The Campus Reaction to the Trial

              Page four - GUILFORDIAN, November 25, 1980
GUILFORLIAN, November 25, 1980 -   ^age five
F
Scenes from Thursdays demonstration downtown
The campus reaction to the trial
Richie Zweigenhaft
The following is a
letter that I wrote to the
Greensboro Da;7y News earlv
last summer, before the jury
selection for the Klan-Nazi trial
took place. It helps to explain
how the defense attorneys in ,
the Klan-Nazi trial were able to
eliminate all blacks, all Jews
and almost all college graduates
from the jury. (The one graduate they left on the jury was a
Cuban exile who attended Harvard and became the foreman of
the jury - why the prosecuting
attorneys did not eliminate him
from the jury remains a very
perplexing question). It is my
belief that the current system,
which provides lawyers so many
peremptory challenges (the defense attorneys in the Klan-Nazi
trial had 120 of them) allows
them to eliminate jurors based
on racial and religious prejudices. This aspect of the
system works strongly against
the interests of minority groups,
like blacks, whose members can
be eliminated rather easily from'
juries.   I,   of  course,   do   not
believe that this   is  the only serve. If, for example, i were
aspect of this trial, or of the way related to the defendant, or his
the jury system works in North . or her attorney, the prosecuting
Carolina, that warrants careful attorney   could   challenge   my
investigation. presence   on   the   jury    "for
Editor of the Daily News:
At about the same time there
was racial rioting in Miami
elicited by the acquittal of four
policemen who had been
charged with the murder of a
black man -- a decision reached
by an all-white jury — I was
called for jury duty in - High
Point. I had never been called
before, and looked forward to
the experience with .curiosity
and some anticipation.
Not long after our arrival at
the Criminal Justice Division of
the Superior Court, the judge
explained to those of us assembled as prospective jurors
that any of us might be kept off
a given jury by one of two types
of challenges. The first, a
"challenge for cause," could
take place if there were some
clear reason why it would be
inappropriate for one of us to
The second type of challenge,
he went on to explain, is
referred to as a "peremptory
challenge." The lawyers on
each side can use a certain
number of these without indicating their reason. The judge
assured us we should not be
hurt or in any way personally
offended if we were challenged
peremptorily.
When the first 12 were called
forward, the prosecuting attorney elaborated on the peremptory challenge, again cautioning
prospective jurors not to take it
personally if they were to
receive one. "Perhaps a blond-
haired woman had cut me off on
my way to the court," he said.
"I might choose to keep blondes
off the jury that day."
Perhaps he had been cut off
on his way to work that particular day by a black person;
four of his first five challenges
eliminated blacks from the prospective jury. Given the fact
that the two defendants were
young black men, but only
one-fifth of the jury pool was
black, this pattern was both
obvious and disheartening. His
apparent assumption was probably correct - the more blacks
on the jury, the harder would be
his task of proving the accused
guilty. I know nothing of their
guilt or innocence. My name
had not been called by the time
12 jurors and one alternate had
been approved by the lawyers
and I was dismissed from
further duties by the judge,
along with the others whose
names had not been called.
The prosecuting attorney, ah
employee of the state, was not
doubt, within the letter of the
law, which seeks to provide the
accused with a jury of his or her
peers.
All I know is that as I watched
this take place and thought
about the events in Miami and
about the thoughtful report
issued recently by the Citizens
Advisory Committee of the
Greensboro Human Relations
Commission, I felt the frustration of those among us who had
been peremptorily challenged -
that is, assessed and for unstated reasons found undesirable as jurors - apparently
based primarily on the color of
their skin.
it seems to me there are two
things that could be done to
insure that such practices don't
continue. First, those responsible for hiring lawyers for the
state of North Carolina must
make it clear to them that the
elimination of jurors solely - or
even primarily - based on race
will not be tolerated. Alternatively, or perhaps additionally,
lawmakers should amend the
current process so that lawyers,
for the defense and the prosecution, should be given fewer
peremptory challenges.-
Several members of the Guilford College
community were asked for their reactions to the
Klan-Nazi trial results.
^—«Jan Earl —
Many, many factors led to that
verdict — I do not feel the jury
could be expected to have
determined them guilty. The
CWP members involved refused to testify, and when they
attended the trial they created
distractions. More importantly,
the defense was allowed approximately 100 peremptory
challenges in the process of
selecting a jury. They practically had the option of picking
the perfect jury for their defendants.
Unfortunately, these reasons'
do not ease my frustration with
the verdict. The defendants
were guilty of attending the
demonstration with the intent of
confronting the CWP and they
are guilty of bringing out their
guns when they could have
driven away. I do not condone
the actions of the CWP because
they seemed to desire a confrontation, but the Klansmen
are by no means innocent men.
God help us if we accepted all
the Klan as innocent.
