Reformed KKK Supporter Elwin Wilson Dies at Age 76 (VIDEO)

Elwin Wilson a former member of the KKK died Thursday at a South Carolina hospital. Wilson had been battling a bad flu as well as heart and lung problems.

Elwin Wilson was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Wilson preformed many acts of racist violence against black members of his community.

His actions with the KKK include cross burnings, hanging a black doll from a noose and throwing cantaloupes at black men walking down the street. Elwin Wilson also brutally beat John Lewis a black US Representative from Georgia at a bus station in 1961.

Elwin Wilson publically apologized for his actions on several occasions. Wilson apologized to John Lewis when he met with the congressman at his Capitol Hill Office.

Wilson also apologized in 2009 when the Associate Press interviewed him. The former KKK member was feeling some guilt over his actions. He told the AP during the interview,

"All I can say is that it has bothered me for years, all the bad stuff I've done. And I found out there is no way I could be saved and get to heaven and still not like blacks."

Congressman John Lewis believed Elwin Wilson's apology was genuine. Wilson told the AP, "He was the first private citizen, he was the very, very first to come and apologize to me ... for a private citizen to come along and say, 'I'm the one that attacked you; I'm the one who beat you.' It was very meaningful."

Elwin Wilson was honored with awards for his apology and feelings of remorse. In 2009 Lewis and Wilson accepted the Common Ground Award for Reconciliation. That same year Wilson was honored with awards on World Wide Forgiveness Day.