Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro

3. An Unfolding History of Social Unrest

ChApter 3 An Unfolding History of Social Unrest We should face up to unpleasant truths about ourselves, but we should not take those truths to be the last word about our chances for happiness, or about our national character. Our national character is still in the making. —RICHARD RORTY IN 1979,GREENSBORO,North Carolina,was in crisis amid deep social class and race divisions. Vestiges of paternalism and the subordination of blacks led to a civil yet stifling culture where white elites “helped” those blacks willing to abide by the “pervasive discrimination” in the social structure (Chafe, , ). The tenuous situation persisted, and was enough to rouse feelings of anger, distrust, suspicion, antagonism, and exasperation that ultimately led to the Greensboro Massacre and later, the initiation of the United States’ first Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This chapter traces the roots of that unrest and protest action. The day-to-day reality for blacks and poor people in Greensboro was dismal in . The result was that an otherwise beautiful city was trapped between competing sociopolitical philosophies and irreconcilable differences over matters of race and labor.Even for those sectors of the community that believed prosperity was within reach,a cohesive response from citizens was necessary to carry out citywide plans for renewal; that response was one the community simply could not muster.For those in despair,mired in lack of opportunity,Greensboro was home to heavy-handed leaders unsympathetic to their plight. Cynicism from all sides prevented meaningful dialogue and problem solving.  To have a city where the conditions were staggeringly poor for some, yet ripe with opportunity for others, left a gaping hole in the very heart of the community. Each sector, concerned deeply with the welfare of their community held tight to their own, differing ideas of how to address the demands of the time. Even as it held on to its traditions, the people in Greensboro struggled to loosen the grip of racism and paternalism that had shaped its southern identity.Indeed,the actions and beliefs of the past century had left an indelible mark on the lives of whites and blacks as evidenced by the poor quality of their discourse and economic inequality. The grip of conformity manifested itself in mores of fitting in, getting along,not causing trouble,and preserving the status quo.That cultural system is what the American South historian William Chafe would famously describe as the“progressive mystique,”the undeniable practice of civility to showcase the New South’s façade of tolerance that in effect destroyed the opportunity for authentic communication among races and about race, thus leaving racism intact despite a rhetoric that spoke otherwise (). In Greensboro, white city leaders learned to deflect conflict with a strategy of encouraging “moderation” in all things to silence unruly voices and temper any genuine possibility of addressing the inequalities that continued to disproportionately affect poor people and blacks. As a result, the economic and social conditions of the city worsened . Glenda E. Gilmore, author of Defying Dixie, was a young white girl growing up in Greensboro in the s. She says of the city and the South: Within those [southern] borders, racial oppression reigned supreme, controlling not only public space but political conversation and private conscience and narrowing the political imagination of even its most defiant subjects. Those who openly protested white domination had to leave, one way or another. (, ) Gilmore points to the South as the location where class struggle, labor activism, and racial tensions were unleashed alongside the more radical promises of communism to overturn white supremacy and capitalist structures during the Cold War. All this, she argues, gave rise to  AN UNFOLDING HISTORY OF SOCIAL UNREST a civil rights movement imbued with a more complex consideration of social justice than is often noted in history books—one which could be sustained only by the persistent efforts by organized black and white people to change society (Gilmore, ). Uncomfortable truths of racial and economic injustice look and sound unpleasant in the South,and thus the preference was not to talk about them, opting instead to move the conversation toward forwardlooking , constructive attempts to dismantle prejudice.Yet, the sting of the past remained real for a great many. For them, silence was not an option. Historically, some of the most prominent protestors of white domination, besides the blacks themselves, were members of the Communist Party: Communists gave Southerners a vision and a threat...