Cultivating Civic Virtues Explores Dialogue and Transformation Through Daryl Davis Keynote
As part of its Cultivating Civic Virtues initiative, funded by Create the Change, Arizona State University hosted a compelling keynote event featuring Daryl Davis. He is a Black musician and activist known for an extraordinary approach to combatting hate: building relationships with members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.
Cultivating Civic Virtues asks what it means to practice civic virtue in a polarized society, and how individuals can contribute to change without perpetuating cycles of hostility. Davis’s work speaks to those concerns. For decades he has initiated direct conversations with leaders of white supremacist groups, including Nazis and Ku Klux Klan officials. Rather than confronting hate with hostility, he engages with curiosity and dialogue. His work suggests that meaningful change can emerge not only from protest and policy, but from sustained, uncomfortable conversations across lines of difference. “Everybody wants to be loved,” Davis said. “Everybody wants to be respected. We all want to be heard.” Davis’s efforts have led dozens of former Klan members and Nazis to leave their organizations, often handing over their robes and flags as symbolic acts of transformation.
The keynote, available for viewing online, provided audience members an opportunity to reflect on the themes of empathy, listening, and civic responsibility at a time of deep political and cultural division.
