Photo courtesy of Columbia College
And the Oscar goes to…a Columbia College graduate in mid-Missouri. “BlacKkKlansman” won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay on Sunday night.
The movie is based on the story of Columbia College alumnus Ron Stallworth. In the 1970s, Stallworth became the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, and infiltrated the city’s local Ku Klux Klan chapter by posing as a white supremacist. He recruits his Jewish co-worker, Flip Zimmerman, to pose as his racist alter ego all while conducting lengthy phone conversations with Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
The Oscar is the first for filmmaker Spike Lee.
Brad Tregnago of Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia contributed to this story.
