The Greensboro Massacre, as it became known, was the coming-out bloodbath for the white nationalist movement that is upending our politics today. last year, according to a January report by the Anti-Defamation League. At the same time, right-wing violence is on the rise: Far-right terrorists accounted for the overwhelming majority of extremist murders in the U.S. The far right’s fears about “replacement” of the white race and outsider “invasions” have become standard tropes at conservative media outlets, and its anger is routinely stoked by the president of the United States. Today, white nationalism is closer to the mainstream of American politics than ever before. Or a teenager like Dylann Roof hoarding Nazi drawings as well as a Klan hood in his bedroom while he plotted mass murder. After November 3, 1979, it was suddenly possible to imagine Confederate flags flying alongside swastikas in Charlottesville. Greensboro was the place where the farthest-right groups of white supremacy learned to kill together. | Greensboro News & Recordīut that November morning became momentous for more than the grotesque video footage that still lives on the Internet: The Greensboro Massacre, as it became known, was the coming-out bloodbath for the white nationalist movement that is upending our politics today.īefore Greensboro, America’s most lurid extremists largely operated in separate, mutually distrustful spheres. Bottom right: A man comforts his wife after the shooting. 3, 1979. Bottom left: A WVO member kneels by a victim in aftermath of shooting. Top: KKK members take weapons from the back of a car prior to shooting members of the Workers Viewpoint Organization on Nov. They even brought an effigy of a Klansman, dressed in a white sheet and hood, which kids from the neighborhood joined in punching. They danced to a guitar player singing, “Woke up this morning with my mind set to build the Party.” Their children dressed in tan military shirts and red berets. ![]() And they were descending on Greensboro, a city where sit-ins helped launch the civil rights movement in 1960, to ignite another revolution. Their ranks included professionals with degrees from places like Harvard and Duke. The American left had largely given up on communism by then, but these demonstrators were full-on Maoists. “Death to the Klan!” On Saturday, November 3, 1979, that chant swept over Morningside Homes, a mostly black housing project in Greensboro, North Carolina, as dozens of protesters-some donning blue hard hats for protection-hammered placards onto signposts and danced in the morning sun. Peter Keating is an investigative writer in Montclair, N.J. He can be seen in a documentary based on his latest book, The Murder of Sonny Liston, at 9 p.m. Shaun Assael is a New York Times -bestselling author.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |