Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro
On November 3, 1979, five protest marchers in Greensboro, North Carolina, were shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. There were no police present, but television crews captured the shootings on video. Despite two criminal trials, none of the killers ever served time for their crimes, exposing what many believed to be the inadequacy of judicial, political, and economic systems in the United States. Twenty-five years later, in 2004, Greensboro residents, inspired by post-apartheid South Africa, initiated a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to take public testimony and examine the causes, sequence of events, and consequences of the massacre. The TRC was to be a process and a tool by which citizens could feel confident about the truth of the city's history in order to reconcile divergent understandings of past and current city values, and it became the foundation for the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States. Spoma Jovanovic, who worked alongside other community members to document the grassroots effort to convene the first TRC in the United States, provides a resource and case study of how citizens in one community used their TRC as a way to understand the past and conceive the future. This book preserves the historical significance of a people's effort to seek truth and work for reconciliation, shows a variety of discourse models for other communities to use in seeking to redress past harms, and demonstrates the power of community action to promote participatory democracy.
1126362135
Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro
On November 3, 1979, five protest marchers in Greensboro, North Carolina, were shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. There were no police present, but television crews captured the shootings on video. Despite two criminal trials, none of the killers ever served time for their crimes, exposing what many believed to be the inadequacy of judicial, political, and economic systems in the United States. Twenty-five years later, in 2004, Greensboro residents, inspired by post-apartheid South Africa, initiated a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to take public testimony and examine the causes, sequence of events, and consequences of the massacre. The TRC was to be a process and a tool by which citizens could feel confident about the truth of the city's history in order to reconcile divergent understandings of past and current city values, and it became the foundation for the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States. Spoma Jovanovic, who worked alongside other community members to document the grassroots effort to convene the first TRC in the United States, provides a resource and case study of how citizens in one community used their TRC as a way to understand the past and conceive the future. This book preserves the historical significance of a people's effort to seek truth and work for reconciliation, shows a variety of discourse models for other communities to use in seeking to redress past harms, and demonstrates the power of community action to promote participatory democracy.
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Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro

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

by Spoma Jovanovic
Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro

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

by Spoma Jovanovic

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Overview

On November 3, 1979, five protest marchers in Greensboro, North Carolina, were shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. There were no police present, but television crews captured the shootings on video. Despite two criminal trials, none of the killers ever served time for their crimes, exposing what many believed to be the inadequacy of judicial, political, and economic systems in the United States. Twenty-five years later, in 2004, Greensboro residents, inspired by post-apartheid South Africa, initiated a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to take public testimony and examine the causes, sequence of events, and consequences of the massacre. The TRC was to be a process and a tool by which citizens could feel confident about the truth of the city's history in order to reconcile divergent understandings of past and current city values, and it became the foundation for the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States. Spoma Jovanovic, who worked alongside other community members to document the grassroots effort to convene the first TRC in the United States, provides a resource and case study of how citizens in one community used their TRC as a way to understand the past and conceive the future. This book preserves the historical significance of a people's effort to seek truth and work for reconciliation, shows a variety of discourse models for other communities to use in seeking to redress past harms, and demonstrates the power of community action to promote participatory democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781557289919
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Publication date: 11/01/2012
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 285
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Spoma Jovanovic is associate professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 The Greensboro Massacre, November 3,1979 3

Chapter 2 Grave Consequences 17

Chapter 3 An Unfolding History of Social Unrest 29

Chapter 4 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Seek Healing, Not Vengeance 47

Chapter 5 Greensboro's Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Principles and Processes 65

Chapter 6 The Commission's Final Report: Recovering the Truth 91

Chapter 7 The Public's Response 115

Chapter 8 The Politics of an Apology 141

Chapter 9 Measures of Success 151

Chapter 10 Greensboro's Legacy Is Hidden No More 165

Appendix

Mandate for the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission 181

Guiding Principles of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission 185

What Is Reconciliation? 186

Final Report General Summary 189

Discussing the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Executive Summary in a College Classroom 194

Lyrical Reflections of November 3rd, 1979 196

Notes 203

References 209

Index 219

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