[Music] the testimonies featured on this channel are presented as received reflecting the personal experiences and perspectives of the individuals who have generously shared them with us we encourage our viewers to approach these testimonies with compassion and understanding as they represent the personal journeys of those involved thank you for your understanding and patience today's experience is shared with us by a brother from Alabama William Smith there are stories that shake the world stories that Force us to confront the darkest corners of our past this is one of them this is not just a confession this is
a warning a testimony of truth Redemption and the of a savior who breaks even the hardest of Hearts listen closely Because by the time this testimony is over you may never see life the same way again you will see hate for what it truly is a lie so deep so poisonous that only the light of Truth can burn it away William Smith has one final message for the world Endeavor to watch to the end to fully understand his experience trust me this is a story you don't want to miss let's listen to his confession and
testimony my name is William Smith I am 75 years old and before I take my last breath I need to tell you the truth a truth that has haunted me for the past 20 years a truth that had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have mocked spat on and condemned as a lie for most of my life I was a member of the Klux Clan not just a follower but a leader a Believer a warrior for what I thought was God's truth I hated black people I saw them as less than
human as cursed inferior dirty I persecuted them terrorized them attacked them all while quoting the Holy Bible and I was so sure I was right until the night I died until the night I stood before Jesus Christ himself and he ripped my soul apart he showed me the truth the truth I had spent my life avoiding and when I saw it when I felt it I wept like a child because I realized too late that I had been on the wrong side of History all along before I tell you what happened when I died you
need to understand who I was how I got there because hate is not something you're born with it's something you're taught and I was taught by the best I was born in 1949 in Birmingham Alabama one of the most dangerous places for a black man to live at that time not because of crime but because of men like me my father was a senior Methodist Pastor a highly respected man of God people loved him they trusted him they believed every word that came out of his mouth was God's Own truth but my father wasn't just
a preacher he was a gatekeeper of hate a spiritual Warrior for white supremacy and the worst part he didn't need to wear a hood to be dangerous his Pulpit was his weapon his Bible was his shield and his words his words did more damage than any noose any gun any fire because his words poisoned souls and I was his most devoted disciple our house was filled with prayer scripture and discipline we read the Bible every night we prayed before every meal before bed before we left for school but there was no love in our home
there was Law and Order and hierarchy my father made it clear what God's divine plan was and it that that white men were born to rule white women were born to submit and black people were born to serve that wasn't a suggestion that was law and if you questioned it you were questioning God himself I didn't question it not once because my father's voice was God's voice to me and I believed every single word the first time I heard the curse of ham I was 8 years old the first time my father preached about the
curse of ham I sat in the front Pew my small legs swinging as I listened my father stood at the pulpit holding his worn leatherbound Bible his voice booming through the sanctuary Genesis 9:25 he declared cursed be Canan a servant of servants shall he be unto his Brethren I didn't understand what it meant but my father explained saying this my brothers and sisters is why the black race was dead destined to serve it is not man's doing it is the will of God God himself ordained this some were born to rule and some were born
to obey the congregation nodded murmured amen my father's voice Rose filled with fire and Authority he added we did not create this order we are merely upholding what the Lord has established and I I believed him because why wouldn't I I was just a boy and my father was a man of God I didn't know at the time that I was being indoctrinated into a lie a lie that would shape my life for the next five decades our church wasn't just a place of worship it was a breeding ground for white supremacy the men who
sat in the front pews on Sunday morning were the same men who gathered in basements at night slipping on white robes and hoods I saw it with my own eyes I heard their Whispers after service saw my father shake hands with men whose names were never spoken out loud I was watching I was learning and the day I turned 12 I witnessed something that would stay with me forever the first time I saw a cross burn baptized in fire it wasn't an attack it wasn't an act of violence it was a celebration a sign of
