“How can they hate me if they don’t even know me?”

What I learned from Daryl Davis, my friend who is African American whose life's passion is befriending members of hate groups

It was a crisp late-fall afternoon in Washington, D.C. last past Monday when a long black Cadillac pulled up in front of the Cato Institute, where I had just enjoyed a thoughtful conversation about my book, The Soul of Civility, reflecting on the tenets of a free and flourishing society.

Daryl Davis, a 65-year-old African American jazz pianist, jumped o…