Greensboro Massacre: FBI, Police, KKK & Nazis Kill

[Skeptic]

November 3rd was the 25th Anniversary of the 1979 Nazi and Klu Klux Klan massacre of labor marchers in Greensboro North Carolina.

Monthly Feature - November
Greensboro Massacre
Bibliography | Web Sites
On November 3, 1979, Klansmen and Nazis attacked a Communist Workers Party (CWP) led anti-Klan demonstration in a black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina. Eighty-eight seconds later, CWP members and union activists, Cesar Cauce, William Sampson, Sandra Smith, and Dr. James Waller had been killed, Dr. Michael Nathan lay dying, and nine other demonstrators had been wounded.

Despite the presence of a Greensboro police/FBI informant in the Klan and an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms inside the local Nazi group, police officers assigned to protect the demonstrators were sent to lunch minutes before the Nazi/Klansmen opened fire.

Local television news photographers captured the shootings on video tape. However, all-white juries found Nazi and Klan members not guilty in two criminal trials. In 1985 a civil trial found the Greensboro police, the Klan, and Nazis guilty in the wrongful death of the demonstrators. The Greensboro police department paid a $350,000 judgement. The Klan and Nazis paid nothing and never served a day in jail for the killings.

For more information about the Greensboro Massacre, the Southern labor movement, and the FBI's secret war on labor and the left, we have prepared a selected Bibliography of materials from the Holt Labor Library collection. Please refer to the library's Online Catalog for additional titles. We have also provided the following Web Sites for links to commemoration activities and additional research.

Bibliography:
Blackstock, Nelson. COINTELPRO: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom. New York: Vintage Books, 1975. One of the first exposes of the FBI's official campaign of infiltration, disruption, and harrasment of political groups

Blackstock, Nelson. Workers in the Changing South: The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1979. Pamphlet discusses the demise of Jim Crow segregation and the effect on the southern labor movement.

Chafe, William H. Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Examination of Greensboro's role in the fight against racial discrimination, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Woolworth's lunch counter sit-ins.

Churchill, Ward. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent. Boston: South End Press, 1990. Examination of the FBI's COunterINTELligence PROgrams and their continuing legacy.

88 Seconds in Greensboro. [videocassette]. Boston: WGBH-TV, 1983. Documentary prepared for Frontline investigates police, FBI, and government complicity. Includes interviews with victims of the attack.

Hanging by a Thread: Social Change in Southern Textiles. Edited by Jeffrey Leiter, Michael D. Schulman, and Rhonda Zingraff. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1991. Essays by historians and sociologists. Includes a chapter on the work of the Brown Lung Association in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Mann, Emily. Greensboro: A Requiem. Included in Testimonies: Four plays. New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1997. The play looks back at the human tragedy of November 3rd, using actual court testimony and interviews of participants and witnesses.

Waller, Signe. Love and Revolution: A Political Memoir: People's History of the Greensboro Massacre, Its Setting and Aftermath. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002. An insider's look by a participant and the surviving spouse of James Waller.

Waters, Jim. The Guns of November Third. [videocassette]. [1979]. Film footage of the Klan/Nazi attack on the Greensboro anti-Klan demonstrators.

Wheaton, Elizabeth. Codename GREENKIL: The 1979 Greensboro Killings. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987. Well researched account of the "sixteen-year history of people and events that set the stage for the tragedy and its aftermath." -- book jacket.

Working Lives: The Southern Exposure History of Labor in the South. Edited by Marc S. Miller. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. Oral histories and investigative reporting bring to life the struggles of southern working people from 1900 to 1980.

The library has back issues of The Guardian, The Militant, Monthly Review, and Southern Struggle from the 1970s and 1980s. All contain articles documenting the Greensboro killings and the trials. They also cover the demonstrations in response to the killings, increasing Klan activity during the era, and verdicts.

Return to Top of Page

Web Sites:
COINTELPRO in the 70s - http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_Wo...PRO70s_WAH.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Third_World_US/COINTELPRO70s_WAH.html)
Excerpts from the book, War At Home by Brian Glick.
Greensboro Justice Fund - http://www.gjf.org/gjf_main.html
Organization set up in the aftermath of the Greensboro Massacre. The web site provides biographies of the murdered victims, online newsletter, and grant information.
Institute for Southern Studies - http://www.i4south.org/
Resource for grassroots activists, community leaders, scholars, policy makers and all individuals and organizations working to bring lasting social and economic change to the region. Publishes the journal, Southern Exposure.
Southern Poverty Law Center - http://www.splcenter.org/
"Non-profit organization that combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation."
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - http://library.unc.edu/uncchcats.html
Library houses Greensboro Civil Rights Fund Records.
ZNet Commentary - http://www.lbbs.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/1999-11/15marable.htm
"The Ku Klux Klan: From Greensboro to New York City" by Manning Marable, dated Nov. 15, 1999.
The Holt Labor Library provides these links for your convenience. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the Holt Labor Library makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information on these sites, and is not liable for any inaccuracy, error, or omission, regardless of cause.


http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/greensboro.html

[Eastside Revolt]

Once I saw something about this on A&E, they had a 'liberal' on claiming it was 'irresponsible' of the party to 'provoke' the KKK! :angry:

[PRC-UTE]

Once I saw something about this on A&E, they had a 'liberal' on claiming it was 'irresponsible' of the party to 'provoke' the KKK!

Like BOZG's sig says, 'all liberals should be shot'.

We must always remember our fallen comrades!