My anger at the trial and
verdict led me initially to express protest against them. I
objected to Mayor Melvin's
statement that Greensboro citizens were calm. Many of us
were not calm — we were
distressed and angered. Fortunately, we were expressing that
anger in nonviolent ways, but
by no means were we calm.
Before long my concerns
focused on:.
1) The importance of showing
the city, state, country, and
world — all those watching —
that we could not accept the
Klan as innocent and that we
could not remain calmly at
home while they were declared
such; and
2) the need to determine the
factors affecting the trial which
led to the not guilty verdict and
try to determine appropriate
ways of protecting ourselves
from them in all future trials,
particularly the trials of the
remaining 8 defendants and the
CWP members involved in the
Guilford students at vigil outside Federal Building last Wednesday
There are questions in .the
minds of many of us about what
has taken place here in Greensboro. What were the roles of
undercover agents in the confrontation? It seems that at least
one undercover agent participated in the Nazi-Klan activities
until very near to the time of the
confrontation. There are also
questions as to why the parade
was allowed to start in the
residential neighborhood, and
questions about the strategy of
the prosecution.
The questions mentioned
would be of little importance if
there were not a history over the
years of many instances in
which federal, state and local
law enforcement agencies have
participated in illegal activities
to subvert justice, particularly
in cases where blacks have been
involved. Cynicism would best
be reduced, in this case, by
information   about   what  went
Further, each of u
«Cyrus Johnson-
duals must ask ourselves to
what extent we participate in
allowing our country to be a
place in which people feel the
need to belong to organizations
like the Nazi Party, the CWP,
the Klan, etc., in order to get
personal satisfaction. We all1
seem to be a part of a system
that abets, at times, the tragedies of man's inhumanity to
man. We allow people to die of
starvation and to be victims of
prejudice and injustice, in part
becuase we have selfishness
and racism within ourselves.
It has been said that "the
Nazi-Klan members are the
poor and the dispossessed, as if
that relieves us of any responsibility since we are not of that
socio-economic level. There is
some truth in the statement, yet
it is too simple. In fact, it seems
very clear to me that as our
society has made progress jn
desegregating white collar jobs,
schools, and middle and upper
class   communities,   we   have
Theodor Benfey •
seen plenty of evidence of
racism, the kind on which the
Nazi-Klan seems to feed in all
the socio-economic levels of our
society and in all sections of our
country.
As others have noted, we
must not give up on the jury
system and other aspects of our
judicial process that make this
process one of the best - the
most free of injustice and more
open to change of judicial
systems in the world. At the
same time, we must continually
be aware of the limitations of
the system, examine its operation and seek to make it better.
In my estimation, if we
middle and upper class members would rid ourselves of our
prejudices and work to establish
a system of justice for all people
then the CWP, Nazi, Klan, and
other similar type organizations
would find their members leaving them and joining in the
process to reduce the inhumanity of humans to humans.
Some reflections on the verdict
1. No thoughtful person I had
spoken to predicted a total
acquittal. Yet the fact that it
occurred should not make us
denounce jury systems - punishment determined by appointed
or elected judges can be and has
been much worse. That does not
mean, of course, that the jury
system, for instance the method
of selecting jurors, could not be
vastly improved.
2. If the defendants had been
found guilty, we may have been
in danger of thinking that that
closed the case, the culprits had
been identified and punished. It
might have made us feel better -
for the wrong reason. For the
question we must ask ourselves
is why people join the Klan or
the Nazi party; what drives
them to such extreme positions?
Consider if the verdict had been
positive - the cry would have
gone up that the authorities
together   with   minorities   and
left-wing groups were against
the common people, particularly the poor whites. More violence might well have occurred.
3. Thanks to a bizarre confrontation and an equally bizarre
verdict, Greensboro in the eyes
of the nation and the world is a
center of racism - more so than
other communities in the South
or in the U.S. Are there ways
that such a view can be corrected - are there ways that this
community can demonstrate-
that it is not or at least from now
on will not be a racist center?
First is there a way of
changing the media image? I
have been envisaging the Coliseum filled with the citizens of
Greensboro, black and white, in
friendship singing and discussing together; or, closer to
home, the students of UNC-G
and Greensboro and Guilford
Colleges marching to A and T
and Bennett to join them in a
celebration of friendship.
Those would  be   impressive
media events that would draw
attention. But would they be
■ substance or image?
There must also be concrete
steps to change the economic
and social patterns that discriminate unjustly - in housing and
employment - that make difficult communication and provide
inadequate representation at
decision-making levels. What is
there that students can do -
particularly Guilford students?
I have been speculating:
What if tuition and fees here are
increased by $10? That would
create a fund of $14000 to be
used by the students for building and strengthening human
understanding and helping
those, of whatever color or
persuasion, in need of support,
financial, emotional, spiritual. I
have in mind for instance those
on full scholarship who have
essentially no added funds for
books, travel, gifts, "pocket
money". I once, on behalf of a
Foundation, provided small additional support to two such
students, to whom it made a
considerable difference. If the
per student amount were $15,
the fund would stand at
$20,000 Guilford faculty might
each contribute the same
amount. Could students explore
this possibility with their parents over Thanksgiving and
report on their return to the
student government? It might-
be a step that other colleges and
universities might copy.
