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.
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February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
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February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
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January 31 - The Big Easy Fires 7000 Teachers
January 30 - Fred Korematsu Day
January 29 - Bread & Roses Striker, Anna LoPizzo, Shot Dead
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