Life on the Big Screen
A blockbuster movie based on the true story of an undercover operation by alumnus Ron Stallworth ’07 opens in theaters nationwide August 10.
By David Morrison
Early last fall, Ron Stallworth ’07 sat in a Brooklyn studio, watching a table full of actors re-enact a pivotal time in his life that happened nearly 40 years ago.
John David Washington, son of Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, was there, playing the part of “Ron Stallworth.” So was Laura Harrier, whose latest credits include Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Adam Driver, who plays the main villain in the current Star Wars trilogy of movies. Presiding over it all: Oscar-winning director Spike Lee. His next project, BlackkKlansman, is based on Stallworth’s biography. This was the first table read with the cast.
Stallworth turned to his wife, Patsy Terrazas-Stallworth. “We looked at each other, smiled and said, ‘Can you believe this?’ ” Stallworth says. “That’s my name they’re mentioning. We’ll be able to see it in a dark theater with popcorn and Coke and actually watch all this take place. It’s very surreal. We periodically look at each other, pinch ourselves and say, ‘Can you believe this?’ Because it’s a rollercoaster ride that we’re on, one that we never imagined.”
Just seven short months later, BlackkKlansman premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation and was awarded the festival’s second-most prestigious award, the Grand Prix.
While some critics have labeled the drama a “buddy comedy,” the message is not funny. “There is humor in it, but these are very serious topics. It’s not a comedy in any way,” Stallworth says.
Stallworth, who spent more than three decades in law enforcement, earned his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Columbia College-Salt Lake in 2007. He published Black Klansman in 2014, because he felt it was an important chapter of his life to share.
It tells the story of how, as a Colorado Springs Police Department detective in 1978, Stallworth ran an eight-month undercover sting operation in which he embedded himself deep within the fabric of the Colorado Springs chapter of the Ku Klux Klan hate group. Along the way, he helped thwart criminal acts the chapter had planned, gained critical intelligence about the national KKK apparatus and how it intersected with other extremist groups and rose to a leadership position within his local chapter.
Not only was Stallworth a police officer, but he was an African-American police officer. He conducted his portion of the operation over the phone and through correspondence. When a meet-up was required, he sent a white friend who worked in narcotics in his place.
“The insight I got is that they’re not the brightest lightbulbs in the socket,” Stallworth says. “They’re relatively ignorant people in the sense that, if they had been on their game, I never would have been able to accomplish what I did accomplish.”
While it was primarily an intelligence-gathering operation, Stallworth and the Colorado Springs Police Department were able to stop three planned cross burnings during the course of the sting. Chapter members would loop Stallworth in on the plans, he’d call police dispatch, and patrols would flood the area.
“Once they would get in the area to plant their cross and see all these police cars cruising back and forth, they would panic and chicken out,” Stallworth says.
Stallworth also caught wind of a plot to bomb two gay bars in the area as well as a plan to steal automatic weapons from a nearby Army base, Fort Carson, during the life of the sting. Neither of those crimes ever happened. Through his conversations with group leaders, Stallworth was able to help connect the dots between the local Klan chapter and an American Nazi Party group out of Denver, as well as the militant Posse Comitatus organization.
He had multiple conversations with David Duke, then Grand Wizard of the KKK, in which the Anti-Defamation League would feed Stallworth questions to mine Duke for information. All the while, Duke was certain he was speaking with a like-minded white man.
“He would answer my questions, not recognizing that he was basically snitching on himself,” Stallworth says. “Then I would pass that information back to the Anti-Defamation League for whatever purpose they had in mind, closing a few gaps in their understanding of what was happening at the time.”
A major motion picture studio bought the rights to Black Klansman soon after it was published in 2014, but it let the contract expire without moving on it. At one point, Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Christopher Cleveland expressed interest in bringing the story to the screen, but that fell through as well. “[Cleveland] told me, ‘Don’t give up. This is a blockbuster in the making, if it’s done right. And the story should be told,’ ” Stallworth says.
QC Entertainment bought the film rights in March 2016. The next spring, the studio scored a huge hit with the thriller Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele, who went on to win a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for the movie. QC told Stallworth that Peele had read his book and wanted to produce and direct Black Klansman as his follow-up project. Shortly after, Stallworth got a call from the head of QC. Peele would still be producing the film, but someone else was stepping in as director: Spike Lee.
“Apparently [Lee] read my book, liked it and contacted Jordan to tell him he’d like to direct it,” Stallworth says. “I had no goals in mind, no particular intention, other than to tell the story that I had been a part of those many years earlier. So, when Hollywood came calling, it was a pleasant surprise. Then it was a shock to the system when I get the top two black directors right now in Hollywood saying they want to take it on as a project.”
Stallworth is now on a first-name basis with the 2017 Academy Award recipient for lifetime achievement in directing. “If I had to pick anyone to direct the movie, it would be Spike,” he says.
With references to current political and racial issues, Stallworth appreciates the director’s pointedness. He believes the movie will show distinct historical lines between issues. Lee urges people to “get woke,” a reference to the societal need to be aware of and understand current affairs. Stallworth’s story offers an unprecedented perspective on racism. “That’s the reality of what’s going on,” he says. “The movie will definitely wake people up.”
In June, an updated version of Black Klansman the book was released in hardcover through Flatiron Books, a subsidiary of Macmillan Publishers. Even with a summer book tour, national interviews and the fame that comes from being the Black Klansman, Stallworth is intent on not letting this new level of celebrity go to his head.
He’s still the same man that devoted his career to law enforcement, sought out a college degree when he was through, then earned the Columbia College Alumni Relations Community Service Award in 2010 for his work coaching youth sports teams in Salt Lake City and serving as an expert on gangs at the state and local levels.
“My Columbia College experience has been wonderful,” Stallworth says. “I enjoyed the learning process. It was very pleasant, very friendly at the Salt Lake campus. And, subsequently, when I got to know people at the main campus, who were very open, warm people. I have nothing but positive things to say about Columbia.”
He and Patsy live in El Paso, Texas. They graduated from high school together in 1971. After the death of Stallworth’s first wife, Micki, from cancer in 2004, Stallworth says he wandered in an “emotional wilderness” for six years before he and Patsy started talking again in 2010. Stallworth says her love, dedication and devotion to him has brought him out of that wilderness. Their friends think they’re millionaires now, but they’re not. They’re just Ron and Patsy.
“My wife and I have made a commitment that there will be no sense of celebrity with us,” Stallworth says. “We’re not going to get caught up in the hype of what’s happening to us. It’s nice. We enjoy it. But we have a very simple, humble life. We have no intentions of becoming Hollywood celebrities or playing that scene. We just refuse to let it happen. I’m just enjoying this journey with my wife. We’ll ride it for as long as we can, then see what the next chapter brings.”
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of Affinity magazine.
Top photo: On June 4, Ron Stallworth purchased a copy of the new hardback copy of his book, Black Klansman: Race, Hate and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime. He and his wife celebrated the release with a private book signing in El Paso, Texas.
Inset photo: In late May, Ron Stallworth visited Universal Studios to sign movie posters and attend a private screening for BlackkKlansman. Even Stallworth says he was riveted by the final five minutes: “We all sat there and said, ‘Wow.’ It took our breath away.”
The CCAA is proud to recognize the Stallworths during this exciting time. We invite you to make a gift to the Ron and Micki Stallworth Criminal Justice Endowed Scholarship at my.ccis.edu/givenow.