power and Purity a symbol that we were God's Warriors standing against the corruption of the world the flames licked the sky casting Eerie Shadows on the faces around me men stood in a circle chanting prayers their voices deep and full of conviction I Stood Beside my father my heart pounding with excitement and awe son he said resting a heavy hand on my shoulder do you know why we burn the cross I shook my head staring up at the glowing Flames he smiled it is not a symbol of hate son it is a symbol of light
the Light of Christ shining in the darkness I swallowed hard feeling my chest swell with pride we weren't the bad guys we weren't the oppressors We Were Soldiers of righteousness Defenders of the faith chosen by God to uphold the purity of the white race I didn't Flinch I didn't doubt I just stood there my small hands clenched into fists my heart beating with conviction because I knew one day I would wear the hood too one day I would take my place in the fight and I would do it in the name of God looking back
if I could go back to that night if I could speak to the 12-year-old boy standing before that burning cross his eyes filled with admiration I would grab him by the shoulders I would Shake him until his teeth rattled I would scream at him to run but I can't because that boy became a man a man who did unspeakable things a man who would become one of the most feared clansmen in alab ammer but the thing about lies the thing about evil it can't hide forever because one day sooner or later the truth comes crashing
in and for me that day was coming I just didn't know it yet hate does not always come with fists and fire sometimes it comes with a Bible in one hand and a cross in the other that was my father that was our church and that was the world I grew up in my father was more than a pastor he was a teacher a lawgiver a prophet in his own mind his voice carried weight not just inside our church but beyond its walls the men who attended my father's sermons were not just faithful Christians they
were judges police officers politicians business owners men who held real power in the city and my father's sermons they weren't just about faith and salvation they were about separation and power he did not whisper his beliefs he preached them loud proud from the pulpit itself I was 10 years old when I first heard my father say Martin Luther King Jr's name not as a reverend not as a man of God but as an enemy this so-called preacher is not one of us my father thundered from the pulpit he stands against everything we hold dear he
dares to mix what God has separated ated he dares to defy the natural order the congregation nodded murmured amen and I sitting in the front Pew absorbed every word he is a deceiver my father continued quoting Matthew 7:15 beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves he paused then slammed his Bible shut I tell you today that man is no servant of God he is a servant of Destruction A Chorus of agreement rippled through the crowd some clapped some nodded some sat in Steely silence absorbing the
warning and I I believed it because why wouldn't I my father had never lied to me before at least that's what I thought I grew up in a house where violence was only condemned when it came from the wrong hands if a black man raised a fist it's Savage if a white white man pulled a trigger Justice I saw it with my own eyes I heard it in my own house and I watched my father defended from the pulpit one of the first stories I remember him preaching about not from the Bible but from history
was the killing of Father James Coy in 1921 long before I was born a Methodist preacher named Edwin R Stevenson shot a Catholic priest in broad daylight why because that priest had performed a marriage between a white woman and a Puerto Rican man Stevenson shot him on the steps of the church in front of witnesses and he was acquitted by an all-white jury most people in town had moved on from the story but my father he called it an example to be followed that man was protecting his race his people his church he preached one
Sunday morning God does not tolerate sin he does not tolerate the mixing of what he has made separate the world condemned this man but I say he was right no gasps of horror no shock no one in that church dared to question him because in their eyes he was right and in mine so was he the Bible as a weapon my father was a master of twisting scripture to fit his beliefs he could take any passage and turn it into a justification for white supremacy if the Bible spoke of unity he made it about control
if it spoke of Justice he turned it into vengence and if it spoke of love he conveniently ignored those parts I didn't question it I didn't doubt it because I had never known anything else and so I swallowed it whole the sermons The verses the lies because that's what they were and I see that now but back then they were my truth they were my gospel and soon they would become my war cry because words alone weren't enough for me anymore it was time to act it was time to become the man my father had
