KKK Chief Testifies About 1979 Shootings

[Judi Lynn]

KKK Chief Testifies About 1979 Shootings By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 17, 3:02 AM ET

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A Ku Klux Klan leader who was at a workers' rally more than 25 years ago where five people died and 10 others were injured gave defiant testimony to a commission Saturday, saying "maybe God guided the bullets."

Virgil L. Griffin of Mount Holly, imperial wizard of the Cleveland Knights of the KKK, said someone in the crowd of Communist Workers Party marchers fired first and hit a van driven by a Klansman.

"We had every right to drive down that street with nobody touching the cars," he said. "I didn't come to shoot or kill anybody."

Griffin spoke before the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an effort modeled on similar commissions in South Africa and Peru.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050717/ap_on_re_us/klan_shootings;_ylt=AiAnpEPggH6qWNE9Wgjgn7tG2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[libnnc]

1. I'm in Winston-Salem

The local news showed clips from these hearings last night. I was a kid when these murders happened but I remember seeing them on the news in Western NC. The whole thing was caught on film by a local news crew as it happened. The footage is shocking. What's even more shocking and sickening is the fact that there are people who want to forget it ever happened and "move on".

88 seconds of terror in Greensboro. It should never be forgotten.

[livinginphotographs]

3. I remember watching that footage when I was in high school

It was as sad as if I was watching the Boston Massacre. People marching for the rights of working people being gunned down by hate-mongering inbred assholes is almost more than I can stand to watch, and I've seen some pretty shocking things.

The people that want to forget it happened are the people who would need to shape up if those marchers got their way.

In closing....KICK!


edit: too drunk to make perfect sense

[MountainLaurel]

4. Are those who want to "move on"

Those on the giving end of injustice as opposed to the receiving? Funny how often that's the case?

[struggle4progress]

2. kick for the unreconstructed

[kainah]

5. 88 Seconds in Greensboro

a great documentary on this case. It was probably made in the mid-80s and was shown on PBS even, as I recall. But I haven't seen it in years. There's also an old book called, I think, Operation: Greenkill that is well worth the read.

It is really good to see these cases coming to trial -- or, in this case, truth and reconciliation (which may be even better) -- even after all these years. If we could get some truth and reconciliation in this country, we'd be a damned sight better off.