Ron Stallworth, John David Washington On Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman'

Ron Stallworth successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1979, after becoming the first Black detective in Colorado Springs. Now this incredible true story is being told in Spike Lee’s “BlackkKlansman.”

“I don’t feel like a celebrity, I don’t feel like I was a hero, or am a hero. I don’t feel like what I did was heroic,” he stated. “I appreciate the honor — it is very appreciated. But I don’t feel that way. I had a job to do, I did my job.”

Stallworth carries his KKK membership card with him to this day. He says staying in character was the hardest part of being undercover, and he needed the help of his white partner who became “Ron Stallworth.”

He’s a true American hero, and how this piece of history sort of slipped through the cracks…” stated the film’s lead John David Washington. “I went to a historically Black college and learned a lot about my culture, I can’t believe I never heard about this.”
Stallworth believes groups like the KKK are still just as dangerous today.

“Hopefully it will end, but right now we have to endure and that’s why I say we as a community of concerned people need to be able to unite and stand up to this as opposed to sitting idly by and letting it go on beside us because we’re ashamed and afraid to talk about race,” he said. “We need to stop being afraid.”