raised me to be and that meant joining the clan by the time I turned 21 I was no longer just the son of a pastor I was a soldier a warrior in what I believed was a holy cause a fight for the purity of America for the preservation of white Christian values I had been raised in the doctrine I had heard the sermons memorized the scriptures and soaked in every word my father preached now it was time to act and so I did I was recruited by the clan long before I officially joined it wasn't
a matter of if it was when the men who attended my father's Church the ones who sat beside me in the pews and muttered amen at every sermon were the same men who slipped on white hoods at night they watched me as I grew testing me preparing me and when I turned 21 they told me it was time the initiation happened in the woods outside Birmingham late at night beneath a sky so dark it swallowed the trees a single cross burned in the center of the clearing the Flames stretching into the heavens I stood among
20 other young men all of us dressed in white robes our faces uncovered a man stood before us his hood pulled low his voice deep and steady do you swear to uphold the purity of the white race I swear do you swear to defend this nation from corruption from the evils that seek to destroy our way of life I swear do you swear to keep our Brotherhood secret to stand by your fellow clansmen to never betray the cause I swear and there with our right hands raised toward the burning cross we spoke the final vow
for God for country for the white race I pledge my life they called it an oath of Honor I see it now for what it really was a PCT with the devil they told us that our first mission would be small a warning nothing more a group of black families had moved into a white neighborhood on the outskirts of Montgomery the clan had warned them letters in their mailboxes threats painted on their front doors but they hadn't left and so we were sent to persuade them there were six of us all freshly initiated riding in
a single truck with our hoods pulled down over our faces I was in the passenger seat my hands sweating my stomach Twisted in nervous knots it's just a scare the man driving said we'll set fire to the yard maybe bust a few Windows they'll get the message but that's not what happened because when we got there there was a man standing outside a black man a father I later learned he was holding a shotgun he must have known we were coming the moment we stepped out of the truck he raised it turn around he said
his voice shaking but firm get off my land no one moved then one of the older Clansman pulled out his revolver drop it boy he said his voice cold the man and didn't drop it and then someone fired a shot I don't even know who pulled the trigger first all I know is the gunfire exploded in the night the shotgun fell from his hands and he collapsed onto the ground blood pulled beneath him seeping into the dirt I stood there Frozen watching a man die I didn't move when the others smashed the windows of the
house when they torched the porch when they laughed and cheered like it was all just a game I just stood there staring at the man's body and in that moment for the first time in my life I felt it doubt a small Whispering voice in the back of my mind this isn't right but I silenced it because I had made a vow and in my world breaking that vow meant becoming a traitor the months that followed were a blur of fire blood and scripture we burned homes and called it defending white property we beat black
men in Alleyways and called it maintaining order we terrorized families threatened children and lynched the innocent and then sat in church on Sunday morning praying for forgiveness as if that erased what we had done the clan had an answer for everything we are the Warriors of God we are carrying out his will Jesus was white the Bible was written for the white race God gave us Dominion we Twisted Genesis Nehemiah acts Revelation every book every chapter every verse until it fit our narrative and I believed it because if I didn't I'd have to face the
truth and I wasn't ready for that I hated black people I hated them the way I was taught to hate them I saw them as loud violent dangerous incapable of civilization I avoided them in the streets I spat on the ground when I passed them I felt nothing when I heard about another lynching another accident another cleansing of Filth it was in my bones it was in my blood and it would have stayed there forever if not for what happened the night I died hate is a sickness it eats away at you slowly so you
don't realize what it's doing for years I thought I was strong a warrior for God a soldier of righteousness but by the time I turned 55 the weight of my sins had started to pressed down on me not in the way I understood at the time not in a way that made me question my beliefs but in a way that made me tired the rage that used to fuel me had settled into my bones making every step heavier I had seen too much I had done too much Although our clan Brotherhood was no longer as