Those who are caught in the
economic crunch of our time are
losing faith, becoming cynical
and bitter. Factions then become polarized. That occurred
in Germany in the twenties, but
as chaos threatens, the populace almost inevitably will
choose the forces promising law
and order, the tough men,
fascism of one kind or another.
Against that we must bend our
efforts, against the loss of faith,
providing a base for new hope.
November 3rd incident.
For these reasons I have not
been able to keep my mouth
shut. Neither have many, many
others. We've stood quietly in
front of the Federal Courthouse,
and we've had numerous planning sessions to determine appropriate strategies. Students
from Guilford and Bennett Colleges joined the SGA of A & T
and others from the community
in silently marching to protest
of the verdict and to appeal to
the community to nonviolently
combat the forces that produced
it. Here at Guilford we had a
meeting which successfully
provided many of us with
information and a variety of
opinions regarding the trial.
The trial itself was not a racial
issue, perhaps, but it has
produced an increased awareness of the racial issues still
existing. This increased awareness has led many citizens, to
organize, making this a prime
time to work toward social
change. We join forces as a
community to fight inequality.
We are not calm — but neither
are we violent.
The liberal educated media
opinion about the Nazi/Klan
murder trial verdict seems to be
that we, as mere citizens, are
not in a position to second guess
the jury's decision. No one
outside those twelve white,
not-highly-educated, prodeath
penalty jurors knows what complicated and heart wrenching
process took place behind the
closed doors, and no one who
did not sit through every day of
the longest trial in the history of
the state is aware of how
intricate and confusing the testimony was. We must be careful
to-maintain respect for the jury
system, we are told, and not
, throw the baby out with the
bath water just because we
don't like the verdict.
Most of us only know what, we
read in the papers and see on
the news. But forgive us for
reserving our right to express
"reasonable doubt" that justice
was achieved.
And explain to us  how the
■ Carol Stoneburner ■
A number of persons
have asked me if I though
despair, fear and/or confusion
were real alternatives to cynicism. I suspect they are temporary alternatives, but they are
just that, temporary. It takes
hard work and conscious effort
to move beyond hurt, fear,
confusion, disillusionment, and
even dispair, but if we do not
move beyond these, we shall
have chosen to believe the worst
of our fellow,human beings and
in the process will • begin to
believe that of ourselves.
We must face this whole set
of incidents as serious, complicated problems, and, as Richie
Zweignehaft and Jonathan Ma-
lino said, ask fundamental
questions about the systemic
problems of racism and injustice which this trial represents.
Asking hard, tough, honest
questions is an alternative to
cynicism - if they are posed in
such a way as to get at the truth.
Asking tough questions about
ourselves and our own fears,
corffustions, and anger - as well
as our prejudices and our
enjoyment of systemic rewards,
also   are   necessary.
Another possible alternative
to cynicism is building
networks and coalitions to address the issues of social injustice which made the initial
confrontation possible.: Students as well as faculty and staff
have a stake in helping to make
Greensboro a better community.
As you return home for
Thanksgiving, please do not
succumb to answering questions about this whole affair as a
simple blaming of one group.
Try to share more of the
complexities of the issues as
well as the complexities of your
own response. Try to affirm that
there are, in fact, alternatives to
despair, fear, confusion and
certainly to cynicism.
concept of "self defense" can
apply in a case where residents
of another town load automatic
weapons in the back of a van,
drive into the middle of an
already volatile situation, hand
out their weapons, and shoot
five people. I thought self
defense involved a bit more
innocence than was evident in
this case.
It is incumbent upon all of us,
despite the jury's decision 1
evaluate what we know of the
facts (including the questionable process of jury selection)
and arrive at a sensible, rational
position.
That is only the first step,
suspect that most of us out here
on the western edge of town, in
our college community, with o
intellectual orientation, do consider it our moral responsibility
to evaluate what we believe.
But the connection between
inward conviction and outward
action concerns us far less
frequently. I had a shocking
realization at the time of the
presidential election: I had fol-
ed the candidates, closely
examined their positions,
thought long and bard about
who I would support, and ther
on November 3, I almost forgot
to vote. In fact, it seemed to be
a lot of trouble. It was as if I had
come to some kind of moral
closure because I had reached a
responsible decision - which
does my candidate not one whit
of good.
1 see that happening now.
Most of us are now wrestling
with what we think about the
trial verdict. What we think,
however, is essentially irrelevant if our responsible decisions
are not represented in some
responsible action. We must
address the societal causes of a
Klan/Nazi shooting (not to
mention the causes of the
existence of the three groups at
all), the less than adequate trial
by jury as it exists now, and how
best to show support to those
victimized — the families of the
victims, the black community,
the poor white community, and
Greensboro as a whole.