Greensboro Massacre
... Greensboro is a fair sized house that was built in 1808. Greensboro has a deep history of race-based events and issues. ... Greensboro is credited with beginning, or at least popularizing, the sit-ins within the Civil Rights movement. Having five colleges, a rich history of industry and being North Carolina’s third biggest city with nearly a quarter-million people, Greensboro is a place of great racial, religious, cultural and socio-economic diversity. All of this is very apparent when you walk in Greensboro’s front door. However, there is much more to discover about Greensboro as one walks around the house and spends some time in each room. ... One could describe pre-1979 Greensboro as such. Moreover, one could describe post-1979 Greensboro in such a manner as well. ... How can Greensboro begin to sweep under the rug and truly get the room clean? There are at least as many, if not more, questions than answers in regards to the events of November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The two most important questions to attempt to answer are: Why (and how) did the Greensboro Massacre occur? ... The Greensboro Massacre was a foreseeable tragedy with an air of conspiracy, contributing factors coming from all parties involved, and both blatant and surreptitious aspects that can only some have good come from it if the truth is set free once and for all. ... The events of November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, left five people dead, eleven wounded, and countless unanswered questions. To this day there is very little publicly known about the how and why of the “Greensboro Massacre”. ... Greensboro continues to live in denial of any wrongdoing, trying to distance the city from three ‘extremist groups’ (the Ku Klux Klan, American Nazi Party, and the Communist Workers Party). November 3, 1979 bridges two distinct parts of Greensboro history (and for that matter, North Carolinian and American): blatant, overt, undeniable, easily recognizable and definable racism versus subtle, institutional and elusive racism. ... As they approached the demonstration site, a Greensboro police car followed behind. ... Greensboro police stopped the last vehicle, a van, in the Klan-Nazi convoy and arrested the occupants. However, Greensboro police also arrested several CWP demonstrators, claiming that they had incited to riot. ... This was especially highlighted by in the industrial areas of Greensboro and Burlington. ... The CWP pasted their posters advertising the events all throughout the greater Greensboro area. ... and Eddie Dawson Racism-based tensions grew steadily in the 1970s in North Carolina (specifically Greensboro). ... Similar to the black Greensboro revolutionaries, the group in Durham turned to the “classic Marxist strategy of infusing communism in the working class through labor unions”. The base ingredients for the Greensboro Massacre were introduced into the mix. ... One of North Carolina’s highest ranking Klan members, as well as an FBI and Greensboro police informant, he often times created situations and then was the one to let the various groups he was affiliated with know about it. Dawson’s Machiavellian ways are at the heart of the Greensboro Massacre. For many weeks before November 3rd, Dawson made his rounds, attending Revolutionary Communist Party meetings (a rival of the WVO/CWP), Ku Klux Klan meetings, and consistent contact with Greensboro police detective Jerry Cooper. ... However, he sensed that there might be violence at the “Death to the Klan” march and tried twice to get an injunction to stop the march, first from the FBI and then from the Greensboro Police Department. On November 1st, Eddie Dawson went to the Greensboro Police Department to ask for an injunction in person. ... In Greensboro, posters were everywhere advertising the event. ... He ran off many copies of an old Klan poster that he had and pasted over “Death to the Klan” posters throughout Greensboro. ... According to the parade permit that had been accepted by the City of Greensboro the events were scheduled to begin at 12noon. ... In the state court, Greensboro District Attorney Michael Schlosser charged six Klan-Nazi members with first degree murder. ... Again, demands were made; this time Greensboro’s African-American leaders demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor to “investigate government impropriety in the murders. ... They used federal civil rights and state wrongful death laws to charge the Klan-Nazis, the city of Greensboro, and both BATF and FBI officials. ... For the most part, the plaintiffs got what they wanted from this specific trial, including the presentation of the five dead CWP members as “human victims of a bloody massacre.” On June 8, 1985, seven Klan-Nazi members, Eddie Dawson, and two Greensboro officers were held responsible for the wrongful death of Dr. ... The City of Greensboro paid a total of $350,00 for the wrongful death of Dr. ... The recipe for the Greensboro massacre is a secret recipe. ... If life is like a house, than this room in the house named Greensboro is the kitchen. ... The Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project was recently established to address the general lack of commonly understood truth, both of the killings and its causes, as well as all the events in the aftermath.