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Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, North Carolina: a Paradigm for Social Transformation by Marty Nathan & Signe Waller

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Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, North Carolina: a Paradigm for Social Transformation by Marty Nathan & Signe Waller Poverty & Race PRRAC POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL January/February 2006 Volume 15: Number 1 Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, North Carolina: A Paradigm for Social Transformation by Marty Nathan & Signe Waller Race and class oppression form the window of opportunity for wholesale ciliation process. All who are dedicated backdrop of everyday reality in the social transformation. Such a precious to overcoming poverty and racism United States. Popular culture is blind gift signifies no less than a way to- need to reflect on what is happening to the endemic and systemic nature of ward truth and wholeness, a possibil- in Greensboro and its relevance to your racism in our political and economic ity for healing, an opening to resist own city, to our nation and to the institutions. Mostly, we tell ourselves oppression, to liberate ourselves and world. After all, similar histories of comforting stories about who we are to discover new forms of authentic de- race and class conflict and similar so- and what we have done. Told most mocracy. cial structures to those in Greensboro often from the point of view of those The city of Greensboro, North Car- are found in all regions of the coun- whose power and fortunes depend on olina, is witnessing what may happen try. institutionalizing disunity and frag- when the veil is removed, as a three- mentation, these stories rarely lay bare year-old truth and reconciliation pro- the social structures of domination that cess unfolds, flying a banner of truth, The History continue to perpetuate oppression for civic accountability, restorative justice, the vast majority. healing, and reconciliation. The Man- On November 3, 1979 in Greens- The twin oppressions of race and date for Greensboros Truth and Rec- boro, an anti-Klan march and educa- class are implicitly denied or covered onciliation Commission, charged with (Please turn to page 2) up with a veneer of normality. But engaging one of the worst civil rights reality is not to be denied: It contin- atrocities in U.S. history, reads in part: ues to be and to influence all that is. The passage of time alone cannot CONTENTS: Sometimes reality breaks through the bring closure, nor resolve feelings of veneer, as it did with the videotaped guilt and lingering trauma for those Greensboro Truth & savage beating of Rodney King or as impacted by the events of November Reconciliation Comn. 1 it did with the criminal neglect of the 3rd, 1979. Nor can there be any genu- Autos & Opportunity .. 3 poor and people of color population ine healing for the city of Greensboro, New PRRAC Book ....... 4 of New Orleans following Katrina. unless the truth surrounding these Witt Internship ........... 6 When this happens, we are, momen- events is honestly confronted, the suf- Housing Voucher tarily at least, shocked out of our de- fering fully acknowledged, account- Discrimination ......... 11 nial. A veil is removed, and societys ability established, and forgiveness and FEMA & Civil Rights . 14 structure stands exposed before us. We reconciliation facilitated. PRRAC Research What follows is a brief summary see what was there all along. We have Grants ..................... 14 a frightening glimpse into where we of the incident at the heart of the are heading. Thankfully, we are also Commissions investigation, as well as Resources ................. 18 offered a teachable moment with a a description of the truth and recon- Poverty & Race Research Action Council 1015 15th Street NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 202/906-8023 FAX: 202/842-2885 E-mail: [email protected] www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (GREENSBORO: Continued from page 1) Durham hospitals, also were killed. that federal agencies were also impli- Ten others were injured. cated through the person of Bernard tional conference was planned. How- When the shooting stopped, police Butkovich, an agent of the Bureau of ever, neither occurred. On that day, appeared on the scene. