On this day, Nov. 3, in 1979, five anti-Ku Klux Klan protesters were killed in Greensboro, N.C., by Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party. The killings took place at a “Death to the Klan” rally staged by the Communist Workers Party during a street demonstration in Greensboro. Most of the armed confrontation was filmed by four local news camera crews. No police were present, which allowed the assailants to escape.
A state trial ended in acquittal for six Nazis and Klansmen in 1980. Federal prosecutors brought civil rights conspiracy charges against nine participants in 1984. That trial also ended in not-guilty verdicts.
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However, the survivors won a $350,000 civil judgment a year later against the police, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party for violating the demonstrators’ civil rights.
— Scott McCabe
