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Righting Unrightable Wrongs: Legacies of Racial Violence and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2011; American Association of Geographers; Volume: 102; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00045608.2011.603647

1467-8306

Joshua Inwood,

Environmental Justice and Health Disparities

Abstract The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GTRC)—the first truth and reconciliation commission ever funded and seated in the United States—was formed in 2000 in response to a Ku Klux Klan shooting of labor activists that occurred in 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Despite overwhelming video and photographic evidence of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party firing weapons into a crowd and killing five people, no one was ever held criminally liable for the deaths of the activists. In 1999 local community organizers began advocating for a truth and reconciliation process modeled after truth commissions in South Africa and Peru. In a broadly conceived qualitative approach that utilizes open-ended interviews and archival research, this project explores the truth process in Greensboro, focusing on the ways in which community members address legacies and memories of violence through reconciliation and grassroots politics. The research exposes the connections between the memory of violence and territoriality to wider academic scrutiny, examines the legacies of violence and race in North America, and contributes to larger discussions surrounding the impact that violence and race have in North American communities. La Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación de Greensboro (CVRG)—primera comisión de verdad y reconciliación jamás fundada y localizada en Estados Unidos—se constituyó en el año 2000 en respuesta a un tiroteo del Ku Klux Klan contra activistas laborales ocurrido en 1979 en Greensboro, Carolina del Norte. A pesar de la abrumadora evidencia en video y fotografía que muestra al Ku Klux Klan y al Partido Nazi Americano disparando contra la multitud y asesinando cinco personas, nadie fue jamás encontrado criminalmente responsable por la muerte de los activistas. En 1999, unos organizadores comunitarios locales empezaron a promover un proceso de verdad y reconciliación parecido al de las comisiones de la verdad de África del Sur y Perú. A partir de un enfoque cualitativo concebido con gran amplitud, que utiliza entrevistas abiertas e investigación de archivo, este Proyecto explora el proceso de la verdad en Greensboro, centrándose en las maneras como miembros de la comunidad enfrentan los legados y memorias de la violencia por medio de la reconciliación y políticas de base. La investigación pone las conexiones entre la memoria de la violencia y la territorialidad a un escrutinio académico más amplio, examina los legados de la violencia y raza en Norteamérica y contribuye a las más extensas discusiones que rodean el impacto que tienen en las comunidades norteamericanas la violencia y el problema racial. Key Words: critical race studieslabor strugglesracismreconciliationtruth commissions关键词: 关键的种族研究劳动斗争种族主义和解真相委员会Palabras clave: estudios críticos de razaluchas laboralesracismoreconciliacióncomisiones de la verdad Acknowledgments A community of scholars and activists has made this work possible. I am indebted to the anonymous reviewers who provided comments on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful for Audrey Kobayashi for her insightful comments that contributed to the final version of this article. I want to thank the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as the activists, citizens, and widows who took time out of their busy lives to talk with me. I especially want to thank Jill Williams for her comments on earlier versions of this article and for her patience in answering my questions about the truth process in Greensboro. Micheline van Riemsdijk, Robert Yarbrough, James Tyner, Patricia Price, Deborah Martin, and Melanie Barron also provided assistance. Omissions are entirely my own. Finally, I want to thank Sarah for her insights into the truth process and a special thanks to Nic and Leura for their inspiration. A National Science Foundation Grant # 0961117 supported this research. Notes 1. Brown lung disease (often referred to as Carolina brown lung) results from cotton mill workers' exposure to cotton dust during the processes involved in turning raw cotton into cloth. It is prevented by installing filters and providing ventilation, but the initial investment in equipment is often substantial. Throughout the 1970s, mill owners denied the links between Carolina brown lung and cotton dust and refused to upgrade their plants (Wheaton Citation1987, 50–53). Many of the WVO organizers were medical doctors who organized through their work with the Carolina Brown Lung Association. 2. Of the five WVO members who were killed, Sandy Smith was African American; Cesar Cause was the son of Cuban refugees; and Bill Sampson, James Waller, and Michael Nathan were white. In addition, some members of the WVO were also armed. The WVO returned fire after the initial Klan assault and no Klan members were wounded in the exchange of gunfire. 3. Local Greensboro television news stations were present at the rally and videotaped the WVO protest and the subsequent Klan shooting. 4. Statistics vary, but conservative estimates indicate that between 1890 and 1920 an average of two to three African Americans were lynched and murdered a week (Hine, Hine, and Harrold Citation2010, 363). 5. Greensboro, North Carolina, was home to several important civil rights battles and was a center of the movement to desegregate public space through the sit-in movement. Greensboro was home to the short-lived Malcolm X Liberation University and was a center of black nationalism. 6. The film The Birth of a Nation is steeped in Southern nationalism and was an important milestone in creating the "Lost Cause" narrative that gave justification to the Ku Klux Klan and is a key development of white supremacy ideology in the United States.