strong and pronounced as it once was and we had lost most of our members over the years we still gathered at an old bar in Birmingham to drink and discuss current political issues in America it was April 15th 2004 a Thursday I had just left an unofficial Clan Gathering outside of Birmingham we had spent the night drinking laughing and making plans just as we always did I remember feeling off that whole night there was a weight on my chest a tightness I couldn't shake I told myself it was nothing just stress just just exhaustion but
when I got behind the wheel of my truck the pain got worse it started in my chest spread to my shoulder then down my left arm I gasped clutching my chest my vision blurring the last thing I remember was my truck swerving off the road the sound of tires skidding metal crunching glass shattering then Darkness I don't have words to describe what happened next because when I opened my eyes I wasn't in a hospital I wasn't in my truck I was somewhere else a place that was nowhere and everywhere at once it was dark so
dark that it felt alive I tried to breathe but the air was thick suffocating and then I heard them the screams not loud at first faint distant like Echoes In The Wind but they grew closer louder until it felt like they were coming from inside me I turned but there was nothing to see only the darkness only the sound of wailing voices crying out in Terror in pain in agony then a whisper a voice calling my name William the moment I heard it my blood turned to ice it wasn't loud it wasn't shouting but it
was strong stronger than anything I had ever heard and suddenly the darkness began to shift the light a blinding light tore through the void it wasn't like any light I'd ever seen before it wasn't the sun it wasn't a fire it was alive it burned but it didn't hurt it consumed but it didn't destroy and in the center of that light I saw him Jesus but not the Jesus I had been taught about in church not the blue-eyed blond-haired savior hanging on the walls of white congregations number this was the real Jesus the son of
God in all his glory his presence was powerful more powerful than anything I had ever felt and as I looked at him I felt everything I was collapse all the hate all the anger all the lies they couldn't stand in his presence because in that moment I saw the truth and the truth destroyed me I don't know if time exists in that place but I know that in an instant my entire life flashed before my eyes not like Memories not like a dream it was real as if I was being forced to relive every single
moment of my existence all at once I saw myself as a boy sitting in church listening to my father's sermons I saw myself as a teenager sneering at black kids in school calling them names I won't repeat I saw myself at 21 taking the oath of the clan standing before a burning cross I saw myself beating a man in the street leaving him blooded and broken I saw myself standing over a burning home watching a terrified black mother clutch her children as the Flames consumed everything she owned I saw every crime Every Act of hatred
Every Soul I had crushed under the weight of my own ignorance and the worst part I felt it I didn't just see what I had done I felt what they felt I felt the pain the terror the Heartbreak all of it as if I was the one suffering and I screamed I fell to my knees begging for it to stop but the memories kept coming because I had to see I had to face what I had done and then Jesus spoke the truth I never saw William his voice wasn't angry it wasn't cruel but it
was Heavy filled with sorrow disappointment grief you have spent your life spreading lies in my name I sobbed shaking my head no no I was Defending Your Kingdom I was you were defending yourself his words cut through Me Like a Knife you twisted my word to fit your hatred you led others Into Darkness you turned people away from me and then he asked me a question that shattered me who did you think I came for William I opened my mouth to answer but I couldn't because in that moment I knew the answer and it wasn't
what I had spent my life believing Jesus hadn't come for the powerful for the privileged for the ones who built walls to keep others out he had come for the broken for the oppressed for the very people I had spent my life trying to erase and in that moment I realized I had been fighting against God himself I had been the enemy all along and I had never even seen it I fell flat on my face weeping begging pleading I didn't know I didn't know Jesus looked at me you refus to know I let out
a whale of Anguish my body trembling I had wasted my entire life I had built my soul on a lie and now I was standing before the one I had claimed to serve realizing that I had spent my entire existence working against him and I knew what I deserved I deserved the dark I deserved the punishment I deserved to be cast away but Jesus wasn't done yet because he had something else to show me something that would undo everything I thought I knew about the Bible about race and about the people I had spent my
