Greensboro Massacre

The Greensboro Massacre - events in Greensboro, North Carolina , November 3, 1979, when left-wing activists of the Maoist Communist Workers' Party and associated demonstrators protesting industrial segregation clash with ultra-right Ku Klux members - Clan and the American Nazi party using firearms. As a result, four Communists and one outsider died, and ten more demonstrators were injured.

Two criminal trials of the Ku Klux Klanites and the Nazis later took place. During the first trial in 1980, jurors (all white) acquitted all the accused. The second trial, which took place in a federal court in 1984, ended in the acquittal of 9 accused, while all the jurors were white.

Survivors in the slaughter filed a civil lawsuit in 1980 (the plaintiffs were represented by the law firm en: Christic Institute ). During the process, numerous police and federal agents were accused of evading obligations to protect demonstrators and biased. The jury found the Klaners guilty of the death of Dr. Michael Nathan, the only non-communist of the dead. The jury found the Greensboro Police Department guilty of not taking measures to prevent shooting, despite the fact that the police knew in advance about the intentions of the clans from the informant. Defendants, including the police, were awarded compensation in the total amount of 350 thousand dollars. This was one of the few cases in US history when a jury found the police guilty of assisting the Ku Klux Klan in carrying out his criminal intentions. ^[one]

In November 2004, on the 25th anniversary of the events, some 700 demonstrators marched through Greensboro along the way to a commemorative demonstration. ^[2] In the same year, on the initiative of private individuals, the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created, modeled on a similar apartheid commission in South Africa (see en: Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa) ) to explore events and hear testimonies regarding the events of 1979. The mayor and most members of the city council refused to support the initiative, so the commission, which existed on a voluntary basis, did not have the authority to call witnesses or require the submission of documents, and the collection of materials was carried out only thanks to the voluntary support of interested persons. The commission issued a report that stated that although both sides provoked the conflict with rhetoric of hatred, the clans and the Nazis initially planned to harm the protesters, and the police assisted the clans and condoned violence on their part, knowing their intentions initially.

Only in 2009, the Greensboro City Council passed a decree expressing regret over the loss of life during the events. In 2015, a memorial plate was opened in the city in memory of events; about 300 people attended the ceremony.