Creator: Greensboro Civl Rights Fund.
Collection number: 4630
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Abstract: On 3 November 1979, members of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Party attacked Communist Workers Party (CWP) demonstrators as they gathered for a public march in Greensboro, N.C. Five CWP members were killed and eleven others were injured. The Greensboro Civil Rights Fund (GCRF) was organized by the families and friends of the deceased CWP members and raised about $700,000 to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, the Greensboro Police Department, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF). Material of the Greensboro Civil Rights Fund/Greensboro Justice Fund (GJF) relating to three court cases stemming from the casualties of the 3 November 1979 riot in Greensboro. There are subject files, beginning in 1979, including records of trial defendants, plaintiffs, and witnesses, as well as publications, propaganda, memoranda, reports, and notes from organizations related to the GCRF and the GJF; copies of investigative files, including correspondence, witness interviews, autopsy reports, and lab test reports; copies of official court records, including deposition transcripts, pleading books, transcripts of trial testimony, and discovery material; court exhibit files contain scene evidence collected by the police at the murder scene and copies of investigation reports from the FBI, the BATF, and the Greensboro Police Department; office and organizational files, including correspondence, address lists, memoranda, newsletters, position papers, press releases, research materials, and financial records; pictures mostly related to the 3 November 1979 march and subsequent court proceedings; audiocassettes including interviews with surviving Communist Workers Party (CWP) demonstrators and copies of cassette tapes from the civil trial depositions; copies of videotapes of the actual Klan-Nazi attack and three documentary television shows; clippings related to the 1979 incident; material related to the Workers Viewpoint Organization/Communist Workers Party; writings and reports related to the 1979 incident and race relations in Greensboro, N.C.; and museum items related to the 3 November 1979, anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration, including a bullhorn, banners, and a hanging effigy of a Ku Klux Klan member.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Materials relating to the three court cases stemming from the November 1979 Greensboro riot involving members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi Party attacking Communist Worker Party demonstrators, including African Americans. Series 1 contains Subject Files on a number of individuals and topics relating to Waller v. Butkovich, the Greensboro Civil Rights Fund’s civil rights suit against the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, the Greensboro Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Series 1 also contains publications, propaganda, memoranda, reports, notes and other material from the Communist Workers Party, the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, and other organizations related to the GCRF.
Series 5 contains a number of photographs and audio visual materials, including documentaries on the 1979 attack. The photographs mostly relate to the 3 November 1979 march and subsequent court proceedings.Included are still images from video footage of the rally and photographs from other marches. Other pictures include photographs of Ku Klux Klan/Nazi gatherings with members in costume.