life hating he was about to show me the truth and the truth would change me forever I knelt before him broken beyond words every breath I took felt like glass cutting through my lungs I had spent my whole life believing I was a warrior for God but now here I was in the presence of the very one I claimed to serve and I couldn't even lift my head because I saw the disappointment in his eyes I had twisted his word I had spread lies in his name and now I would face the truth I had
spent my life denying Jesus took a step closer William rise I hesitated I did didn't want to look at him I didn't deserve to look at him but his voice carried power and I could do nothing but obey I stood shaking and when I lifted my head the world changed I found myself standing in my father's Church the pews were full the air thick with the same sermons I had grown up hearing and there at the pulpit stood my father preaching his voice was loud commanding authoritative Genesis 9:25 he roared his Bible held high cursed
be Canan a servant of servants shall he be unto his Brethren the congregation nodded murmured amen this my brothers and sisters is why the black race was destined to serve it is the will of God and I sitting in the front Pew absorbed every word I had believed it without question and now I saw it for what it was a lie I turned to Jesus my voice shaking but it's in the Bible Jesus eyes burned into mine look closer suddenly I was no longer in my father's church I was standing in ancient Israel I saw
Noah drunk in his tent I saw his son Ham finding him I saw Canan Noah's grandson bowing his head in shame as his grandfather cursed him not ham Canan Canan was cursed Jesus said not ham and canaan's descendants were the Canaanites not the Africans the Africans came from Kush MIM and put and they were never cursed the truth slammed into me like a hurricane my entire life I had believed that black people were cursed by God but now I saw it the lie I collapsed to my knees my hands gripping my head no no it
can't be Jesus voice thundered how dare you take my word and turn it into chains the scene shifted again I saw slave ships filled with Africans screaming crying Shackled In Darkness I saw white men men like me whipping their backs branding their flesh quoting scripture as they did it did I command this Jesus demanded did I tell you to steal men rip them from their families sell them like cattle tears streamed down my face no I whispered then why did you use my name to justify it I had no answer the world shifted again now
I stood at the base of a massive Tower stretching into the heavens thousands of people work together speaking one language laying brick upon brick I knew this place the Tower of Babel Jesus Stood Beside Me you used this story to justify segregation he said I nodded weakly you claimed that I scattered the people to keep the races separate I had preached that many times but look again suddenly the scene played out before me I saw the real reason God scattered the people it wasn't because he wanted to keep races apart it was because they were
trying to be Gods themselves it was Pride Jesus said Not Race Pride led to their scattering not my desire to divide my children my breath caught in my throat every sermon I had ever preached on racial Purity every time I had claimed God separated the races on purpose it had all been a lie I staggered backward gripping my chest everything I had ever believed was falling apart the truth about Blackness suddenly I was standing in Africa but not the Africa I had imagined not the Africa we mocked in the clan not the Africa we painted
as a land of poverty and ignorance number I saw Golden Palaces towering pyramids libraries filled with knowledge I saw Ethiopia Kush Nubia Egypt not as broken lands but as kingdoms that had flourished long before Europe even had paved roads I saw black kings and queens their crowns shining in the Sun and I saw Jesus himself being carried as a baby into Egypt into Africa to escape herod's wrath when I was in danger Jesus said where did my family take me I knew the answer Africa I whispered yes the very land your people called cursed was
the land that sheltered me a sob ripped from my throat I had spent my entire life hating a people whom God had loved whom God had protected whom God had blessed and I had dared to call them inferior I was no longer just crying I was wailing I had wasted my entire life slavery was never God's will the world shifted once more and this time I was standing on a slave ship I saw the bodies of men women and children stacked like cargo wasting away in filth sickness and death I saw my own ancestors the
ones who had Justified it all standing on the decks reading scripture telling themselves they were doing God's will this was never my will Jesus said his voice shaking with anger this was not my plan this was man's evil and my people suffered because of it I watched as whips lashed across backs as mothers had their babies ripped from their arms as black men were hung from trees all while white preachers stood beneath their bodies and called it justice I wanted to scream because I had once believed in this Justice and now I saw it for
