Greensboro massacre

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The Greensboro massacre occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. In the shoot-out, five marchers were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party while in a protest. It was the culmination of attempts by the Communist Workers Party to organize industrial workers, predominantly black, in the area.[citation needed] The protestors killed were: Sandi Smith, a nurse and civil rights activist; Dr. James Waller, president of a local textile workers union who gave up his medical practice to defend workers; Bill Sampson, a Harvard University graduate in the school of divinity; Cesar Cause, an immigrant from Cuba who graduated magna cum laude from Duke University; and Dr. Michael Nathan, chief of pediatrics at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, NC, a clinic that helped children from low-income families.

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[edit] Rally and attack

On the day in question, a rally and march of industrial workers and communists was planned in Greensboro against the Ku Klux Klan, then active in the area. The Death to the Klan March was to begin in a predominantly black housing project called Morningside Heights.[1] During the rally turned shoot-out, a caravan of cars holding Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects. The Klansmen and Nazis got out of the cars and opened fire on the demonstrators with shotguns, rifles and pistols. Cauce, Waller, and Sampson were killed. Smith was shot between the eyes as she peeked from her hiding place. Eleven others were wounded. Mike Nathan later died from gunshot wounds.[2] Much of the armed confrontation was captured by four local news camera crews.

[edit] Role of the police

One of the most dubious aspects of the shoot-out is the role of the police. Normally, the police would have been present at such an event, yet no police were present at the shooting, thus permitting most of the perpetrators to escape. One police detective and a police photographer followed the Klan and Nazi caravan to the site, yet did not intervene. Edward Dawson, a Klan member since 1964 who had turned police informant[3], was in the lead car of the caravan.[2] Two days prior to the march one of the Klan members went to the police station to obtain the map of the march and the rally.[1] Bernard Butkovich, an undercover agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms later testified that he was aware that Ku Klux Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party unit he had infiltrated would confront the demonstrators. In previous testimony, the Nazis claimed that the agent encouraged them to take guns to the anti-Klan demonstration.[4] This has led to accusations of police collusion in the event.

The Klansman and Nazi party members involved were not from Greensboro, but came to the city in response to a challenge from the march organizers. Articles in the Greensboro News and Record at the time indicated that the police were not at the scene initially, because the march organizers gave them an incorrect address for the march on their parade permit. However, it has also been noted that the Klan caravan was organized by a man later found to be an informant for the police, using the parade permit to guide the caravan to the correct address, in radio contact with the police all the while the caravan was forming and proceeding to the site of the shootings, and that the police were on the scene early, but had been dismissed "for lunch," just prior to the shootings.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Legal Proceedings

Forty Klansmen and Nazis were involved in the shootings, sixteen were arrested and only six were brought to trial.[3] Two criminal trials resulted in acquittal of all defendants by all white juries.[2]

[edit] Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In 2005, Greensboro residents, inspired by post-apartheid South Africa, initiated a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to take public testimony and examine the causes and consequences of the massacre; the efforts of the Commission were officially opposed by the Greensboro City Council. The Commission determined that Klan members went to the rally intending to provoke a violent confrontation, and that they fired on demonstrators without being attacked first. It also found that the Greensboro Police Department had infiltrated the Klan and, through a paid informant, knew of the white supremacists’ plans and the strong potential for violence. The Commission also concluded that some activists in the crowd fired back after they were attacked.[5] Filmmaker Adam Zucker's 2007 documentary, Greensboro: Closer to the Truth, examines the work of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

[edit] In Popular Culture

The British band Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark wrote the track 88 Seconds in Greensboro about the incident. It was on their album Crush and was the B-side to the U.K. version of the single for If You Leave.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Chronology of the November 3, 1979 Greensboro Massacre and its Aftermath. The Prism. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  2. ^ a b c Darryl Fears. "Seeking Closure on 'Greensboro Massacre'", Washington Post, 2005-03-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 
  3. ^ a b Mark Hand (2004-11-18). The Greensboro Massacre. Press Action. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  4. ^ "Agent Tells Of '79 Threats By Klan And Nazis", The New York Times, 1985-05-12. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 
  5. ^ Truth Commission Blames Cops in ‘Greensboro Massacre’. The New Standard (2006-06-02). Retrieved on 2007-09-27.

[edit] Further reading

Articles
  • Bacigal, Ronald J., and Margaret Ivey Bacigal. "When Racists and Radicals Meet." Emory Law Journal 38 (Fall 1989).
  • Bryant, Pat. "Justice Vs. the Movement." Radical America 14, no. 6 (1980).
  • Eastland, Terry. "The Communists and the Klan." Commentary 69, no. 5 (1980).
  • Institute for Southern Studies. "The Third of November." Southern Exposure 9, no. 3 (1981).
  • Parenti, Michael, and Carolyn Kazdin. "The Untold Story of the Greensboro Massacre." Monthly Review 33, no. 6 (1981).
  • Ray O. Light Group. "'Left' Opportunism and the Rise of Reaction: The Lessons of the Greensboro Massacre." Toward Victorious Afro-American National Liberation: A Collection of Pamphlets, Leaflets and Essays Which Dealt In a Timely Way With the Concrete Ongoing Struggle for Black Liberation Over the Past Decade and More pp.249-260. Ray O. Light Publications: Bronx NY, 1982.
Books
  • Bermanzohn, Sally Avery. Through Survivors' Eyes: From the Sixties to the Greensboro Massacre. 400 pages, 57 illustrations, index. Vanderbilt University Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2003). ISBN 0-8265-1439-1.
  • Waller, Signe. Love And Revolution: A Political Memoir: People’s History Of The Greensboro Massacre, Its Setting And Aftermath. London & New York: Rowman & Littlefield. 2002. ISBN 0-7425-1365-3.
  • Wheaton, Elizabeth. Codename GREENKIL: The 1979 Greensboro Killings. 328 pages. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8203-0935-4.
Publications
  • "Remember Greensboro, death to the Klan!". Greensboro Justice Fund, Berkeley. [1980], Leaflet, 8.5x14 inches, printed on both sides, illustrated. Advertises two rallies, one in San Francisco, the other Oakland. Speakers included Wilson Riles Jr., and Dan Siegel.
Video
  • "Lawbreakers: The Greensboro Massacre" The History Channel. Lawbreakers Series. Video Cassette. 46 minutes. Color. 2000. Broadcast October 13, 2004.

[edit] External links

Articles and news reports
Anniversary news reports
Websites