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Greensboro Daily News, Sun., Nov. 11,1979 High noon shoot-out in Greensboro The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot The senseless and brutal killings of five demonstrators at an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, a city with a history of temperate race relations, is the worst act of racial violence in this region in a decade. The belated arrival of the Greensboro police offers a striking contrast to the tactics of the Virginia Beach and Norfolk police last month during a rally conducted by the Klan's Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson at the Beach. Tidewater's men in blue were much in evidence: The rally site was cordoned off, officers equipped with riot gear lined the sidewalks, the sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in the area, and no serious violence occurred. But the Greensboro police stayed in the background at the request of the planner of the anti-Klan rally, Nelson Johnson, a black activist since the Sixties. If his Workers Viewpoint Organization sought to provoke a confrontation to promote its lesser-known identity, it couldn't have chosen a more inflammatory guarantee of violence, daring the "cowards" to show. Appropriately, Mr. Johnson has been charged with inciting a riot. But no verbal taunt will ever justify the brutal nature of the Klan's response last Saturday. Klans and anti-Klansmen have equal rights to shout their slogans — but not to provoke carnage. The police, sensing the risk of violence, must be present to protect those with unpopular views and to prevent a breach of the peace. Greensboro's police who were conned into staying away, not without encouragement from WVO members who yelled "scum" when they came near, might have deterred Saturday's bloodletting by their presence. No, it is not America's destiny to become a police state. But so long as there are extremists resorting to violence for their own ends, the community must insist on appropriate police action. Allowing one group or another to stage a confrontation in this armed society invites mayhem, if not mob rule. The guiding principle must be to let them shout it out, not shoot it out. Folly of extremism The Raleigh News and Observer North Carolina cannot simply dismiss the violence between extremist groups in Greensboro as an aberration against which the state is helpless. The armed conflict involving persons who call themselves Ku Klux Klan, Nazi and communists serves as a bloody reminder of the poisons that cannot be disregarded in the American system. In a certain sense, of course, Greensboro and North Carolina are the unmerited victims of circumstances. To say, however, that it could have happened anywhere is also to say that it could happen again, anywhere. Accordingly, the question becomes: what should the state and its cities and towns do? First, a reassessment of law enforcement response clearly is in order. The choice is not between having police with weapons drawn every five feet and doing nothing at all. A police cruiser or two and some uniformed officers at a distance but within view could have caused potential troublemakers to think twice. Quick, clear communications within the police force and between the police force and demonstrators is essential. The bottom line is that police laxity can sometimes be as harmful as police repression. It is not good enough, then, to protest that North Carolina is innocent, that the participants in the Greensboro melee are not in the mainstream. North Carolina must make plain that its cities and their streets are not there for the taking by the violent- prone to play out their games of hatred and revenge. Skewed ideology The Richmond Times-Dispatch During the 1960s, before Congress scuttled its internal security panel, communist agitators, Ku Kluxers, neo-Nazis and other potentially violent political extremists regularly were the targets of investigations for "un-American activities." While many social conditions have changed in this country since those years, "un-American" remains a fitting description for political extremists of the sort who touched off a murderous riot Saturday in Greensboro, N. C. Both factions in the weekend gun battle represented fanatical, distorted views of humanity. Public support for both groups is negligible. Greensboro's police, attempting to keep a "low profile," were a couple of blocks away from the site of the shootings when the killings took place. Whether the Greensboro police should be faulted for lack of preparation for the violence may be determined by investigations to take place in North Carolina. Certainly, though, neither the Greensboro police nor that city's generally prosperous and harmonious social climate can be blamed for harboring the instigators of the violence. The leading communists and Klansmen had come from other parts of the state. The killings in Greensboro were the work of fanatics of the mold of Jim Jones, far abstracted from any human feeling. The skewed ideologies that both combatant groups represented should be rejected by any American who cherishes his fellow citizens' peace and liberty. ^^^^^^^—
Object Description
Title | High noon shoot-out in Greensboro |
Date | 1979-11-11 |
Creator | unknown |
Subject headings | Greensboro Massacre, Greensboro, N.C., 1979 |
Topics | Greensboro Massacre, 1979 |
Place | Greensboro (N.C.) |
Description |
This November 11, 1979 Greensboro Daily News article culls reports from other newspapers on the murders of five Communist Workers Party (CWP) members at a Death to the Klan march in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 3, 1979. An article from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot criticizes the Greensboro Police Department for not showing presence at the demonstration and claims CWP member Nelson Johnson sought a confrontation for recognition. An article from The Raleigh News and Observer claims the event involved only extremists and outsiders, and calls for improved law enforcement response. An article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch argues that extremists, not the Greensboro Police Department or the city's social climate, are to blame for the violence. An article from The Charlotte Observer claims the Communist Workers Party is partially to blame for the violence of November 3rd. It argues that the CWP made police protection difficult, and police would have potentially faced violence if they were visibly present at the event. An article from The Hickory Daily Record says that those involved in the November 3rd events committed criminal acts and that their extremist views do not represent a threat to North Carolina. An article from The Washington Star claims that no city "has done a better job of keeping the racial peace" than Greensboro. It also point out that those involved in the violence were outsiders to the city, and that the incidents of November 3 should not be seen as "proper exercise of First Amendment rights." An article from The New York Times asserts that those involved in the November 3rd event were from fringe groups, and that the Greensboro Police Department did not properly protect the marchers. This article was clipped and saved in a scrapbook about the twentieth anniversary of the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins by Clarence "Curly" Harris, manager of the Greensboro Woolworth store at the time of the sit-ins. |
