Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime
By Ron Stallworth
This week's book was flipping amazing. I know I normally talk a bit before I dive into talking about the book but this week's book deserves my full attention. I really enjoyed this book. I ended up reading it in three days. I saw it on the shelf at Walmart and promptly put it in my shopping cart.
If you don't know the story it sounds like a piece of fiction, but it's definitely a completely true story. In the 1970’s, a young African American police officer named Ron Stallworth saw an add in the newspaper for membership to the local chapter of the Klu Klux Klan. On a lark, the officer called thinking he may get a pamphlet and that would be it. Quickly it became apparent that they wanted to recruit him. Clearly the biggest problem was that obviously the KKK would not let an African American cop into its inner circle. So a plan was hatched. One of the department undercover narcotics officers would be the face of Ron Stallworth during the investigation while the real Ron Stallworth would do all the work on the phone. The investigation ended up leading to a lot of good information and stopped a whole batch of cross burnings. The phone calls even lead to the real Ron Stallworth talking directly to the Grand Wizard David Duke on countless accounts, which ends up being actually pretty funny. The book is very well written and not boring, which it could have been because there was a lot of information packed into only two hundred pages.
One of the other reasons I read the book so fast, along with it being really a well written book was the fact my husband and I wanted to see the film adaptation of the book. The film is pretty amazing itself. Obviously they jazz it up and put more action in it to make it a more dynamic film, but the film was good. All of the actors did a bang up job. Denzel Washington’s son played Ron Stallworth in his major motion picture debut, and was great. It's funny, if you close your eyes while he's talking you definitely think it's his father talking. Topher Grace (Eric Forman from That 70’s show) is amazing in the film. The bit of humor I found in his portrayal of Duke is Grace's stories of how he prepared for the role. Another weird fact is that the actor who played his father on That 70’s Show (Kurtwood Smith) played a KKK member in the early 1990’s in the film A Time to Kill. Adam Driver, who plays Kylo Ren (Kylo Ben according to my children) does a pretty good job as well. All around a pretty good film, and I would definitely think and hope there are some Oscars given to the film.
All in all it's a good book/film. I really wish I could see the author, he's coming to speak in my hometown and my father offered to take the hubs and I but unfortunately we will are taking our kiddos on a mini break. I would recommend both the book and film to anyone.
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