An anti-Klan protest leaves four deadIt is the birthplace of O. Henry and the home of several of the nation's
largest textile mills. But Greensboro, N.C. , has also
been the site of bitter racial conflict, dating back to sit-ins at
lunch counters in the early 1960s and a riot in 1969 at a predominantly
black local college that left one student dead. Nothing in Greensboro's
past, however, came close to what happened last week: a Shootout
between Ku Klux Klansmen and anti-Klan protesters in which four people
were killed and nine were wounded. The city's mayor, Jim Melvin, called
it “one of the most hideous acts in America.”The tragedy came at a time of increasing tension in central North
Carolina because of aggressive activity by the Klan. The racist
organization has recently been challenged by a dogmatic Maoist group,
the Workers Viewpoint Organization. It has perhaps 200 members, most of
them in Los Angeles and New York City but a dozen or so in the
Greensboro and Durham areas. In July two of the leftists showed up at a
Klan rally in tiny China Grove, N.C., where they banged on doors,
burned a Confederate flag, and got into fistfights with Klansmen.Last month Viewpoint members passed out handbills inviting people to a
“Death to the Klan” protest march on Saturday, Nov. 3, in a mostly
black section of the city. The Maoist group urged the Klansmen to
attend. Taunted March Organizer Paul Bermanzohn: “We invite you and
your two-bit punks to come out and face the wrath of the people.” The
handbill described the Klan as “the most treacherous scum element
produced by the dying system of capitalism.”In the bright morning sun on Saturday, about 100 blacks and whites
gathered for the anti-Klan march among the grimy brick duplexes in
Greensboro's Morningside Manor housing project. Most of the
demonstrators were dressed in jeans and blue work shirts; some wore
hard hats. Suddenly a mustard-colored van and several cars pulled up.
They were filled with Klansmen and supporters who shouted racial slurs.
The marchers responded by beating on the cars with sticks.Then a dozen whites leaped out of the van and began firing pistols,
shotguns and at least one automatic rifle at the demonstrators. Said
Bermanzohn's wife Sally: “I saw a man in the right front seat of the
lead car. He had a pistol. We shouted, 'He's got a gun!' Then I heard
the firing start.” Said Truck Driver Jeff Rackley: “It was just like a
war movie, with everybody shooting all over the place and people
screaming. I saw two people go down, a man and a woman.” Added
Photographer Don Davis:
“One guy laid across the back end of the car and blew the side of a
guy's head off.” Clair Burton, her face caked with blood, told how
a woman died in her arms. Said Burton: “The first thing that
happened, I saw this Klansman waving his gun. The next thing we knew,
there was shooting all over the place.”
According to eyewitnesses, some of the demonstrators fired back at the
Klansmen with handguns.
