Dr. Richard Harris is an associate professor at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He’s also the first white pastor in the 140-plus-year history of Good Hope Missionary Baptist, a historically Black church in Bartow, Florida. However, if you met him in the late ‘70s, you would have no idea his life would take such a turn. From the age of 16 to 20, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and for the final two years, he served as the youngest Grand Dragon north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Harris was a lonely child in elementary school and was bullied by his classmates. In the late 1960s, when desegregation began at his Indiana school, Harris decided to take out his frustrations on the new students.  Harris is indoctrinated into the Ku Klux Klan “I got to sixth grade, and all of a sudden my school has changed,” Harris told the Herald-Tribune in 2021. “It was the first time I had ever spoken to a person of color … they’re in my school. I looked at the African-Americans in my school, and I realized that they were displaced. I thought, ‘Maybe I could be the bully for once.’ And that’s exactly what I did.” The Ku Klux Klan in Muncie, Indiana. Credit: William Arthur Swift/Wikimedia Commons Harris’ behavior caught the attention of the KKK, who indoctrinated him into their violent hate group by offering family and protection. He was groomed to be a leader in the organization and, after just two years in 1976, he became the Grand Dragon, the highest-ranking member of the Indiana KKK. In a recent interview with LADBible, Harris shared how he was able to get out of the terrorist organization. It began with a life-changing realization: the Klan was lying to him. After learning one of his guards was plotting to kill him, he realized he needed better protection. So, he turned to God.  “I didn’t know what to do. And in my 20-year-old mind at that time, all I could think of was, ‘I need better security,’” he told LADBible. So, he began reading the gospels and came to the story of the Samaritan woman. He realized that the Klan had completely changed the message to be one of division rather than acceptance. Harris realized he was being lied to by the Klan “The whole point of the Samaritan woman at the well story was Jesus accepted Samaritans, race mixers,” he said. “And he loved them, and they believed in him. That’s when the light bulb went on. ‘The Klan has been lying to me. They’ve been twisting the scriptures.” Harris then called the Imperial Wizard and quit the KKK. “We’re gonna let you out. We’re gonna let you live. If you keep your mouth shut,” he was told with a gun pressed to his head.  Harris then did a complete 180 and began working for racial justice. In 2012, he documented his time in the KKK in his award-winning book, One Nation Under Curse, and would go on to serve as a senior pastor in the Free Methodist Church for 31 years in churches in Illinois, Indiana, and Florida. “I changed,” he said in a 2023 TEDx Talk in which he explained his transformation from racist to antiracist and discussed his R.A.C.E. framework. “I’m not that guy anymore, thank God. But I know that I caused pain and hurt to so many that today, my life’s purpose is to help others radically reduce racial bias.” Watch his TEDx Talk below: The post Former KKK Grand Wizard shares the life-changing moment when he knew he was being lied to appeared first on Upworthy.