A black ex-cop has written a book about how he infiltrated a branch of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado in the 1970s. Ron Stallworth was an investigator for the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1979 when he answered a newspaper ad placed by a new KKK group looking for local members. In the book, Black Klansman, Stallworth writes that the local hate group not only made him a member, they voted to make him the chapter's leader after only a year. So they took a vote, they took a unanimous vote and they wanted Ron Stallworth to become the leader of the Ku Klux Klan chapter because he was quote loyal and a dedicated Klansman, Stallowrth, who lives in Utah now, told Salt Lake City's ABC 4. Stallworth said the unlikely ruse began when he spoke to a recruiter over the phone and convinced the man he was white, ABC 4 reported. Posing as an angry racist, Stallworth explained he felt victimized by minorities and sprinkled his speech with racial slurs. When it came time to meet face-to-face, he sent a white cop in his place. They never once picked up on the fact that they were talking to two distinct voices, Stallworth, who now lives in Utah, told the station. Stallworth said he spent about a year gaining the trust of the local hate group's leaders, who filled him in on planned cross burnings and other intimidation activities. Stallworth said he foiled at least three cross burnings during his time with the organization. One of the things I'm most proud of is no black child, no child period ever had to wake up to a burning cross, Stallworth told the station. He also said he had many phone conversations with former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, whose signature adorned Stallworth's official KKK code of conduct card. Once, Duke boasted about how his would never be infiltrated by a black man under his watch, Stallworth told NBC News in 2006. And I asked him why. He said, 'I can always tell when I'm talking to a black man because they pronounce words and letters a certain way,' Stallworth told NBC. And he said, 'I can tell that you're a pure-blooded white man, because you don't pronounce your words in that manner.' And from that point on, I started pronouncing those words in that manner just to play with him, he mused.
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