“You aren’t born with hate, someone teaches it to you” - Johnny Lee Clary

Having grown up in a racist and emotionally tumultuous household, hatred was instilled in Johnny Lee Clary from a young age. He became affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan at the age of 14 and continued to work his way up the ranks of the “brotherhood”, eventually becoming a Grand Dragon of the Oklahoma KKK.

The accompanying video sheds light upon the relationship that Clary had with the late Reverend Wade Watts, a gospel preacher, civil rights leader, lifelong member and leader of the NAACP, and the man who finally taught him to love.

Clary’s exposure to Rev. Watts’ courage and his consistently even-tempered, gentle and forgiving nature, rattled this "tough guy." Not knowing how to respond, this provoked a number of retaliatory attacks, highlighted in the video, in an effort to reassert his power.

Despite the constant threats and attacks carried out by Clary and the Klan upon him, Watts’ unrelenting goodness slowly defused the bottled up anger Clary had harbored within him from a young age.

Watch the four-minute video in which Clary recounts his interactions with Watts; from the first time he shook a black man’s hand to the time Watts offered the Klan hot dogs and marshmallows for their barbeque after they burned a cross on a lawn across the street from his house.

A thought-provoking and powerful message of the power of forgiveness and reconciliation in overcoming racial tensions, in Clary’s words, this video gives a preview into the powerful story of “how one old black man defeated the whole Ku Klux Klan.”

Because of Rev. Watt's influence, Johnny Lee Clary is now an internationally acclaimed civil rights speaker and Christian leader.

"If you want to play beautiful music, you must play the black and white notes together on the piano" - Rev. Wade Watts