DErek Black grew up a racist. From an early age he was surrounded by white nationalists and members of the Ku Klux Klan. It was a hermetically sealed world in which he felt comfortable, he says, because nobody challenged him and everyone believed the same lies. Black resided in West Palm Beach, Florida, and his father was a former Klan Grand Wizard. David Duke, one of the leaders of the racist terrorist organization, was Black’s godfather. He admired Duke, who was once married to his mother and often came to visit, he says. But when the right-wing teenager discovered his interest in medieval history, his life changed forever. Black enrolled in a small college on Florida’s west coast—and it was there, at New College, that his transformation began. The training taught him critical thinking and the other students held him accountable for his ideology. A group of fellow Jewish students repeatedly invited him to the Shabbat without wanting to re-educate him – his anti-Semitism collapsed.
It was all a slow process that ended in alienation from family and friends, Black says over the phone. And he doesn’t want to imagine where he would be today without New College. It’s been more than a decade since college, and Black’s little alma mater in Sarasota has been in the headlines for months. Now he is one of those who publicly warn about what is happening on campus: In the worst case, the culture in which he learned to think will soon no longer exist, says the historian, who is now doing his doctorate in Chicago.