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10. Greensboro’s Legacy Is Hidden No More
- University of Arkansas Press
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ChApter 10 Greensboro’s Legacy Is Hidden No More Reconciliation cannot be thought of as a narrow prescription but rather a broad and vast one that creates a new culture of respect for differences and human rights. —ANDREW RIGBY THIS FINAL CHAPTER considers the lessons learned from Greensboro’s TRC to understand how a specific community comes to know,appreciate,and talk across differences to reach for truth and initiate reconciliation.The lessons are gleaned from the activities of commissioners and citizens who honored the community’s history,present condition,and future possibilities rooted in cultural practices,spiritual touchstones, political structures, and social practices. In the United States, there are tremendous forces that resist movements for change, even ones that have modest aims of more fair treatment for all.Rhetorical scholars of social change movements remind us that those who possess the power to determine a community’s fate assume the worst from others who challenge them.As a result,any questioning is seen as an attack on the establishment that must be defeated (Bowers et al., ). Nevertheless, a cursory look at our history reveals that the eight-hour workday and mandated breaks would not have come about without a collective movement to stop the common practices of overtime hours without pay. The fight was a long and protracted one where company executives and government officials waged campaigns to discredit and disrupt actions by those seeking change. Occupational health and safety codes were not granted without sustained pressure and struggle from union organizers and human rights advocates. The health of a community depends upon its social change advocates to drive the conversations that are not always wanted, but are so desperately needed to balance the scales of justice. The work then of social change agents is not always comfortable. Being mindful of the importance of relationships is too often pitted against the need for expressing critiques of existing customs. In the face of that, many of us hear the common refrain that sends a warning flag into the air— if you want to keep your friends, do not talk about politics, religion, or money. As it would turn out, the Greensboro TRC addressed in great detail all three of those difficult subject areas. As a result, many people working with the TRC who without previous experience in social change efforts were at times thrown into unfamiliar waters. A student learning about the TRC and reading the Final Report in her university class was at a neighborhood café one evening, discussing November with her dining partner. Others evidently overheard her conversation in the restaurant because as two men passed her table to pay their bill, they paused and warned,“Do you think you or anyone can change history? Those commies got what they deserved.”When the young woman left later, she found her car in the parking lot with the tires slashed. Other isolated incidents of negative reaction from total strangers on the subject of November and the Greensboro TRC became opportunities for discussion in college classes and at the Local Task Force meetings. Nelson Johnson, a social change professional, was less fazed by the pejorative comments. They were ones he had heard repeatedly since .He was instead preoccupied by the question,how do you hold institutions accountable for their actions? He had learned from experience that rarely are critiques seriously considered.Instead they are dismissed, he said,for not adhering to the cultural,political,and economic practices of the time. November was one of those events that did not fit with the dominant community narrative of a progressive city protecting the interests of its citizens.In fact,Project Censorship included Greensboro’s story of the cascading injustices related to November as the second most censored story in (see www.projectcensored.org). Johnson believed the TRC could provide the foundation for the community to challenge what until then they had not questioned sufficiently in law enforcement practices,protest action,cooperative economic structures, education reform, and free speech. The timeliness of the TRC project in Greensboro and around the GREENSBORO’S LEGACY IS HIDDEN NO MORE [184.72.135.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 14:10 GMT) world should not be understated. As civic engagement continues to spiral downward and citizen action suffocates under the threats to rule of law, the TRC provides the reasons and model for how to engage with one another surrounding the significant issues of our time. The lessons Greensboro’s citizens learned through this process of...