Greensboro’s Child

On Friday May 26th, 2006 The GTRC held a public hearing to officially wrap up their two years-worth of research into the events surrounding the Greensboro Massacre.

Unless you go through the evidence yourself and speak to both the survivors and citizens of Greensboro that lived through the experience of 11/3, you’ll never truly understand how scary that day was. Residual effects continue to affect many people in this community.

I salute the commission for taking on a project that invited them into such a frightening reality, one that so many of us have tried to sweep under the rug over the years. I say good for you and great for Greensboro.

On the heels of a successful first screening, Greensboro’s Child will be shown once again at The Scene on South Elm, at 9pm, Friday June 16th and 7pm & 9pm, Saturday June 17th.

Andy will be participating in a Q&A session following each show. Come on down and support a local, independent filmmaker.

The first paragraph of the Executive Summary:

The Commission finds that on the morning of Nov. 3, 1979, members of the Klan/Nazi caravan headed for Greensboro with malicious intent. At a minimum, they planned to disrupt the parade and assault the demonstrators (by throwing eggs), violating the marchers constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. Further, we believe there is sufficient evidence to conclude that they intended to provoke a violent confrontation and that this was broadly understood among those present in the multiple planning discussions. Those who left their cars to engage in violence did so willingly. More importantly, Klan and Nazi members have admitted since the event that they intentionally came prepared to use deadly force in order to be victorious in any violence that occurred.

[…]

Much more to come, as the final report is to be released next week tomorrow morning.

I’m posting this from the screening of Greensboro’s Child. The Q&A after the 7pm screening was very intense. Not in a bad way either. Each person in the audience had a unique perspective and questions that furthered the conversation.

Come on down tomorrow night, 7pm, The Scene on South Elm, and check it out for yourself.

Q&A video to come soon…

UPDATE: Here’s some video from the Q&A following the 5/25 screening:

A preview of the first couple of minutes of Greensboro’s Child.

It’s hard to believe that I started this documentary back in ‘97. I was an amateur, in college, holding a mic and pointing a camera at an interviewee, with a light kit set up in no particular order and no clue as to the importance of white balancing.

Well, you live and learn. And have I ever learned some valuable lessons working on this documentary.

Today is the first public screening in Greensboro since it won, “Best Independent Documentary” at the North Carolina Film and Video Festival in 2002. The current version now has a soundtrack and is 15 minutes shorter than the award-winning version.

I have many people to thank for making this opportunity a reality:

• My brother, Sean Coon — for his amazing blogging skills and great mind for creating avenues that I can take advantage of…
• John Ford — Thanks so much for taking Sean’s design and making this blog functional. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
• Jonathan Daniel - Another brilliant web guru giving some of his genius to help make this site a reality.
• The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission - For getting my interest back into this subject material and sticking out their chins by taking on this monumental task.
• Dale and Lowell at The Scene on South Elm for screening it.
• Lastly, Willena and Kwame Cannon — for allowing me to stick my nose into their lives.

I look forward to meeting you tonight at the screening.

Tonight, May 25 7:00 PM & 9:00 PM and tommorow night at 7:00 PM

This song is told through the eyes of one of the victims of November 3rd 1979.

Scott is a great guy and very compassionate music writer. I came across Scott due to his admiration of my documentary. He compared 3 films about the Greensboro Massacre for his thesis paper at Guilford College. I was taken aback when a mutual friend handed me a manilla envelop with his thesis in it, as I had never met Scott before. The precision of his interpretation of my documentary was astounding.

The three programs that he dissected were A&E’s “Clash With the Klan”, The History Channel Documentary “The Lawbreakers” and Greensboro’s Child.

His perspective opened my eyes to what I was doing right and what the TV programs were doing wrong.

This is footage of the November 3rd, 1979 anti-Klan rally held in Greensboro, NC named, Death to The Klan.

The organization that promoted and held the rally was named the Communist Workers Party (CWP). The people slowly rolling up in the cars are with KKK and Nazi groups from around NC, looking to confront the “communist protestors.”

Five CWP members were murdered on that day, with either the violence or their explicit deaths captured on film. After watching this attack, keep in mind that the Klan members were all acquitted of murder on a self-defense plea, even though this footage was used as evidence in the state trial.

