Claiborne Paul Ellis (January 8, 1927 – November 3, 2005) was an American segregationist turned civil rights activist and trade union organizer.

Ellis was at one time Exalted Cyclops, local leader, of a Ku Klux Klan group in Durham, North Carolina, the city where he was born.

Ellis was born on January 8, 1927, and was raised in Durham, North Carolina, as the son of a mill worker.

He began to receive calls from city councilmen to show up at political events in order to combat the black presence.

Ellis described a moment of clarity when a city councilman, whom he had spoken with on the phone the night before, crossed the street in order not to pass him on the sidewalk.

The state AFL–CIO received $78,000 in grant money by the Department of HEW to address the school system's racial policies.

Riddick invited Ann Atwater, an African American civil rights activist, and the segregationist Ellis to co-chair the meetings.

Ellis, having only an eighth-grade level education, went on to participate in a program called PEP (Past Employment Progress) and received his diploma.