Type | text |
Original format | clippings;scrapbooks |
Original dimensions | 9" x 11" |
Original publisher | [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] |
Language | en |
Contributing institution | Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
Source collection | MSS141 Clarence Lee Harris Papers, circa 1916-1997 |
Series/grouping | 6 Scrapbooks |
Box | 2 |
Folder | Folder 7: Scrapbook 5: Sit In, 20 Year Anniversary, 1979-1980 |
Finding aid link | http://libapps.uncg.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=506 |
Rights statement | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
Additional rights information | IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the contributing institution for permission to reuse. |
Object ID | MSS0141.002.007.1071 |
Digital publisher | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5305 -- http://library.uncg.edu/ |
Sponsor | LSTA grant administered by the North Carolina State Library -- http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/ld/grants/lsta.html |
OCLC number | 884368059 |
Page/Item Description
Title | Page 1 |
Full text | Greensboro Daily News, Sun., Nov. 11,1979 High noon shoot-out in Greensboro The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot The senseless and brutal killings of five demonstrators at an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, a city with a history of temperate race relations, is the worst act of racial violence in this region in a decade. The belated arrival of the Greensboro police offers a striking contrast to the tactics of the Virginia Beach and Norfolk police last month during a rally conducted by the Klan's Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson at the Beach. Tidewater's men in blue were much in evidence: The rally site was cordoned off, officers equipped with riot gear lined the sidewalks, the sale of alcoholic beverages was banned in the area, and no serious violence occurred. But the Greensboro police stayed in the background at the request of the planner of the anti-Klan rally, Nelson Johnson, a black activist since the Sixties. If his Workers Viewpoint Organization sought to provoke a confrontation to promote its lesser-known identity, it couldn't have chosen a more inflammatory guarantee of violence, daring the "cowards" to show. Appropriately, Mr. Johnson has been charged with inciting a riot. But no verbal taunt will ever justify the brutal nature of the Klan's response last Saturday. Klans and anti-Klansmen have equal rights to shout their slogans — but not to provoke carnage. The police, sensing the risk of violence, must be present to protect those with unpopular views and to prevent a breach of the peace. Greensboro's police who were conned into staying away, not without encouragement from WVO members who yelled "scum" when they came near, might have deterred Saturday's bloodletting by their presence. No, it is not America's destiny to become a police state. But so long as there are extremists resorting to violence for their own ends, the community must insist on appropriate police action. Allowing one group or another to stage a confrontation in this armed society invites mayhem, if not mob rule. The guiding principle must be to let them shout it out, not shoot it out. Folly of extremism The Raleigh News and Observer North Carolina cannot simply dismiss the violence between extremist groups in Greensboro as an aberration against which the state is helpless. The armed conflict involving persons who call themselves Ku Klux Klan, Nazi and communists serves as a bloody reminder of the poisons that cannot be disregarded in the American system. In a certain sense, of course, Greensboro and North Carolina are the unmerited victims of circumstances. To say, however, that it could have happened anywhere is also to say that it could happen again, anywhere. Accordingly, the question becomes: what should the state and its cities and towns do? First, a reassessment of law enforcement response clearly is in order. The choice is not between having police with weapons drawn every five feet and doing nothing at all. A police cruiser or two and some uniformed officers at a distance but within view could have caused potential troublemakers to think twice. Quick, clear communications within the police force and between the police force and demonstrators is essential. The bottom line is that police laxity can sometimes be as harmful as police repression. It is not good enough, then, to protest that North Carolina is innocent, that the participants in the Greensboro melee are not in the mainstream. North Carolina must make plain that its cities and their streets are not there for the taking by the violent- prone to play out their games of hatred and revenge. Skewed ideology The Richmond Times-Dispatch During the 1960s, before Congress scuttled its internal security panel, communist agitators, Ku Kluxers, neo-Nazis and other potentially violent political extremists regularly were the targets of investigations for "un-American activities." While many social conditions have changed in this country since those years, "un-American" remains a fitting description for political extremists of the sort who touched off a murderous riot Saturday in Greensboro, N. C. Both factions in the weekend gun battle represented fanatical, distorted views of humanity. Public support for both groups is negligible. Greensboro's police, attempting to keep a "low profile" were a couple of blocks away from the site of the shootings when the killings took place. Whether the Greensboro police should be faulted for lack of preparation for the violence may be determined by investigations to take place in North Carolina. Certainly, though, neither the Greensboro police nor that city's generally prosperous and harmonious social climate can be blamed for harboring the instigators of the violence. The leading communists and Klansmen had come from other parts of the state. The killings in Greensboro were the work of fanatics of the mold of Jim Jones, far abstracted from any human feeling. The skewed ideologies that both combatant groups represented should be rejected by any American who cherishes his fellow citizens' peace and liberty. ^^^^^^^— |