rights. But Atwater's husband struggled financially, and became alcoholic and abusive. I didn't like integration. They divorced. But to see--as I tell everybody, God had a hand on that because in the meetings C.P. It met for ten sessions. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The Best of Enemies true story reveals that Ann Atwater got married at the age of 14 and moved to Durham, NC in 1953. Elliss funeral in 2005, Ann Atwater delivered his eulogy. She said, "I realized there was definitely another side to him.". 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. 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 later recalled. They decided to integrate the schools. She was making progress. Ellis a couple of years before we worked together to integrate Durhams schools, Atwater wrote in a 2013 column in the Durham Herald-Sun titled What Forgiveness Costs., We were at a meeting downtown together, and he kept yelling n---- this and n---- that. Atwater married Willie Pettiford in 1975 and eventually had two daughters, the late Lydia Green and Marilynn Turner. The circumstances in which their mother died would raise suspicions about Michael Peterson's role in Kathleen Peterson's murder ahead of his trial. One of the workers said, Maam, this is the service for Clayborn Ellis. She told Dateline: According to ABC News, that made Atwater view her stepfather in another light. www.schoolforconversion.orgAnn Atwater organizes neighbors after completing Community Action Training with the North Carolina Fund. Michael and Kathleen Peterson raised a large, blended family with children from previous relationships. During his father's trial and lengthy prison sentence, Clayton stood by his side. Ellis died last week in Durham at the age of 78. Atwater was selected as co-chair. Ms. ATWATER: Well, thank you for talking to me. For more vivid tales of 20th-century race relations like the true story of The Best Of Enemies of Ann Atwater and C.P. 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 particular, Kathleen's daughter Caitlin Atwater disassociated herself from the family, believing her stepfather Michael Peterson played a role in her mother's death. [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. 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. [12][pageneeded], The two antagonists eventually learned to work together and, to everyones astonishment, became good friends. Students were getting into fights at schools over the issue. And the funny part about it, we stayed friends all these years. Ann Atwater found her voice as a community activist to stand up to slumlords and bigots and yet, one of the most transformative relationships in her life was with a Klansman. I didnt like the demonstrations downtown, recalled Ellis some 30 years after the charrette. When Michael Peterson and Patricia Sue lived in Germany, they befriended Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two daughters, Margaret and Martha. Ellis and Ann Atwater established during that time endured, as did Ellis change in attitude. 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. Ellis were named co-chairs of the Durham, North Carolinas charrette S.O.S., Save Our Schools.. After the course, Atwater had found her lifes purpose. The movie, which tells the story of the unlikely friendship that developed between Atwater and C.P. For instance, the film never mentions Ellis KKK-inspired hatred of Catholics. She turned those chairs back around to force them to face her. 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. 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. Over the course of the 10 days that they co-chaired the committee on school desegregation, Ann Atwater and C.P. Eventually Atwater divorced him and raised their two daughters on her own as a single mother. Her mother died when she was 6. She was not afraid of white school board members, nor white city council members nor the local Klan and its methods of intimidation. 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. The enmity was mutual, and the charrette seemed stuck. Welfare was only providing $57 a month, and she was leasing a dilapidated house where she was $100 behind her rent. 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. The Durham federal district court had just ordered desegregation of schools to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, an action which was still opposed by many residents. Ellis was the son of a millworker and was raised in poverty. Her pastor was there, grabbed the hand holding a knife and stopped her. As a result, there was no one to direct the Klan's Youth Corp and the program disbanded. At this point, the couple had another daughter, Marilyn. 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. Up to that point, we didnt know each other. However, the prosecution did not accuse Peterson of Elizabeth Ratliff's death at his trial. Ellis. "He changed from a Klansman to a Christian, and they said I had sold out, that he was a n**ger lover." Ellis like an uncle and still keeps in touch with his family. The children got them together and told them they wanted to go to school together. She was not afraid to voice her opinions loudly and proudly. When approached by Howard Fuller to join Operation Breakthrough, a program to help people escape poverty, Atwater found her life purpose. 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. Sadly, Elizabeth would die soon after in 1985 and Michael Peterson became the guardian of her two children.
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