On this day in Labor History the year was 1979.
That was the day that became known as the Greensboro massacre.
Members of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi party shot and killed five participants in a demonstration held by the Workers Viewpoint Organization, later called the Communist Workers Party.
Workers Viewpoint organizers had come to Greensboro in an effort to strengthen the unions at the Cone Mills textile plants.
At the time, Cone Mills was the largest producer of denim in the world.
African American millworkers faced discrimination and dangerous conditions, including breathing in textile dust that was known to potentially cause brown lung disease.
Tensions between the communist organizers and the Ku Klux Klan began to mount.
Disagreements also arose between the communists and other union organizing efforts in Greensboro.
The Workers Viewpoint group decided to hold a “Smash the Klan” demonstration.
They coordinated the route of the march with the local police.
But on that fateful day no police were there to provide protection.
In broad daylight cars filled with Klansmen and Nazi members drove up and opened fire on the demonstrators.
Five people fell dead.
A criminal trial was held in 1980, and a federal Civil Rights trial took place in 1984.
Both times the defendants were acquitted by all-white juries.
In 2004, Greensboro began a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to address their community history.
The second chapter of the final report, recounts how Milano Caudle, the Nazi who owned one of the vehicles driven that day, later bragged in an interview “that the Klan “destroyed the damn union” with its actions against the marchers.”
After the tragedy, there was a strong backlash in the press against the communist organizers.
August 2 - Teamsters 574 Defy Martial Law
August 1 - Teamsters 574 Fight for Their Future
July 31 - The Battle of East 140th Street
July 30 - The Mechanics Institute Massacre
July 29 - Sanitation Workers Strike Charlotte
July 28 - The Silent Parade
July 27 - Ginger Goodwin Murdered
July 26 - Battle of the Halsted Street Viaduct
July 25 - Pushing Back Against Wartime No-Strike Pledge
July 24 - The Great Railroad Strike Reaches Louisville
July 23 - The 1913 Michigan Copper Miners Strike
July 22 - The 1916 Preparedness Day Bombing
July 22 - The Michigan Copper Miners Strike of 1913
July 21 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Erupts
July 20 - Bloody Friday
July 19 - The ‘34 General Strike in San Francisco Winds Down
July 18 - Striking for Dignity
July 17 - Lumber Workers Put Down Their Axes
July 16 - Bloody Thursday
July 15 - The 1959 Steel Strike
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