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The Greensboro Truth & Community Reconciliation Project (GTCRP)
is an effort to apply restorative justice to one of American history’s
most tragic true police dramas.
At the very least, the Greensboro Police Department was guilty of a
grievous failure to protect citizens on Nov. 3, 1979, when five were
killed and 10 others wounded – in the middle of the street in the middle
of the day.
There is evidence, however, that police were actually guilty of much
more. With the quiet payment of a $350,000 civil judgment, the city
acknowledged police liability in at least one of the deaths.
Twenty-five years after the tragedy, well over 1,000 people gathered
for a post-election anniversary march supporting the GTCRP’s historic
experiment in bringing out truth and restoring a community.
With $100,000 worth of police officers on overtime marching
congenially alongside in a symbolic show of protection, the march also
inspired hope for engaging those police officers, white politicians and
business leaders who have resisted the GTCRP.
Police Chief David Wray, whose department has actively used
restorative justice, is unsure whether applying it to a whole community
through the GTCRP is appropriate or necessary.
“It would be my hope if there are misunderstandings or wounds to be
healed that this will heal them,” he says. “Whether or not that will
happen, I don’t know.”
The wounds are deep, but the healing already has begun. Greensboro
took a major step toward recovery on June 12, when 500 people witnessed
the swearing-in ceremony for the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation
Commission.
Modeled on truth-seeking efforts in South Africa, Peru and elsewhere,
the GTCRP hopes to become a model that other American communities can
use to address unresolved injustice in their own histories.
The Beloved Community Center of Greensboro and the Greensboro Justice
Fund – both founded by survivors of the shooting, initiated the effort.
The former is the local social action hub led by the Rev. Nelson
Johnson, his wife, Joyce, and other local activists. The latter was
formed to fight racism nationwide with funds from the civil judgment by
Dr. Martha Nathan, who lost her husband in the shootings.
Although initiated by survivors, the GTCRP quickly grew a broad
community base. The Local Task Force that guides the work is a diverse
group of dozens of residents who believe this unhealed wound is hurting
the city’s human relations.
The co-chairs are former Greensboro Mayor Carolyn Allen, retired
Presbyterian pastor Rev. Zeb Holler, and the Rev. Gregory Headen, a
Baptist pastor and secretary of the Pulpit Forum, a local alliance of
African American clergy.
Bearing the theme “Transforming Tragedy into Triumph,” the
25th Anniversary March for Justice, Democracy, Truth and
Reconciliation was part of a series of cultural, religious, educational
and social events.
Participants included Naomi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, veteran social activists Vincent Harding and Elizabeth McAlister,
and acclaimed playwright Emily Mann, who chronicled the events in her
play, “Greensboro, A Requiem.”
A 25th Anniversary March Coalition including a broad array
of labor, community, religious and other organizations planned the
events. Honorary co-chairs included civil rights activist Ann Braden and
the UNITE-HERE union’s president, Bruce Raynor.
The events energized local activists, especially students at four
Greensboro colleges who formed a Greensboro Student Action Network that
plans to continue related work. A post-march meeting for the entire
coalition has been scheduled for Jan. 22, 2005.
Organizers are counting these as signs of triumph over the unresolved
tragedy.
On Nov. 3, 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party
arrived in a caravan and opened fire on activists gathered for an
anti-Klan rally and conference for racial, social and economic justice
organized by the Worker’s Viewpoint Organization (later known as the
Communist Worker’s Party).
Killed were Sandi Smith, a graduate and former student government
president at Bennett College for Women; Dr. Jim Waller a Greensboro
activist physician; Dr. Michael Nathan, a Durham-based activist
physician; Cesar Cauce, a Cuban immigrant who had been organizing
workers in Durham; and Bill Sampson, who had been organizing workers at
a plant in Alamance County.
Although four TV crews captured the killings on film, two all-white
juries acquitted the shooters of any wrongdoing. In a third trial, a
federal civil trial, Klansmen, Nazis and members of the GPD were found
jointly liable for one of the deaths.
Although the City of Greensboro paid the civil judgment on behalf of
all three defendant groups, it has never apologized or publicly
acknowledged any wrongdoing.
The GTCRP’s intent is for the entire community to have an impartial
story to replace widespread lies and confusion once the Greensboro Truth
and Reconciliation Commission completes its work and issues its report,
which is expected by the end of 2005.
The Commissioners, selected for their integrity and operating
independently of the people who launched it, are mandated to review
documents and hear testimony to determine the truth, causes and
consequences of what happened. They also will suggest ways the
individuals involved and the entire community can reconcile and move
forward.
The individuals who agreed to take on this task are:
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Cynthia Brown of Durham, N.C., a grassroots organizer and leader,
former city councilwoman and one-time candidate for the U.S.
Senate
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Patricia Clark of Nyack, N.Y., director of the Fellowship for
Reconciliation
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Muktha Jost of Greensboro, an assistant professor in the school of
education at N.C. A&T State University
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Angela Lawrence of Greensboro, a community activist with a long
history of work focusing on education and neighborhood development
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Bob Peters of Greensboro, a retired corporate attorney with
extensive experience in arbitration and dispute resolution
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Rev. Mark Sills of Randleman, N.C., executive director of
Greensboro’s Faith Action International House
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Barbara Walker of Greensboro, a retired manager with Wrangler Corp.
and former board president of the YWCA of Greensboro.
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) is serving
as a consultant to the GTCRP, as it has in similar efforts in nations
including Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Sierra Leone.
For more information see http://www.gtcrp.org/
December 2004
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