Criminal - 39 Shots

Episode Date: May 20, 2016

In 1979, a group of labor organizers protested outside a Ku Klux Klan screening of the 1915 white supremacist film, The Birth of a Nation. Nelson Johnson and Signe Waller-Foxworth remember shouting at armed Klansmen and burning a confederate flag, until eventually police forced the KKK inside and the standoff ended without violence. The labor organizers felt they'd won a small victory, and planned a much bigger anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina. They advertised with the slogan: “Death to the Klan" and set the date for November 3rd, 1979. As protestors assembled, a caravan of nine cars appeared, and a man in a pick-up truck yelled: "You asked for the Klan! Now you've got 'em!" Thirty-nine shots were fired in eighty-eight seconds, and five protestors were killed. The city of Greensboro is still grappling with the complicated legacy of that day. The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s full report is available online. Today, Reverend Nelson Johnson is a pastor with Faith Community Church and serves as the Executive Director for the  Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, which advocates for social and economic justice. Signe Waller-Foxworth is the author of Love and Revolution: A Political Memoir. Eric Ginsburg is the associate editor at the Triad City Beat. For this story, we also interviewed Elizabeth Wheaton, author of Codename Greenkill. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums,

and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Botox Cosmetic, Adabotulinum Toxin A, FDA approved for over 20 years. So, talk to your specialist to see if Botox Cosmetic is right for you. For full prescribing information, including boxed warning, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. Remember to ask for Botox Cosmetic by name. To see for yourself and learn more, visit BotoxCosmetic.com. That's BotoxCosmetic.com. The first time that I encountered the Klan, we were at a restaurant in Greensboro called

the Appa Cellar. And the Klan actually formed a line outside on both sides of the street in their uniform. And in that place, we were not only interracial, we were men and women. There were white women there, black women, black men, white women. We were sitting at a table, and people came and took the soda I was drinking and poured it in my lap. This was in the mid-1960s. Nelson Johnson had just returned from four years in the Air Force

and was enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University. So that was my first encounter with the Klan within the context of seeking to have a meal, but conscious that we were integrating a place where that was not permissible. As a student, he formed the Greensboro Association of Poor People and quickly became a respected civil rights leader. In the late 70s, he worked to build up unions

in North Carolina's textile factories and was joined by activists from all over the country. Their strategy was to get hired by a factory and then organize its workers from the inside. That was a trend in the protest culture, you know, to leave the nice lucrative career that you had or were going to have and go to work and do some kind of manual blue-collar work, be organizing people, work in the community or in the factories or both. Signe Waller-Foxworth and her husband, Jim Waller, were two of the activists working alongside Nelson Johnson. Jim Waller had been an infectious disease doctor, and Signy taught philosophy, but they left those jobs behind.

We were after a real democracy. We also thought that capitalism was really evil, and we would have to get to an order of society where people contributed what they're able to, and they received what they needed, you know, for this slogan from each according to his ability to each according to his needs, you know, that money would not be the deciding factor in whether people had a good life and could have an education and health care and all of that. All three were affiliated with a national labor group called the Workers' Viewpoint Organization. They'd later change the name to the Communist Workers' Party, or CWP. And in the summer of 1979, the CWP set its

sights on the KKK. The Klan had passed out leaflets saying that all of this stuff about building a union was just a way for black people to get in charge of white people, all of which was building up white resentment against the organizing that we were doing. So we saw an article in the newspaper about the showing of a movie, Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation is a silent film from 1915 that portrays in the most grandiose way the heroic rise of the KKK. Sidney Waller and Nelson Johnson decided to drive to the tiny town of China Grove where it was screening in protest. It was a library. It was just a small building.

And the Klan had rifles on a tripod, and they had the Confederate flag. And we chanted and walked up on them and burned the Confederate flag. Some of us had some weapons. Some of us picked up rocks or whatever to use if we needed a weapon to defend ourselves. And mainly it was a lot of shouting, but it was so tense, it was the tension in the air was really palpable. By some accounts, there were more than 100 protesters crowding around the small building and shouting. The Klansmen ushered women and children inside,

barricaded the doors, and then stood on the porch, pointing their guns at the crowd. The few policemen there pleaded with the Klansmen to stand down before something happened. Eventually, they did, and the confrontation was over. The fact that that did not erupt in violence. It was something people found amazing. We celebrated it as a victory, which was foolhardy of us. Later that night, one of the Klansmen told a news camera, there will be revenge for this. In the months that followed, the CWP talked up the China Grove standoff,

claiming they'd chased off the, quote, scum Klansmen. They worked on new and bigger ways to protest the Klan, and they wanted something in a city, more people, more visibility. So they planned a demonstration in Greensboro, a march through the city's housing projects. We wanted to have a conference between really white workers and black workers and community members to discuss the Klan and racism and how that should be dealt with. We invited all the workers from the mills who were working and we were going to talk about what does the Klan do? What are we trying to do?

We're trying to build a strong union and give them updates on the union activity that existed and get them clear about what the Klan's role is. You know, white and black, you know, make a unity. Black and white, we've always stressed that. They set a date, November 3, 1979, and they printed up posters to advertise. Right at the top, in all capital letters,

the words, DEATH TO THE CLAN, and underneath that, ANTI-CLAN MARCH AND CONFERENCE. They put them all over the city of Greensboro. In the days that followed, someone else drove around and pasted a different poster right on top. It was the image of a man hanging by a noose and a warning. To the traitors, communists, race mixers, and black rioters, even now, the crosshairs are on the back of your necks. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

I thought about it and made the suggestion that let's march to the site where we're going to have the conference. And the starting point was Morningside Homes, where a lot of people who lived there worked in the textile mill. And we were going to be singing songs and passing out flyers and inviting the community to join the march. So if you start with about 150 people, you end with about 500 at the conference site. The night before the march on November 2nd, the group met at Jim and Signy Waller's house for a planning meeting.

And part of the decision we had to make was whether we would have any kind of capacity to defend ourselves. Nelson Johnson had applied for a parade permit. He'd gone down to the sheriff's office and submitted the entire march route to the ourselves. Nelson Johnson had applied for a parade permit. He'd gone down to the sheriff's office and submitted the entire march route to the police. He was granted the permit on two conditions. First, they could carry signs, but the signposts couldn't be bigger than two feet tall.

And second, no weapons. Well, there was a man from South Carolina. He was the elder among us. By standards of my age now, he was pretty young. He was in his 40s. And he said that he had seen a person drug through the streets in South Carolina and that he thought that we should prepare to defend ourselves if we were going to march. His name was Big Man. That's what we called him.

And I heard him, and I took exception to it because I said, I don't know of any history where you have the police there, it's in the middle of the day, it's in a black community where a Klan just ride in at high noon and overwhelm the police and the community. I said, I don't, I don't, that isn't how they roll. They come in on defenseless people at night, dragging people out of the house. That's the history that I know. By the end of the meeting, they decided that they would bring a few weapons and keep them close by in a truck. The CWP had advertised the rally in pretty violent terms. One of their posters said that the KKK, quote, should be physically beaten and chased out of town.

This is the only language they understand. Another said what made a difference in China Grove was the mighty force of the militant, armed, and organized fighters. I remember it was a very foggy morning, and I was concerned about the weather. On the day of the rally, November 3rd, Nelson Johnson went over to Signy and Jim Waller's house for breakfast. But after a while, the fog burned off, and it turned out to be a beautiful fall day, very crisp, very clear. And we talked a little bit about the plans and the truck and the drummers and the singers

were all in place. We were going to have our children marching at the front of the march. It was going to be festive. The march was going to be festive. Can I break in for one? I just want to break in for one second. You felt like it was okay to have children there, even though there was some risk of a scuffle.

You thought that the risk was low enough that you would be able to protect the children or X, Y, Z? I thought the scuffle was going to be with the police. And I had two daughters. They were both there. I never would have brought my children there under some circumstances that I thought were threatening. We left the house early that morning, and I had my assignment was to sell workers' viewpoint newspapers and hand out leaflets. And I was doing that and singing.

We were singing freedom songs there. And I had a big smile because I was looking forward to the day. It was going to be a good day. I was looking forward to the forum downtown and then going out to dinner with my husband at night. You know, It was going to be a good day. I was looking forward to the farm downtown and then going out to dinner with my husband at night. You know, it was going to be a good day. There were four camera crews already on the scene, but no police. At 11.23 a.m., a caravan of nine vehicles drove in.

There was a car coming down the street with a Confederate flag on it and there was a pickup truck and the pickup truck was in the front of the march and there was a young man and there was a chant going on, you know, about, he yelled out of the window of the front truck, something to the effect that you asked for us, you got us. And he used a derogatory word for Jewish people and cursed. And I knew at that point that these were not people coming to march with us. There were shouts going back and forth. The Klan was screaming racial epithets, and people were saying, were just, you know, anti, yeah, there were slogans,

slogans and screams going back and forth. So that was what it was. Death to the Klan! Death to the Klan! Death to the Klan! Death to the Klan! There were slogans and screams going back and forth, so that was what it was. We're hearing the audio from that day. One of the demonstrators had a stick, a picket stick, and hit one of the Klan cars as it was going by. Somebody in our group hit one of the Klan cars. It was the back fender, kind of had one of the posters and hit it with the poster. And it was just then that the person in the lead vehicle put his body out of the window. He was almost sitting on the window seal of the truck and fired a shot in the air at about a 45 degree angle. Go on! Shoot! In the video, you can see people, including Signy's husband, Jim Waller, run to a truck to get guns.

A man was rushing toward me with what looked like a butcher knife, a long knife. And actually, he was trying to stab me in my abdomen. He dropped low and somebody threw me a stick, which was where one of the posters was going to be attached to it. I grabbed it and the shooting started, but I was somewhat not tuned in to the shooting. And the knife went through my arm. And we squared off again, and just almost on cue, they all got in their vehicles. At this time, I start, I hear more shots. When I heard the shots, my son was with me, not my daughter. I have a son and a daughter. My son was 11 years old.

And the only thing I thought about was I heard the gunshots and I saw him and he started running to try to find some safety. All the kids, people were running back, away from the front where the gunshots were coming from. And instinctively, I just ran after him because I wanted to be in back of him to protect him, trying to get him to safety. She later learned that her husband Jim

had been able to get a rifle from the truck, but it was almost immediately taken away by a Klansman. And so Jim Waller started running away and was shot in the back. The shot was so powerful, it propelled his body forward through the air. This may sound like it couldn't possibly be true, but I did not even then think about people being killed. I had never been in a war. I had never been in a battle with guns. And if I had any image in my mind at all, it was that people had shot their guns over people's heads,

and I was just going to go back and see Jim. At the moment that I arrived, Jim had just breathed his last breath, like a few seconds before, and Nelson Johnson was with him, and Nelson said to me, he's gone. The whole thing lasted 88 seconds. 39 shots were fired, almost all of them from KKK guns. Five demonstrators were killed killed and nine were wounded.

When it was all over, the police arrived. The police were supposed to be there. They were not. They said they couldn't find the site. And it was the very site they wrote the permit for. Nelson Johnson began screaming. He says he called the mayor a dog and accused the police of working with the KKK. Police came over and said, stop.

And I said, I'm not going to stop. I know what y'all did. He was arrested for inciting a riot. The police took him to the hospital to have his arms sewn up and then took him to jail. When he was released from jail the next morning, he was swarmed by reporters. The incident was a national news story.

I was confronted as I was walking out of jail by what looked like about 15 news reporters and cameras in my face. I was most concerned about where my two children were. I had no idea where they were. And I learned shortly that my brother from Winston-Salem had come over and taken them with him back to Winston-Salem, and I'm eternally grateful for that. But I was still coming to grip with the magnitude of what had happened. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series

worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts.

Hey, it's Scott Galloway, and on our podcast, Pivot, we are bringing you a special series about the basics of artificial intelligence. We're answering all your questions. What should you use it for? What tools are right for you? And what privacy issues should you ultimately watch out for? And to help us out, we are joined by Kylie Robeson, the senior AI reporter for The Verge, to give you a primer on how to integrate AI into your life. So tune into AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS, wherever you get your podcasts. Most of the white supremacists fled the crime scene without being caught. But one van did get stopped by police, and the driver of the van started talking, naming names. One man said he'd fired in self-defense.

Another said he was protecting the American way. The shooting started out as national news, and Jimmy Carter assigned 20 FBI agents to investigate. But then, just a few hours later... From ABC in New York, this is World News Tonight. The event was overshadowed by the Iran hostage crisis. Good evening. The U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been invaded and occupied by Iranian students.

The Americans inside have been taken prisoner and, according to a student spokesman, will be held as hostages until the deposed Shah is returned from the United States where he is receiving medical treatment. In 1980, North Carolina brought murder charges against six members of the KKK, an American Nazi party. More than 2,000 people were called to jury selection and asked questions like, can you judge a Klan member objectively, and is it less of a crime to kill a communist? After five weeks, 12 jurors and four alternates were finally chosen. All were white. The defense argued that the Klansman had acted in self-defense. The verdict came back, not guilty. A second federal criminal civil rights trial happened in 1984. Again, the jury was all white. This time, a carpenter named Eddie Dawson testified that he'd acted as a liaison between the KKK and

the Greensboro police. He said under oath that he'd warned police that as many as 200 KKK and American Nazi Party members were planning to show up at the CWP rally, and that he'd been paid by the police for this information. He was riding in the first car of the KKK caravan and testified that he'd expected the police to be there when they arrived and couldn't understand why they weren't. Again, the verdict came back, not guilty. One of the Klan leaders, Imperial Wizard Virgil Lee Griffin, gloated to reporters, no matter what the communists say, the KKK is here to stay. My name's Eric Ginsburg. I'm the associate editor of Triad City Beat newspaper here in Greensboro. And where are we right now? We're at the entrance to Maplewood Cemetery, which is where the headstone for the five people who were killed in the Greensboro Massacre is. Only four of them are actually buried here. There are two on either side of the headstone.

Will you just read what it says here? So the title to the back of the headstone is Long Live the Communist Workers Party Five. November 3rd, 1979, the criminal monopoly capitalist class with government agents, Klan and Nazis, murdered Jim Waller, Cesar Schuss, Mike Nathan, Bill Sampson, and Sandy Smith, heroically defending the people, the five charged gunfire with bare fists and sticks. We vow this assassination will be the costliest mistake the capitalists ever made and the turning point of class struggle in the U.S. And then in large letters across the bottom, it says fight for revolutionary socialism and workers rule. That's big. Yeah, I mean, there's so many things that stand out to me about this the line about we will make this the the costliest mistake the the capitalists ever made and also just the the in

some way the accusation government agents yeah absolutely i mean right right from the very beginning this headstone says that the government and clan and nazis uh were working together which is something people started saying i mean i think even on on the scene that day uh do you believe that uh i do find it very difficult to understand uh why if there was if the tensions between these groups have been building for a long period of time how the absence of police presence could be anything but intentional the popular narrative around here among among many folks is that these are two outside warring groups that like locals played no role in this incident and I certainly don't accept that and

I'm much more inclined to agree with the statements made in the truth and reconciliation report itself where it talks about the the culpability of of local police and officials. In 2005 a group of private citizens created the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modeled off the one that had taken place in South Africa after the end of apartheid. Basically, everyone told the story as best they remembered it and tried to explain their actions. Here's the voice of Klansman, Virgil E. Griffin. The reason I came to Greensboro, they put the poster out.

