Duke Law Professor Looks Back on Greensboro Massacre
The 25th anniversary of "The Greensboro Massacre" serves as an important reminder that people can be penalized for holding unpopular views, says Carolyn McAllaster
Tuesday, November 2, 2004
On the 25th anniversary of "The Greensboro Massacre," a Duke University law professor says the event serves as an important reminder that people can be penalized for holding unpopular views.
"I still strongly feel that the Greensboro Police Department was just willing to let these two groups that they perceived as being on the radical fringes, at each end, fight it out and let the chips fall where they may," says Carolyn McAllaster. "That just offends me as a civil libertarian that that happened then and that can still happen today -- that someone can be penalized for their views or not be given the protections they are entitled to under our constitution."
The Klan and Nazi members charged in the killings were acquitted of murder charges, but in 1985 a jury in a federal civil trial found them, as well as members of the Greensboro Police Department, jointly liable in one of the deaths. McAllaster, who acted as local counsel for the families of the victims in the civil suit, recalls that anti-Communist sentiments far outweighed anti-Klan feelings among prospective jurors.
"I remember juror after juror saying their attitudes against Communists were ’We fought against Communists in World War II’ and ’We fought to keep this country free from Communists’ -- or words to that effect. There was a real link in their minds to the battle in World War II and anti-Communism."
But she says a number of her former clients were just ordinary people who found themselves having to defend their politics for many years as a result of the anti-Communist feelings of the time.
"They are just folks who are doing good work now, and they were painted in a very radical box. It is interesting to me how history cemented them, for a few years anyway."
McAllaster plans to attend the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Project’s 25th Anniversary March on Nov. 13 in Greensboro, partly to show her support for the Project’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was formed last June.
"I think [the Commission] is an important step toward, hopefully, some healing. It’s an opportunity to air feelings and views about what happened, and there really hasn’t been that opportunity in any kind of organized way in Greensboro.
"I also hope it provides an opportunity for different parts of the community in Greensboro to at least talk about what happened and maybe to put it behind them. And for people who were hurt by what happened, I hope there’s a chance for some healing."
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