what it was sin the deepest darkest kind of sin Jesus turned to me William do you want Redemption I could barely speak yes Lord yes then go back tell them the truth expose the lies and let love be your new gospel tears fell from my face but I don't deserve forgiveness Jesus smiled no one does that's why it's called Grace the light surrounded me and I was pulled back into the world of the living I gasped for air my chest heaved my body Shook and my vision blurred as I blinked against the harsh Hospital lights
the beeping of machines echoed around me I wasn't dead I had been dead for 3 minutes but somehow I was back and everything everything had changed I heard footsteps approaching a woman stood over me adjusting the wires attached to my chest she was black her name tag read Deborah I had spent my life avoiding black people I had walked past them in the street without a Second Glance spat on the ground when they spoke too loudly refused to sit where they sat but now as I looked up at her something inside me broke because in
that moment I saw her the way Jesus saw her not as less than me not as an enemy but as a child of God a human being a soul and for the first time in my life I felt shame she checked my IV scribbled something on her clipboard and turned to leave my throat was dry my voice weak but but I forced myself to speak mom she stopped looking back at me yes I swallowed hard my heart pounding I wanted to tell her everything I wanted to confess to tell her that I had once hated
her for no reason other than the color of her skin that I had once been the kind of man who would have burned a cross on her lawn that I had been a monster and now I was something else something I didn't even understand yet but I couldn't say all of that so I just whispered I'm sorry she frowned slightly for what I opened my mouth closed it because how do you explain 55 years of hatred in a single sentence how do you confess to a stranger that you had once seen them as less than
human how do you ask for forgiveness for a lifetime of sin so I just shook my head and repeated myself for everything she said stared at me for a long moment then to my utter shock she reached out and squeezed my hand get some rest Mr Smith and then she was gone I turned my head and wept because I didn't deserve her kindness and I never would I spent the next week in that hospital bed staring at the ceiling feeling like a man who had been born again but in the most painful way possible I
had spent decades living in a and now the truth had wrecked me there was only one thing left to do I had to leave the clan and I knew what that meant leaving the clan wasn't like quitting a job it wasn't a peaceful goodbye it was a declaration of war because once you left you became the enemy and enemies of the clan they didn't live long but I didn't care because Jesus had shown me the truth and I couldn't pretend anymore the night I got out of the hospital I drove straight to a warehouse on
the outskirts of Birmingham the place where our meetings were still secretly held the moment I stepped inside I felt it the weight of years of sin pressing down on me men I had once called Brothers turned to look at me they saw something different in my eyes they knew William the Imperial wizard of our chapter one of the highest ranking men in the organization stood before me go go ahead brother I took a deep breath I'm done silence cold then done with what I swallowed with this with all of it the hate the lies the
things we've done in the name of God murmurs some men stood up anger flashing in their eyes one man gripped his belt where I knew he carried a knife but I didn't move because I had already died once and I was wasn't afraid anymore we were wrong I said my voice firm Jesus wasn't who we thought he was and he's sure as hell isn't on our side a roar of outrage filled the room some men cursed at me some laughed thinking I was joking but the Imperial wizard he stared at me unblinking then he spoke
you listen to me William he said his voice low and cold we have a way of dealing with traitors I held his gaze do what you have to do and then I turned my back on them something no Clansman had ever dared to do and I walked out Marked for Death hate is a heavy thing to carry for over 50 years I had wrapped myself in it let it shape me Let It Define my identity I had worn it like armor believing it made me strong a few weeks after I left the clan a black
Pastor from Atlanta reached reached out to me his name was Reverend Samuel green a man known for his work in racial reconciliation I heard about what happened he said I heard you walked out of the clan I did I answered then I need you to come and speak I froze speak at a black church yes they need to hear your story and you need to tell it the old me would have scoffed the old me would have spat at the idea but the man who had met Jesus he knew this was his first test and
so I agreed the Moment of Truth the church was packed men and women filled the pews their eyes watchful cautious I could feel the weight of generations of pain in that room I knew that to some of them I was not a man I was a ghost a shadow of the men who had terrorized their ancestors and maybe in some ways that's exactly what I was I stepped up to the podium gripping it with shaking hands I took a deep breath then I spoke the words that had been burning in my chest since the night
