A rock-and-roll, blues pianist turned conflict-resolutionist: that’s Daryl Davis in a nutshell. “A missed opportunity for dialogue is a missed opportunity for conflict resolution,” Davis shared on Dec. 4, 2025, in the Scott C Keller building to a packed audience.
Twice a year, the president of UVU, Astrid S. Tuminez, invites a speaker to come to the campus and give a lecture to the students. Former speakers include previous Washington Post editors, Grammy-winning artists and best-selling authors. President Tuminez shared that she invited Davis this year because of his skill in bringing people together. After the shooting of Charlie Kirk on the UVU campus, Tuminez wanted all students to come together and get along.
Davis was born in Chicago, but his parents worked in the US foreign service, so he spent most of his childhood abroad. He shared that because he went to school in foreign countries with foreign children, he never thought much about his own or anyone else’s race. That all changed in 1968, at the age of 10, when Davis was attacked because of the color of his skin.
For the next five decades, he would ask the question: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” And he wanted answers from the people who hated him the most.
Davis has been seeking out conversations with members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), an openly white supremacist group that has historically committed acts of violence against black and other people of color. He shared that he has attended KKK rallies over the past several years, and he befriended the Grand Imperial Wizard, the leader of the KKK, Roger Kelly.
Roger Kelly was the previous leader in 14 states of the Klan, and he told CNN that his prejudices were “cemented” in, and he would never change. Soon after his friendship with Davis began, Kelly renounced the KKK and began anew. As a token of friendship and forsaking his past life, he gave Davis his Grand Imperial Wizard robes and hood.
The friendship between Davis and Kelly is one of many stories that Davis could share about his time spent at KKK rallies. Davis has received Christmas presents from Klan members and even walked a Klanswoman down the aisle at her wedding.
Although there are many success stories that Davis shared, he explained that it wasn’t just some twist of fate or lucky streak that led him to success, but there is a set of rules that he lives by. He shared that there are five core values that everyone wants:
- Everyone wants to be loved
- Everyone wants to be respected
- Everyone wants to be heard
- Everyone wants to be treated fairly and truthfully
- Everyone wants the same things for their family as you want for yours
He explained that if you can understand, believe and apply these five core principles in your life, you will change your life, the people you meet and the country. Davies shared: “When you put out hate, hate will come back and bite you…when you put out positivity, you get positivity.”
Davis believes that if you can have civil dialogue with anyone, you are fulfilling these principles. It didn’t matter to Davis if the person he was talking to was a member of the KKK, a neo-Nazi or someone who wanted him dead. He expressed that our country is whatever we make it, and everyone has a responsibility to follow these five core values.
After the lecture, 150 people attended a luncheon with Davis and President Tuminez. Here, he reminded everyone that he used to play piano with Chuck Berry and graced the audience with some piano playing.
Davis’s overall message to his audience is that everyone can make the world a better place. If anyone applies the five core principles and promotes civil dialogue, they too can make a better America and a brighter future.
