Ron Stallworth of BlacKkKlansman to speak at UF

He was a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.

Now, he’s telling his story at UF.

Ron Stallworth, 65, a black retired police officer who went undercover to investigate the KKK in 1978, will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Rion Ballroom in the Reitz Union, said Erin Ferguson, a 23-year-old UF clinical health psychology doctoral student and event chair for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations.

Reitz Programming Board and the Black Graduate Student Organization paid about $20,000 for Stallworth to appear, Ferguson said.

The hour-and-a-half long event will consist of a discussion with Stallworth and UF English professor Mark Reid about his experience with racism and police work, Ferguson said. An audience Q&A will be held afterward.

This is the second of nine events for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations over the next two weeks.

The movie “BlacKkKlansman” is based on Stallworth’s experience with the KKK as an undercover officer, and it will be shown at 7 p.m. the day before and the day after the event in the Reitz Union room G310, Ferguson said.

Ferguson said she is hoping a speaker like Stallworth at UF will inspire students to make a change in the way they view racism in regards to today’s policing.

“I hope people can see the connection between his legacy and Martin Luther King Junior’s,” Ferguson said.

Michelle Komisarchik, an 18-year-old UF political science freshman, said she is curious to see the movie and meet the person behind the story.

“The movie has been gaining so much social traction, especially with award season,” she said “So it will be amazing to see the man who did it all.”

Contact Josephine Fuller at jfuller@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @JomarieUF.

Ron Stallworth (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)