The Best of Enemies, Osha Gray Davidson
The Best of Enemies, Osha Gray Davidson
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The Best of Enemies
Race and Redemption in the New South

Author: Osha Gray Davidson

Narrator: Keith Sellon-Wright

Unabridged: 11 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/07/2017

Synopsis

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-twentieth-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.

About Osha Gray Davidson

Osha Gray Davidson is a journalist and author, most recently of Clean Break: The Story of Germany’s Energy Transformation and What Americans Can Learn from It.

About Keith Sellon-Wright

Keith Sellon-Wright is an audiobook narrator and an actor with more than thirty years of experience in Hollywood. His television roles have included Frasier, Seinfeld, The West Wing, Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Grey’s Anatomy, and Scandal. He also serves as a “voice of the New York Times,” narrating selected articles for their daily audio edition.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Osha Gray

I sympathize with readers who said it was slow reading, and if it's any consolation, it was far slower to write.......more

Goodreads review by Ruby

Extremely well written and researched story of race relations in Durham, North Carolina in the 1960's, and the transformation of the Executive Cyclops of the local KKK chapter with the realization that it is really class that has created the common problems he and his African-American fellow citizen......more

Goodreads review by Greg

This book is a great synopsis of some of the civil rights movements in Durham. The majority of the book is spent discussing the issues and tensions of the area. Less time is spent illustrating the friendship of CP and Ann, but it does a great job of driving the similar problems they both were facing......more

Quotes

“For eighty years we’ve waited for a reply to Birth of a Nation. At last Osha Gray Davidson has done the job…In a time of bleakness, it sounds a note of hope. The Best of Enemies is a glorious work.” Studs Terkel, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author

“Provides a brilliant beginning for understanding the South’s many poor sons and daughters, black and white.” Dallas Morning News

“Based on the true story of a rivalry-turned-unlikely-friendship.” Amazon.com

“A well-crafted portrait of the evolution of race relations in Durham, North Carolina—and of America’s tendency to ignore issues of class.” Publishers Weekly

“A powerful testament to the redemptive powers of human nature.” Booklist

“This eloquent blend of history and advocacy journalism ends with a follow-up on the major figures and with that rarest quality in a book on race in America—a reason for hope.” Kirkus Reviews

“Narrator Keith Sellon-Wright reflects the writer’s engagement with reaching back to post-Civil War Durham, North Carolina, to explain its distinctive economic and social development. Davidson’s account is studded with anecdotes, and all receive a lively delivery by Sellon-Wright. Woven into the city’s history are stories of C.P. Ellis, a staunch KKK leader, and Ann Atwater, a powerful African-American activist. Sellon-Wright vivifies their pasts of poverty and instability. When the two serve on a committee to improve the chaotic Durham public schools, which their children attend, Sellon-Wright captures their emotional opposition and, finally, their mutual understanding and respect.” AudioFile

Awards

  • Amazon Editors' Pick
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