Death to the Klan. Said we was hiding under rocks, we was scum. I'm not scum, I'm as good as any man walking on this earth. After holding hearings for two years, the commission issued a 500-page report articulating their findings. The primary contributor to the loss of life was the absence of police, which endangered the welfare of all involved, including residents of Morningside Homes where the shootings took place. Nearly all commissioners believe that the police absence was the result of some intentionality on the part of at least some officers in the Greensboro Police Department. We found that the events of November 3rd, 1979

are woven through with issues of race and class. The commission placed what they called the heaviest burden of responsibility on the Klan and Nazis. Who after an initial stick fight with demonstrators, returned to their cars, retrieved weapons, and fired at mostly unarmed demonstrators when the caravan's path of exit was cleared and they could have fled. We find that the Communist Workers' Party members did not seek or deserve to be killed. They did, however, underestimate the danger of taunting the Klan with provocative language and for beating on caravan cars with sticks. How do you feel about the suggestion that the CWP was not without responsibility for the violence that occurred?

Okay. I think we are all responsible for what we do and what we say, you know. Signe Waller. that we had, particularly some of us more than others, about not realizing the depth of negativity and crime of the Klan, you know, and particularly if we're, you know, calling the Klan names, which we did, and not that they didn't deserve it, you know. I mean, our slogan, for example, Death to the Klan, when people say Death to the Klan or Death to something, they don't mean I have a plan to go out and assassinate somebody. They mean down with, you know, abat, as it's in French, you know. It means you don't like what the clan stands for that's what it means it means death to racism so you know in that sense not being aware not being more circumspect that's how i kind of summed it up circumspect you're looking around um you know you understand that people

who have played a violent role in history can play it again, will play it again against you, you know? I have some regrets, and I would have done some things differently. I would have went forward with a march against the Klan. I would not have used some of the language, and perhaps I would have broadened the coalition to include more of the clergy that I now work with every day. So there are some regrets. It's not a regret that we stood up and we gave voice to it. It's some of the tactical things that may have helped there to be less damage done to

us and to our community. Today, Nelson Johnson is a pastor and the executive director of the beloved community center in Greensboro. Signe Waller-Foxworth is also still an activist in Greensboro and the author of a book called Love and Revolution, a political memoir. We were organizers, we were activists. I mean, we made some mistakes and we're responsible for our speech. And if we acknowledge that responsibility of not, you know, fully understanding that we unleashed this historical violent monster,

then that is not tantamount to you are to blame for your comrades being murdered, your husband, your friends being murdered. This spring, a Southern Poverty Law Center report found that new Klan groups are on the rise and that old dormant chapters are reappearing. There are currently eight active KKK groups in North Carolina. Criminal is produced by Lauren Sporer and me. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Special thanks to Julie Shapiro, Dennis Funk, Alice Wilder, and Russ Henry.

Julie and Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of the best podcasts around. And we're very happy to announce a new member to our group, Millennial, hosted and produced by Megan Tan. In it, Megan documents her life post-graduation in serialized form. If you don't know what I mean when I say millennial, here's an idea. A third of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 years old

have been forced to move back in with their parents. 40% of the unemployed, that's about 4.6 million people, are millennials. And I'm one of those 4.6 million people who doesn't have a job. I also have less than $1,000 in my bank account. I don't have health insurance because I can't afford health insurance. I don't have a credit card because I'm afraid of credit cards. And my ultimate goal is this, to get paid to do something that I love. But it's hard to imagine that that's attainable when you're in your 20s.

Go listen. Radiotopia from PRX is supported by the Knight Foundation and MailChimp, celebrating creativity, chaos, and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Radiotopia from PRX. moderate to severe frown lines, crow's feet, and forehead lines look better in adults. Effects of Botox Cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms.

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