I met Jesus my name is William Smith and for most of my life I was a member of the Klux Clan a murmur swept through the room some people stiffened some looked down disgusted I felt my stomach turned but I didn't stop I grew up believing I was better than you I was taught that God had had made white people Superior that black people were cursed that segregation was holy I carried that belief into my adulthood into my church into my community and I enforced it with violence gasps people looked at each other some Whispering
some shaking their heads but I pressed on I beat men who didn't deserve it I terrorized families who had done nothing wrong I burned crosses and called it holy I SP spilled blood and called it justice I swallowed the lump in my throat and then one night I died the room fell silent and so I told them I told them everything how my heart stopped beating how I was swallowed by Darkness how Jesus appeared before me and showed me the truth how every lie I had been raised to believe crumbled in his presence how he
told me that I had spent my life on the wrong side of History how he revealed to me the greatness of Blackness the resilience the Divine favor upon the African people how he told me that racism had no place in his kingdom and how despite all my sins he gave me a second chance by the time I finished I was weeping I don't deserve your forgiveness I said my voice breaking I don't even deserve to stand here but I need you to know I am sorry I am so so sorry for a long moment no
one spoke the air was thick heavy with pain with history with the ghosts of the past then an elderly black woman in the front row stood up she walked slowly to the front of the church her cane tapping against the floor She Stopped just a few feet away from me and then she hugged me I choked on a sobb because I didn't deserve that and I never would but sometimes Grace is given even when it is isn't earned that day changed my life it didn't erase my past it didn't undo the pain I had caused
but it gave me a purpose for the next 20 years I traveled the country telling my story I stood on stages in churches in town halls looking into the eyes of white men who had been just like me and I told them the truth some listened some laughed some threatened my life but I didn't care because Jesus had given me a mission and I was going to carry it out until my very last breath now I am 75 years old and I don't have much time left I don't know when my heart will fail again
but before I leave this world I need you to hear this hate is a prison it binds you chains you blinds you I spent my whole life chained to it and I called it righteousness I called it God's will but it was never God's will it was evil and I was its prisoner but I stand before you today a free man not because I earned it not because I deserved it but because Jesus showed me mercy and now I beg you do not waste your life as I wasted mine do not pass down the chains
of hate to your children do not let lies become your truth do not mistake racism for righteousness because in the eyes of God we are all one people one family One race and if if you cannot accept that then you have no place in his kingdom hate has no place in heaven and neither do those who carry it I sit in my old chair looking out at the sun setting over the Alabama Hills the world feels quieter now not because the fight is over not because hate has been erased but because For the first time
in my life I am at peace I have done what I could I have told my story and soon I will leave this world knowing that I did not die a liar people often ask me William do you think you can ever be forgiven I tell them the truth I don't know and that's not for me to decide I don't deserve forgiveness not from the people I hurt not from the families I terrorized not from the communities I tried to destroy but I have found something else truth and sometimes truth is better than forgiveness because
truth breaks the chain it ends the cycle it makes sure that the next generation will not grow up believing the same lies I once did and that is enough for me a final warning I know there are men out there men like I once was who will hear my story and reject it they will scoff mock spit on My Grave they will call me a race traitor a coward a fool but to them I say this you will stand before him one day too and he will ask you the same question he asked me who
did you think I came for and on that day all of your excuses all of your Twisted scripture all of your hate disguised as righteousness it will crumble just like it crumbled for me and you will see just as I did that you were on the wrong side all along and on that day it will be too late my final words I don't know how much longer I have maybe a few months maybe only days but before I take my last breath let me leave you with this hate is a prison truth is freedom Choose
Wisely because eternity is waiting and when you stand before him there will be no more lies to hide behind only the truth and the truth will set you free or it will destroy you the choice is yours [Music]
