Writings on Human Rights

• For the sake of human rights, let a hundred blogs bloom
  by Robin Kirk
• Spitting on the dead dictator
  by Ariel Dorfman
• The Half-Life of a Despot
  by Ariel Dorfman
• Seeking Truth in Greensboro
  by Robin Kirk

 

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Charlotte Observer
Posted on Thu, Jun. 29, 2006

By ROBIN KIRK
Special to the Observer

As we've been painfully reminded, Americans are not immune to the abuse of human rights. If we are to understand why, we must look honestly at our actions and redress abuses when they have occurred.

A dramatic example of this took place in Greensboro recently when the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission delivered its final report on the Nov. 3, 1979, shootings of five anti-Klan marchers. This is the first American attempt to hold a South Africa-style inquiry into human rights abuses.

Like the church bombing that killed four girls in Birmingham in 1963, the incident was framed as a violent reaction to the civil rights movement.

But 24 hours later, the shootings were eclipsed when Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Greensboro residents struggled to understand what had happened there as the country became transfixed by the far-away hostage drama.

The seven members of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation commission were selected from 67 nominees made by a variety of community groups. The selection panel was chaired by Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday's appointee, District Court Judge Lawrence McSwain.

The commission released its report May 25, nearly 27 years after the shootings.

Big factor: Police absence

The commission concluded that the single most important element that contributed to the violence was the absence of police. Though the Greensboro Police Department knew the Klansmen were armed (as were some marchers), they did not prevent the fatal encounter. And instead of investigating the killings, city leaders punished the people who lived where the march took place by treating them as criminals.

The commission also faulted the Klan and the Nazis for seeking a confrontation. Finally, the commissioners acknowledged the role march organizers played. In the 1970s, the Communist Workers Party intentionally targeted the Klan as a way to energize their cadre. Months before the march, the CWP boisterously stopped a Klan screening of "Birth of a Nation" in the Kannapolis-area hamlet of China Grove. The CWP decided to follow up with a "Death to the Klan" rally on Nov. 3. Fully goaded, the Klan armed itself and came.

Although TV cameras filmed Klan and American Nazi Party members shooting marchers, two all-white juries acquitted the men. In 1985, a civil jury found the city, the Klan and the Nazi Party liable for violating the civil rights of demonstrators, but no shooter paid with time in jail.

Fierce criticism at home

Although praised internationally, the commission faced fierce criticism at home. People argued that there was no reason to reopen this wound. Others questioned the need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with seven commissioners working with dozens of staff and volunteers for two years.

For South Africa, a commission made sense, since it conducted investigations into thousands of cases of human rights violations and helped a massive transition to a post-apartheid future. But in Greensboro, the city council voted along racial lines to oppose a commission.

Other critics questioned the commission's origin. The civil damages paid by the city of Greensboro went to the Greensboro Justice Fund, set up by a slain marcher's widow, who became a lead proponent. Other backers included the Communist leader who organized the Nov. 3 march. For some, that meant the commission was simply a way for the CWP to get revenge.

But these criticisms, I believe, proved unfounded. Although deeply invested in the commission's findings, the CWP ultimately could not control what was said or how those listening reacted. In fact, by focusing on the particulars of a single event, the commission in its 500-page report was able to shed light on the broader history of Southern racial violence.

Facing the hard issues

In the end, for two years, Greensboro finally had the time to talk about what happened on that frightful day. Insistently, the conversations -- not only during public hearings, but at dozens of community events held as part of the deliberations -- veered into the hard issues that are so often avoided among Americans: racism and politics, the economic gulf that still divides the city, the weight and pernicious scope of inequality and injustice.

Commissioner Muktha Jost called this the "deep brokenness that allowed the events of Nov. 3 to happen."

Rarely does truth arrive whole as a cake. Perhaps the best we can hope for is the occasional slice. Without question, the commission delivered truth in its final report. And there was some reconciliation, as grayer, sparser heads talked, some for the first time.

The report is not a finale, nor is it perfect. But the commissioners completed their task with integrity. Now, it is up to the rest of us to make the report matter.

In Greensboro, Americans faced a legacy of human rights abuse and decided to do something about it. These days, that is no small victory.

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Robin Kirk was a consultant to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She directs the Duke University Human Rights Initiative. Contact her at rights@duke.edu or P.O Box 90402, Durham, NC 27708-0402.

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