[refuse_resist]

Typical COINTELPRO tactics. The government always collaborates and works with neo-Nazi groups and the KKK.

Hopefully people remember this and eventually find the killers and do something to them. The way I see it is the scum who did this can't be allowed to get away with it.


Like BOZG's sig says, 'all liberals should be shot'.

We must always remember our fallen comrades!
Very true.

[Skeptic]

When the police and their lap dog organizations attack it's just
business as usual in America. Why would 'American justice' ever want to look into the case again or bring new indictments RR?

The most important statement I wanted to make is that this incident shows how
the Federal Government, local police, the Klu Klux Klan and Neonazis worked
together to orchesrate an attack and massacre on labour and political activists
working against racism.

There is a reason why the NeoNazis, and the KKK have rallies in which they
display the Stars and Stripes, the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Swastika.
These symbols stir the right wing's sense of Nationalism and pride. These flags
all fit in very well together don't they? Think how these symbols make a
policeman's chest swell and make those pigs (and their informant murderous
thug, racist rats) swagger, eager to do their dirty work.

[Militant]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2004, 01:49 AM

Once I saw something about this on A&E, they had a 'liberal' on claiming it was 'irresponsible' of the party to 'provoke' the KKK!

Like BOZG's sig says, 'all liberals should be shot'.

We must always remember our fallen comrades!
Remember? How about avenge?

For too long Communists and Socialists have been passive. None of the Nazis should have made it to trial. They should have been captured, taken out to the woods and shot.

And then, and only then, will this type of filth stop.

Because at heart all nazis are cowards, wallowing in such self doubt that they need to form a political party to celebrate themselves.

[refuse_resist]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19 2004, 08:18 PM
When the police and their lap dog organizations attack it's just
business as usual in America. Why would 'American justice' ever want to look into the case again or bring new indictments RR?

The most important statement I wanted to make is that this incident shows how
the Federal Government, local police, the Klu Klux Klan and Neonazis worked
together to orchesrate an attack and massacre on labour and political activists
working against racism.

There is a reason why the NeoNazis, and the KKK have rallies in which they
display the Stars and Stripes, the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Swastika.
These symbols stir the right wing's sense of Nationalism and pride. These flags
all fit in very well together don't they? Think how these symbols make a
policeman's chest swell and make those pigs (and their informant murderous
thug, racist rats) swagger, eager to do their dirty work.
I don't know where you got I think the courts should look into it. When I said people shouldn't forget and need to do something about it I was referring to regular and non-governmental people.

I said it before, and I'll say it again... all neo-Nazis should be executed.

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by Militant+Nov 19 2004, 11:33 PM--> (Militant @ Nov 19 2004, 11:33 PM)
[email protected] 19 2004, 01:49 AM

Once I saw something about this on A&E, they had a 'liberal' on claiming it was 'irresponsible' of the party to 'provoke' the KKK!

Like BOZG's sig says, 'all liberals should be shot'.

We must always remember our fallen comrades!
Remember? How about avenge?

For too long Communists and Socialists have been passive. None of the Nazis should have made it to trial. They should have been captured, taken out to the woods and shot.

And then, and only then, will this type of filth stop.

Because at heart all nazis are cowards, wallowing in such self doubt that they need to form a political party to celebrate themselves. [/b]
Yes, and prove that, we, like the Nazi's are a bunch of irresponsible criminals, and indeed prove to the public we are as bas as the Nazis. Great thinking!

[RedAnarchist]

If you wish to defeat the enemy, do not become the enemy. It will be far better for us not to use violence agaisnt the Nazi gutter-dwellers, but to rise us and the people above them with the intellectual superiority of humanity, as well as our huge moral advantage.

[PRC-UTE]

Anyone serious about left politics and activism should prepare for violence from reactionaries and prepare for defence if necessary.

we should be prepared to use physical violence against fascists any time they meet in public, as AFA and ARA do.

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26 2004, 09:29 AM
If you wish to defeat the enemy, do not become the enemy. It will be far better for us not to use violence agaisnt the Nazi gutter-dwellers, but to rise us and the people above them with the intellectual superiority of humanity, as well as our huge moral advantage.
What's wrong with "gutter dwellers"?

Why stand peacefull against nazi's if they keep on beating us. You play human target all you want, but I don't. Moral advantage gives nothing in a fight.

[BOZG]

I don't think we should just dismiss using physical violence against fascist organisations like some people have said but neither should it be a principle. If you really want to prevent a fascist organisation from organising, the best way to do it is to organise in your own community and in your workplace and unions to gain mass support. This way, any attempt to prevent organising is completely mandated, like the 50,000 strong demonstration that shut the BNP headquarters in Welling in the early 90s. Trade union mobilisation is key to smashing fascist organisation not only because of their power but also because of the historical perspective. It wasn't the Jews, the gypsies, the catholics that Hitler came for first, he came for the trade unionists, socialists and communists.

Unfortunately though there are times were such a massive mandate doesn't exist and we're forced into small physical confrontations and these are the ones we must worry about because of how they look but sometimes they become a necessity.

I was helping organise a demonstration to prevent the BNP Youth leader, Tony Wentworth from speaking on a local campus where I witnessed quite disgusting tactics by the SWP. When myself and my friend called for the need to bring in political organisations and to bring the unions along, he pretty much rejected the role of the unions. He thought the whole thing should be about creating a moral battle for the students, making them feel all warm and cuddly on the inside, rather than preventing an open fascist from trying to create a platform and a base for himself in the college. It's this liberal attitude to creates breathing spaces for fascists.