Greensboro’s Child

Lewis Pitts explains how the prosecuting attorney selected jurors for the State Trial for the November 3rd, 1979 shootings:

From the News & Record article, Blame for shooting shared, report says:

[…]

The all-white jury in the state criminal trial was caused by a “problematic jury selection process.” Before 1986, defense attorneys and prosecutors could strike a potential juror from the pool based on race.

On Thursday night, former District Attorney Mike Schlosser, who tried the state criminal cases, said he agreed with those findings. Defense attorneys dismissed black jurors, which he said hampered his efforts to convict the Klansmen.

“It would have been much more fair to have a jury that represented the community,” he said.

[…]

Much was made over the years about the jury have zero African-American representation, but no one seemed to care about the prosecuting attorney’s public attitude towards communism and his proclivity to allow obvious anti-Communist citizens to sit on the jury.

These actions are more damning than not having a jury representing a mix of races, as they were prosecuting Klan and Nazi members for killing Communist Worker Party members.

On the flip side of the coin, the Klan members had court appointed attorneys representing them, who just so happened to be the top defense attorneys in Greensboro at that time.

The Greensboro Public Library has acquired 8 copies of Greensboro’s Child. Below is a map of the local branches where you can pick up a copy.

Head out and borrow a copy for free and come back here leave a review and let’s talk. It should be a week before it makes it into rotation.

Willena Cannon has experienced life to the extreme. She has helped poor people and the homeless throughout her life. When she said this short statement it went way over my head and I thought it was a little ridiculous.

I was 23 years-old at the time I shot this clip. As I’ve experienced life over the past nine years, I can now begin to understand why she would say something along those lines.

What do you think?

After the defendants in the shootings were twice acquitted in state and federal trials, a civil trial found that Klansmen, Nazis and members of the Greensboro Police Department were jointly liable for the wrongful death of one of the five CWP members killed.

Instead of appealing the decision, the city of Greensboro decided to to pick up the civil trial award tab — $395,000 — for all of the defendants.

Jim Melvin, Mayor of Greensboro from 1971 to 1981, provides context behind the decision: