GREENSBORO DAILY NEWS
April 23, 1982 CI
Johnson Says
Police Late
At Death Site
WINSTON-SALEM — Communist
Workers Party spokesman Nelson Johnson
told a federal grand jury Thursday that
Greensboro police should have prevented
the Nov. 3, 1979, shootings that killed five
anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstrators.
Johnson said police were aware of the site
of the rally and were not told to stay away.
He said he denied that an attempt was made
to mislead police about the starting point of
a CWP-organized "Death to the Klan"
march.
Johnson told the grand jury that some
demonstrators, in violation of the CWP's parade permit, carried weapons to the rally.
But he said demonstrators neither encouraged a clash with the Klan nor expected any
trouble.
Most of Johnson's testimony, which lasted
about five hours, came during the grand jury's 10th day of investigation into the Nov.
3 shootings. The 21-member panel is weighing whether the incident involved violations
of federal civil rights laws.
Also testifying Thursday afternoon were
Lacie Russell of Greensboro, who participated in the Nov. 3 rally; and Floris Cauce
of Washington, a demonstrator whose husband, Cesar, was killed in the violence.
The five shooting victims, all CWP members, were killed when a confrontation between demonstrators, Klansmen and Nazis
erupted into 88 seconds of gunfire. The violence occurred at Everitt Street and Carver
Drive in Morningside Homes, a predominately black housing project in southeast
Greensboro.
Police did not arrive on the scene until
after the shooting ended.
An administrative report prepared by the
Greensboro Police Department after the
shootings concluded that officers assigned to
escort the march were confused about its
, starting point.
Because a second group had gathered at
Windsor Community Center, 1601 E. Lee
St., the officers "reasonably believed that
group to be the march participants" and
positioned themselves there, the police report said.
Johnson told the grand jury that he met
Oct. 19, 1979, with Capt. L.S. Gibson, head
of the police department's tactical unit, and
penciled the route of the march onto a map.
The map, Johnson said, as well as the resulting parade permit, gave the starting
point as Morningside Homes.
"We worked out one arrangement with
them and one only," he said.
Some CWP literature had advertised the
Windsor Center as the starting point. Johnson said it had been printed before his meeting with Gibson and could not be altered.
When the grand jury asked him why he
' was at Windsor Center the morning of Nov.
3, Johnson said he had left his wife there to
tell others of the correct site.
(See Jury: C-2, Col. 1)
Jury
From C-l
Johnson said he emphasized that
a police informant, Edward Dawson, was in the Nov. 3 Klan-Nazi
caravan that drove by Morningside
Homes. He also stressed that federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
agent Bernard Butkovich had infiltrated Nazi ranks, attended a Nazi
meeting two days before the shootings and interviewed a Nazi suspect
after the shootings.
"I challenged the grand jury to
come up with an hour-by-hour ac-
. count of (Butkovich's) activities
starting on Nov. 1," Johnson said.
"I tried to emphasize to the grand
jury that nothing short of that
would bring the truth out."
Johnson told the grand jury that
some demonstrators carried weapons Nov. 3 but that he "had no factual knowledge of it" at the time.
While the CWP considered Klan violence at the rally "a possibility, we
did not think that it was very likely," he said. "In retrospect, that
was naive on our part."
An Oct. 22, 1979, open letter to
the Klan from the CWP said, "Yes,
we challenged you to attend our
Nov. 3rd rally in Greensboro. We
publicly renew that challenge."
When asked about that letter by
the grand jury, Johnson said he
didn't consider it an invitation, but
rather a "political stand" against
Klan intimidation and secret Klan
meetings held around the state.
-" Johnson said U.S. Justice Department attorneys showed the grand '
jury a blood-stained jacket he was
wearing Nov. 3 that had two knife
holes in one sleeve. He testified that
he was attacked before the shooting
by a Klansman with a knife.
Johnson said one swipe went completely through his left forearm,
creating the sleeve holes, and that
the other slashed his hand. Displaying the scars to reporters, he said
he did the same before the grand
jury.
Johnson said he hid behind a car
when he heard shooting and saw
only an initial shot, fired into the air
by a caravan member.
In other testimony, Lacie Russell
told the grand jury he had gone to
the rally expecting no trouble. Russell, who lived near Morningside
Homes, learned of the rally through
literature distributed in his neighborhood.
Russell testified he was standing
along Everitt Street as the Klan-
Nazi caravan passed. "One moved
at me and tried to hit me with the
car, so I hit the car with my (picket)
stick," Russell said.
At the same time, he said, a man
leaned out a car window and sai
"Nigger, you wanted the Klan,
here we are." Russell said he then
looked up to see a shot fired into the
air from one of the lead vehicles in
the caravan.
It was the only shot he saw fired,
Russell said, since two men were
chasing him with a switchblade and
brass knuckles. He hid behind a tel
evision station wagon along Carver
Street until the shooting ended. After the shooting stopped, Russell
said he walked over to help CWP
demonstrator Sandra Smith, who he
said died in his arms from a head
wound.
The day's final witness, Floris
Cauce, also said she saw the initial
shot fired before running for cover.
She said she helped drag Frankie
Powell, a wounded demonstrator, to
safety with her.
Cauce said the only other shot she
witnessed was from a handgun held
by CWP member Dorothy Blitz.
When grand jury members asked if
she thought the shootings were
planned, Cauce said yes.
"Honestly, my first impression
was that it was not planned," she
said. But when she learned only
CWP members — and no bystanders — were killed, and after viewing
videotapes of the shootings that
night, she said she changed her
mind.
Cauce said she also answered
questions about her late husband's
background as a union organizer
and opponent of the Klan.
Testimony of Nov. 3 demonstrators is expected to continue into
next week.