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who just before the march was to begin, Later it would be revealed that po- had infiltrated the Nazi Party prior to nine carloads of Ku Klux Klansmen lice had surveilled the 40 KKK-ers and its participation in the attack. He had and American Nazis drove into Nazis as they gathered on Greensboros attended and participated in key meet- Morningside Homes, a Black housing south side and that Detective Jerry ings, egging on Klansmen and Nazis project, and opened fire on a group of Cooper had had phone contact with to violent acts; had reported to his su- 100 Black, white and Latino men, KKK leader Edward Dawson. periors in the ATF, to local police and women and children preparing to Dawson, a paid informant for the to the FBI; and yet had left town the march. The attack took place in broad Greensboro Police Department, had day after the killings without making daylight in front of local TV cameras called Cooper, his control agent, twice any arrests. set to film the march. No police were that morning to report that the racists Unwilling to pursue official law- visible. had gathered and were armed. That lessness, the U.S. Department of Jus- The organizers of the march, local report was shared on the morning of tice chose to prosecute the KKK and members of the Workers Viewpoint November 3rd at a police briefing with Nazis using a Reconstruction-era fed- Organization, soon to be known as the the tactical squads charged with pro- eral civil rights law requiring that it Communist Workers Party, worked, tecting the march. Yet, instead of be proved that the killings were ra- organized and led unions in local tex- cially motivated. Klansmen and Nazis tile mills and nearby hospitals. Jim said, No, we didnt kill them because Waller was president of his Amalgam- Five were killed, ten they were Black; we killed them be- ated Clothing and Textile Worker others injured. cause they were communists. That Union local at the nearby Cone Mills made it all right to the all-white North Granite Finishing Plant and had led a Carolina jury that, once again, issued strike there in 1978. Bill Sampson was warning the marchers, increasing blanket acquittals. a shop steward for his local at the Cone march security or stopping the cara- Mills White Oak plant in Greensboro, van as it was followed by an unmarked and Sandi Smith had been the co-chair police car on its route across town for The Civil Rights Suit of an organizing drive to unionize an- the attack, the tactical squad was sent other Cone Mills plant in Greensboro to an early lunch. Later it would be In 1985, a civil rights suit, using and had recently moved to Kannapolis discovered that a patrol car seren- federal civil rights laws and state to take on organizing Cannon Mills. dipitously in the neighborhood of the wrongful death and assault laws, was All three were shot and killed by attack at that time had been told by filed on behalf of the victims. The re- Klansmen and Nazis leisurely picking police headquarters to Clear the sult was a judgment, paid in total by their targets and shooting fleeing dem- area, leaving the demonstrators com- the City of Greensboro, against six onstrators. Dr. Mike Nathan and Cesar pletely unprotected by police. One of Klansmen and Nazis and two Greens- Cauce, both labor activists in nearby the attackers vans was stopped leav- boro police officers for the death of ing the murder scene by two officers one demonstrator. The proceeds who arrived there moments after the ($75,000) were used to create a foun- Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591) last shot. They were not ordered to go dation, the Greensboro Justice Fund, is published six times a year by the there. Poverty & Race Research Action Coun- for the support of community-based cil, 1015 15th Street NW, Suite 400, Fourteen Klansmen and Nazis were organizations working against racism Washington, DC 20005, 202/906- ultimately indicted and, of those, six and the oppression of workers in the 8023, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: were brought to trial. In the Fall of South. Although far from perfect jus- [email protected]. Chester Hartman, 1980, an all-white jury found inno- tice, the verdict represented a tremen- Editor. Subscriptions are $25/year, cent the six shooters clearly seen on dous victory for all justice- and truth- $45/two years. Foreign postage extra. videotape firing their rifles and shot- loving people: It was the first time in Articles, article suggestions, letters and guns as they advanced on unarmed general comments are welcome, as are an American court of law that notices of publications, conferences, demonstrators. Klansmen, Nazis and police officers job openings, etc. for our Resources Regional protest and outrage engen- were found jointly liable. Section. Articles generally may be re- dered by the acquittals forced the Civil But the civil suit was not sufficient. printed, providing PRRAC gives ad- Rights Division of a reluctant Reagan There was no public acknowledgement vance permission. Justice Department to prosecute the of wrong-doing, no involved police or © Copyright 2006 by the Poverty Klan and Nazis on civil rights charges federal agents were fired, demoted or & Race Research Action Council. All in 1984. However, the federal case was rights reserved. even rebuked. Some officers involved tainted. By then, it was well known (Please turn to page 8) 2 Poverty & Race Vol.15, No. 1 January/February 2006 Opportunity and the Automobile by Margy Waller A century ago, getting to work sel- at existing survey data and at a small a Nations Drive to End Welfare, Ja- dom required a lengthy commute. In program that provides cars to the son DeParle follows Angie Jobe, an rural areas, farmers walked out the working poor find that car ownership inner-city Milwaukee single mother.
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