This week's column
"Is this a part of this city's history or isn't it?" Signe Waller asked during last week's community dialogue sponsored by the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Waller's husband, Jim, was one of five people killed during a clash between Klansmen and Nazis and Communist Workers Party demonstrators in Greensboro's Morningside Homes on Nov. 3, 1979.
The story made international headlines, and probably would have remained on the world stage had it not been followed almost immediately by the Iranian hostage crisis. Yet, judging from the Greensboro Historical Museum's total omission of any evidence of the incident, it may as well have never happened.
This is not a new mystery.
Waller asked the same question while promoting a book in the museum three years ago, News & Record columnist Lorraine Ahearn reported in 2002. A museum guide replied: "Not at this time."
Apparently not at this time either.
But, no matter how you feel about Nov. 3, 1979, it is a part of this city's past, for better and for worse.
By now, somebody somewhere is angrily cranking out a letter, berating this tired exercise in dredging up the past instead of looking to the future. Please, let me save you some time and help:
"Why must you continue to be so fixated on an event involving outside troublemakers who simply chose this community as their battlefield?
"The truth be told, I've little sympathy for either side in the events of Nov. 3, 1979. Both were irresponsible, despicable groups of people.
"This Truth and Reconciliation business is a waste of time, a brazen attempt to rewrite history to flatter the Communists who provoked Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis to attack them in the first place.
"More than 26 years later, we're still subjected to the same old song. Move on, please.
"This would not be a story at all if the newspaper wouldn't insist on making it one. This event is history."
Exactly. And what better place for history than a historical museum? (As for the outsiders argument, the Wright Brothers weren't from Kitty Hawk, either, as I recall.)
The lessons of the past aren't always pleasant or flattering. But they can and should provide valuable insights and perspectives. They can be especially illuminating when viewed from a distance, with the benefit of cooler heads, deeper reflection and wider lenses.
Greensboro's official historian, Gayle Hicks Fripp, does acknowledge Nov. 3 in her book "Greensboro: A Chosen Center," published in 2001.
The big, lavishly illustrated volume devotes six paragraphs to the shootings, in the same dispassionate prose that characterizes the rest of the book. There are, however, no photographs, despite the incident's coverage, from start to bloody finish, by television film crews and newspaper photographers.
There's no arguing that the shootings do not and should not hold the same prominence as the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins. But you would think they deserve at least a nook or a cranny in the city-funded Historical Museum.
"There are a lot of stories in Greensboro's history that we're not telling," Fred Goss, the museum's director, said Friday.
But Goss also said that the Klan/Nazi shootings are among subjects being considered as the museum plans to expand its exhibits to present a fuller, more textured picture of the city's past.
"It's definitely one of the things we're looking at," he said.
Goss noted that a number of key moments in the city's history are underrepresented in the museum's programs and displays, including the Reconstruction era, the legacies of Jefferson-Pilot and Cone Mills and the city's rich sports traditions.
Goss said the changes and additions should add "lots of new voices" to the museum's offerings.
Coincidentally, UNC-Chapel Hill has opened an ongoing exhibit on part of its history that is comparably tainted with remorse and injustice. In an homage to, and an admission of, the significant role slaves and slavery played in the university's past, the school is offering "Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free," which includes letters, photographs and bills of sale for slaves, and other artifacts.
"I think it's important for us to know our own history and to be honest about it," Chancellor James Moeser told reporters.
That's just as true in Greensboro as it is in Chapel Hill.
But, no matter how you feel about Nov. 3, 1979, it is a part of this city's past, for better and for worse.
By now, somebody somewhere is angrily cranking out a letter, berating this tired exercise in dredging up the past instead of looking to the future. Please, let me save you some time and help:
"Why must you continue to be so fixated on an event involving outside troublemakers who simply chose this community as their battlefield?
"The truth be told, I've little sympathy for either side in the events of Nov. 3, 1979. Both were irresponsible, despicable groups of people.
"This Truth and Reconciliation business is a waste of time, a brazen attempt to rewrite history to flatter the Communists who provoked Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis to attack them in the first place.
"More than 26 years later, we're still subjected to the same old song. Move on, please.
"This would not be a story at all if the newspaper wouldn't insist on making it one. This event is history."
Exactly. And what better place for history than a historical museum? (As for the outsiders argument, the Wright Brothers weren't from Kitty Hawk, either, as I recall.)
