The wood-paneled walls of Daryl Davis’ Silver Spring living room are covered with framed photos of him with … just about everyone. Here he is with Little Richard. There’s Bill Clinton. Look—it’s Davis and Chuck Berry.
But near a picture of Davis with Bob Seger and another in which his arm is around Fats Domino, is an image that truly stands out, almost inconceivable in its contrasts. In the shot, Davis, a Black man wearing black clothes, stands next to Roger Kelly, a white man dressed in the white robe and hood of the Ku Klux Klan. Neither wears much of an expression on their face.
Davis, 67, says he and the former imperial wizard of the KKK in Maryland are old friends. They met when Davis, a renowned blues pianist, was pursuing his other calling: searching for an answer to a question that has eaten away at him since he was 10 years old…