The speaker recounts his unique friendship with Robert White, a former Baltimore City police officer and Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, who served time for violent crimes against black individuals and conspiracy to bomb a synagogue. The speaker, a professional musician, met White after his release from prison and formed an unlikely bond despite White's past and supremacist views. The narrative also touches on the speaker's personal experiences with racism from childhood and his quest to understand the origins of hate. The story culminates in White leaving the Klan, influenced by the respect and dialogue shared between him and the speaker.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The speaker was given a police officer's uniform by Robert White, a Baltimore City police officer.
2. Robert White served a prison sentence for assault with intent to murder two black men and conspiring to bomb a synagogue in Baltimore.
3. The speaker is a professional musician who tours nationally and internationally.
4. Robert White worked for the police department by day and was also the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for Maryland.
5. The speaker was born in Chicago in 1958 and moved to Belmont, Massachusetts at the age of 10.
6. The speaker experienced racism for the first time at a scout march at the age of 10.
7. The speaker's parents explained racism to him after he was attacked during the march.
8. The speaker spent his adolescent years trying to understand why people hate others without knowing them by reading books on various supremacist ideologies.
9. As an adult, the speaker decided to seek answers directly from members of organizations known for hatred, such as the Ku Klux Klan.
10. The speaker arranged an interview with Roger Kelly, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, through his secretary without revealing his race.
11. Roger Kelly agreed to meet and they had several conversations over time, agreeing on some points and disagreeing on others.
12. Over time, Roger Kelly began visiting the speaker's home without his bodyguard and eventually invited the speaker to his home and Klan rallies.
13. CNN did a story on the speaker's interactions with Roger Kelly, which was broadcast worldwide.
14. Roger Kelly eventually left the Klan, giving his robe to the speaker.
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