How do Atwater and Ellis change in the book, The Best of Enemies?

Ellis grows up in extreme poverty with an alcoholic father, and a depressed, battered mother. Ellis’ father talks about the Ku Klux Klan in romantic terms and as a young man C.P. joins the racist organization. As a Klan member, Ellis finds meaning and purpose in his life. He learns that the white race is in danger of becoming contaminated through integration. He now has a calling and a higher purpose to keep the races separate and to fight for white rights. Ellis rises to the leadership position in the local KKK even though he has only an 8th grade education. As the Klan spokesman in Durham he seeks to achieve respectability for the Klan within the mainstream Durham political system.

Like Ellis, Ann Atwater is born into poverty. She has a short marriage as a teen and within a few years, finds herself as a single mother of three girls, living in dire poverty. Atwater finds work as a domestic for white families, but due to severe health problems she is unable to work and is forced to go on public assistance. Unable to pay her rent, she meets a community organizer, Howard Fuller, who successfully negotiates with her landlord. This experience opens up Atwater’s awareness and from that day on, she becomes a fearless, radical activist. Under the guidance of Fuller, Atwater goes through an intensive training process and becomes a civil rights and housing rights leader in Durham.