This injustice is exactly why Greensboro is hosting the first Truth & Reconciliation Commission ever within the United States.

With less than a week to go before releasing their findings, The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission is catching some more heat for their methodology… I think.

Margaret Moffett Banks, News & Record
TRC mum on report

“Private meetings. Undisclosed sources. “No comments” to the media.

The group investigating the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings has cloaked itself in secrecy. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has said little about its two-year fact-gathering process, other than promising fairness, balance and completeness.

This week, members of the commission will lift the veil — and the public can decide whether those promises have come true.

The commission’s long-awaited report will be released during a somber, quasi-religious ceremony Thursday night at Bennett College. Jill Williams, the commission’s executive director, said CD-ROM versions of the report will be “distributed like Communion.”

[…]

I’d rather not respond with an accusation of good old fashioned sensationalism, but nowhere else in the article does Banks expand on her lead-in:

• “No comments to the media” — Is she referring to the TRC these last few weeks as they attempt to wrap-up two-years worth of work? Or is she charging that the TRC hasn’t spoken to the media over the past two years? If the latter, what exactly is the TRC supposed to talk to the media about? I’d like some examples of their stonewalling.

• “Undisclosed sources” — Has the TRC reported something profound, attributing their reporting to an undisclosed source? I hopped over to the TRC site today and found the entire public statement archives within one click. What’s the context of this complaint?

• “Private meetings” — I could be mistaken, but wasn’t the methodology of the TRC presented to the community from jumpstart? What “private meetings” is Banks referring to other than the TRC meetings to discuss their findings and work on their report?

Ed Cone thinks that the TRC had made a PR mistake by running things as Banks charges, suggesting blogging and media availability as smarter approaches, but from what I can tell, the TRC does have a blog (it’s been active for the past 15 months) with a tagline that reads, “A space for open community dialogue about the work of the Commission.”

A brief check of the comments over the past few months shows very random participation from the community. It’s possible that participation dropped off for particular reasons, but Ed’s suggestion seems to be covered.

This all leads into to my question for Greensboro residents:

Is the community truly attempting to use all available avenues for participating in this process or are we constructing a strawman argument to challenge the integrity of the TRC, a week prior to the release of their report?

Codename: Greenkil: Part 2 Escalation - pg 101 (emphasis mine)

“The pathology of the white ghetto” is what southern philosopher Reverend Will Campbell calls it (the culture from which the contemporary Klan is drawn). It is the same kind of antisocial behavior so prevalent in black ghettos. It is born of poverty and powerlessness, of humiliation and hopelessness. For many, the Klan and its ilk represent the only way a poor white person can say “I am somebody,” the only way he or she can escape emotionally from the economic and social wasteland of the American society. For a while, in the robes or security uniforms, they can be part of an organization that carries an aura of mystery and danger and strength.

It is a sad commentary that idealistic liberals and leftists can easily understand how socioeconomic factors produce street gangs and thugs in the black ghetto, but fail to recognize the same phenomenon among poor whites who join the Klan. To liberals, blacks are oppressed and exploited; the whites are hate-filled and despicable. No one in his right mind would consider daring a Chicago street gang to “come out from under your rocks and face the wrath of the people.” Yet that is precisely the challenge the WVO issued to the Klan in mid-October.”

I read this book after participating in a discussion on Ed Cone’s blog, where I felt a bit uninformed regarding the context surrounding the events of 11/3/79. The first 100 pages of Codename: Greenkil was chock full of information regarding participants on both sides of the conflict.

Page 101 proved to be the end of objective research, and the beginning of a pointed perspective.

Four years after the final edit, Greensboro’s Child is finally screening in town.

On Thursday, May 25th, following the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission ceremony and release of their report, The Scene on South Elm (604 South Elm Street) will screen Andy Coon’s award winning documentary at 7pm and 9pm.

An additional screening will take place at 7pm on Friday, 5/26. Copies of the GTRC final report will be available, for free, at all screenings.

Hope to see you there!

UPDATE: If the report isn’t ready on the 25th, executive summaries will be passed out instead.