The Best of Enemies

Reviews

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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