Based on retired police detective Ron Stallworth’s 2014 memoir Black Klansman, director Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman stars John David Washington (son of Denzel) as the first Black cop on the Colorado Springs police department in the early 1970s. Stuck in a thankless position in the evidence room and surrounded by fellow officers who do little to hide their racism, Stallworth longs for something with a bit more action. He’s given an undercover assignment to infiltrate a rally hosted by the local Black student union, featuring guest speaker Kwame Ture/Stokley Carmichael (portrayed by Corey Hawkins, in a cameo that feels like it came out of Lee’s Malcolm X). While at the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), a fiery, fist-in-the-air soul sister committed to the revolution. But more important than any potential romance is that Stallworth develops a taste for undercover work—which leads the African American cop to, of all things, infiltrate the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.