Daryl Davis, 67, started trying to talk white supremacists out of hating people like him when he was 10.

In his 2024 book, “The Klan Whisperer,” Davis, an R&B and blues pianist and guitarist, describes his encounters with Klan members and other racists during the past five decades. Over the years, more than 200 white supremacists have left their hate groups after meeting with him, according to Davis, who is Black and lives in Maryland.

As a young man, he played with a country and bluegrass band at the Silver Dollar Lounge in Frederick. Many of the patrons were “rough country types,” and “racial violence could erupt if Black men were present,” Davis wrote in his book. “Over time, I was accepted by the white patrons who didn’t perceive me as threatening. I became well-liked mostly because

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