The lessons of the past aren't always pleasant or flattering. But they can and should provide valuable insights and perspectives. They can be especially illuminating when viewed from a distance, with the benefit of cooler heads, deeper reflection and wider lenses.
Greensboro's official historian, Gayle Hicks Fripp, does acknowledge Nov. 3 in her book "Greensboro: A Chosen Center," published in 2001.
The big, lavishly illustrated volume devotes six paragraphs to the shootings, in the same dispassionate prose that characterizes the rest of the book. There are, however, no photographs, despite the incident's coverage, from start to bloody finish, by television film crews and newspaper photographers.
There's no arguing that the shootings do not and should not hold the same prominence as the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins. But you would think they deserve at least a nook or a cranny in the city-funded Historical Museum.
"There are a lot of stories in Greensboro's history that we're not telling," Fred Goss, the museum's director, said Friday.
But Goss also said that the Klan/Nazi shootings are among subjects being considered as the museum plans to expand its exhibits to present a fuller, more textured picture of the city's past.
"It's definitely one of the things we're looking at," he said.
Goss noted that a number of key moments in the city's history are underrepresented in the museum's programs and displays, including the Reconstruction era, the legacies of Jefferson-Pilot and Cone Mills and the city's rich sports traditions.
Goss said the changes and additions should add "lots of new voices" to the museum's offerings.
Coincidentally, UNC-Chapel Hill has opened an ongoing exhibit on part of its history that is comparably tainted with remorse and injustice. In an homage to, and an admission of, the significant role slaves and slavery played in the university's past, the school is offering "Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free," which includes letters, photographs and bills of sale for slaves, and other artifacts.
"I think it's important for us to know our own history and to be honest about it," Chancellor James Moeser told reporters.
That's just as true in Greensboro as it is in Chapel Hill.
Comments (5)
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yes yes yes...we must examine the past and accept it and learn from it....maybe someone will push for the city to claim it in a historical sense. Maybe that is a step. That would be honest and would open us to improvements. all of this frustrates me...makes me wanna puke...all of it...both sides....if a better way to deal w tomorrow is the true goal....are we going about it the right way??? do u really think the report is going to change things?? will the end be justified by the means??? I am not so sure....the report could be just like the "Forgotten Epidemic" series....A very good written account of truths read by many...conversations evolved....plans were being thought of...new angles....then....nothing really changes. I understand the Nov 3 1979 stuff. Got it. It is a choice to look at it truthfully. It then becomes a commitment to do something about it. But what???? That is the question....Do what about it???? How are the people going to benefit from the GTRC report??? More specifically how are the poor going to benefit??? How are the oppressed going to get their hands on a copy??? How are they going to motivate the powers to share the wealth??? This GTRC thing is exhausting....and expensive......is it really going to be worth it....obviously it was worth a try...it was funded. They pay people. They have a staff...they brought jobs and commerce...but...what is really going to be gained??? The true victims of racism and economic injustice are not that interested in GTRC stuff. They know the game. I think there is a game..rich vs poor...black vs white...us against them....and so on...and they have been very divided in this process....not too many poor minorities were rushing to GTRC events...the crowds were mainly made up of police, educators, press, those with white guilt and sorrow...and those rare occasions w the KKK would come...which was twice out of three hearings. I am just confused on who they are trying to reach....and why....for what....it is one of those keep your fingers crossed deals..damn...i went crazy again....all i really wanted to do was say....GTRC is complex...nov 3 1979 was not....racisim is not....look...identify...prevent...move on....which brings me to gangs....good job Mr. J...
Posted on November 13, 2005 11:25 AM
Just wondering if the NC Office of Archives and History maintain information on the event?
Posted on November 14, 2005 4:22 PM
Although I disagree with the T&R Commission for the same reason many others do- because it dredges up old ghosts and will not result in truth or reconciliation- I do agree with you that it is wrong for the museum to ignore it. It is every bit a part of unfortunate history in Greensboro as the Cuyahoga River fire is to Cleveland, Ohio and the assasination of JFK is to Dallas. An accurate recollection of history is important to us all, even if it is negative.
Posted on November 14, 2005 7:13 PM
Sam, I agree entirely. History is history.
Posted on November 14, 2005 7:48 PM
This is so obvious it shouldn't even have to be debated. We're talking about a museum. Of history. The 11-3-79 massacre is an event that took on historic significance. How could any intelligent historian or curator even question its inclusion? I tell you how: D-e-n-i-a-l. It's a Sourthern thang.
Posted on November 23, 2006 8:59 PM