Daryl Davis, black musician who befriends KKK members, on PBS’ Independent Lens

Daryl Davis and a Ku Klux Klan member in Accidental Courtesy on PBS's Independent Lens
Daryl Davis and a Ku Klux Klan member in Accidental Courtesy on PBS’s Independent Lens

R&B and blues star Daryl Davis has played with legends like Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, but in his free time he likes to make friends with KKK members.

Why? Because Daryl believes that getting to know white supremacists — many of whom have never met a black person — can help change their beliefs.

His story features in the movie Accidental Courtesy, airing on PBS’s Independent Lens and which includes interviews with him and some of the KKK members he’s met.

Daryl has seen success with his methods in the past, with some supremacists he’s met having decided to leave the Klan.

However, not everyone thinks that his tactics are the right way to go about racial reconciliation, and footage shows him meeting with Black Lives Matters campaigners who think he is just wasting his time.

Accidental Courtesy looks at the story through a string of interviews and archive footage and images. Daryl’s ethos is put succinctly in one sentence, when he says: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”

Daryl hails from Chicago and has become known for his energetic way of playing Boogie-woogie piano.

But on top of his music, it’s his controversial befriending of KKK members that has seen him regularly featured in the headlines.

Watch the PBS Independent Lens trailer for Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America below.

Accidental Courtesy premieres on PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, February 13, 2016, at 10pm.

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