Greensboro’s Child

OK… I’ve had a lot of time to think about what the next steps should be with this documentary. I’ve gotten incredible feedback from the viewers at the screenings in Greensboro.

• Should I submit it to more film festivals?
• What about distribution?
• How about making copies available for schools?

All of those were great suggestions that I would be happy to oblidge. Thanks to the smart people at revver.com I’m now making my documentary available on-line for anyone to watch. Just click over to the Theater section and I will be putting up the documentary in seqments. There will be 8 segments. I will set up one each week on a rotation.

I have a job for you… Let television networks, film festivals and distributors know about it. Email them and keep commenting, love the feedback.

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:

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: