Five protesters were killed and at least 10 people were wounded during a march on Nov. 3, 1979. All-white juries acquitted the KKK members and the Nazis at two trials, where the defendants claimed self-defense. More than 40 years later, the Greensboro City Council has voted to apologize for the police department's role in what is now called the Greensboro Massacre.
On Wednesday, October 7 at 12pm ET, Beloved Community Center of Greensboro and the Pulpit Forum of Greensboro & Vicinity will join with widows, survivors and supporters such as Rev. Naomi Tutu, daughter of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa to hold a press conference in response to the Council's vote and official apology.
The Beloved Community Center of Greensboro has locally anchored the 40-plus year struggle for truth and justice in this case. The Pulpit Forum of Greensboro & Vicinity, an association of predominantly African American clergy, laid out a list of recommendations to the city council and Guilford Board of Commissioners regarding police brutality, including the formal apology for the Massacre, earlier this summer. The recommendations also addressed equal access to attain city contracts for minority and women-owned businesses and disparities in the county education system.
This apology has resulted from years of advocacy by survivors and community members whose lives were shattered by the events of November 3, 1979, its aftermath, and the decades-long unwillingness of the city to acknowledge the complicity of the local police. It also comes 14 years after a 2006 report by the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that “the single most important element that contributed to the violent outcome of the confrontation was the absence of police.”
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