Just finished reading... Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth

 

In the 1970s, an African American police officer in  Colorado Springs, Ron Stallworth, impulsively applied to join the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. He found an ad in the local newspapers - imagine that even being possible in our own time! - and answered it. Soon after, he received a phone call from the branch leader, and invited to meet. 

That was the start of a large police sting. The aim was less to arrest anyone than to learn as much as possible about the Klan’s local activities and prevent the worst of them from happening. Ron requested a white partner to play as him and attend Klan meetings. In the book, which is a memoir, not a novel, the man who did this job was an officer called Chuck(no surname given). In the film, which I saw first, the white partner was Jewish, putting him in great danger. The role was played by Adam Driver, whom most people know better as Kylo Ren in Star Wars! 

Chuck was wired for sound so that Ron and his colleagues could listen in. As a result of this, and phone calls direct to Ron himself, they managed to avoid a number of cross burnings, as police cars cruised the area. Asked about it later, Ron said that it was well worth doing, because there were a lot of children who never had to go through seeing those cross burnings. 

The sting became bigger than Ben-Hur, as other police departments heard about it and joined in. When Chuck was asked to take over leadership of the group, it came to an end and Ron was ordered to destroy all the files he had kept. He disobeyed, taking most of them home, and eventually used them to write his book.

In the meantime, there was a lot of bizarre stuff going on, such as Ron being sent  by the police to act as Klan Leader David Duke’s bodyguard during his visit to Colorado Springs. Ron had a bit of fun with this; the scene even appears in the film. 

The whole business was bizarre, in fact, and the police managed to  fool the Klan completely, though I assume they know now! 

The film changed a fair amount, and having read this, I do understand why. Nothing went wrong, or came close to going wrong, in real life. The police were very careful, and nobody went out without backup.

A film must have excitement and drama, and there must be at least a possibility of things going horribly wrong. So extra stuff was added, from a love interest(in real life Ron was already dating his future wife, who played no role in the story)  to a bomb being planted. It had a final scene in which footage from the 2017 Charlottesville riot was shown. 

I found the book easy and interesting reading, but do see the film as well. Both are well worth a read.