he lived in a world that acluded slavery, included situation where women were not allowed to own property or vote. in a situation where people could grow crops and make wonderful things, but they did not have a market. i think he was frustrated that these things were true and he began to establish a certain system that would change that. i think that what he started, he was taking a first that -- step and he would be incredibly pleased to see what he was doing in history, back in the 18 -- the 1840'se 18 , that we took that and have continued momentum that he started. ♪

>> in november, 1979, members of the two that clan murdered people at a protest organized by the communist workers party. up next, we talked with aelfric -- gayle fripp about the massacre. gayle: the confrontation that occurred in greensboro in 1979 is extremely complex, with many -- fectives and tax -- fax acts to consider. the communist workers party, which had formally been a different organization, had

arranged a parade in greensboro to try to unite blacks and people who might be union members. they engaged with the ku klux , invited them to the parade . this was confrontational from the outset. members were gathering with neighborhood residents around 11:00 in the morning for the parade to kick off at noon. before that could happen, a caravan of klan members, nine cars, arrived and before uniform police could come, violence began. demonstrators actually hit the

caravan cars. memberspoint, the clan pulled out weapons and began to shoot into the air. wasnext thing to happen some of the communist protesters and pulled out a handguns fired. and then the clan went to a car that was loaded with rifles, pulled them out, and in the next 88 seconds, five people were killed and twice that number were wounded. came after the fact. they did begin to arrest cwp klanrs, all of the ku klux members escaped escape -- except for one. --at interest cwp members

the did arrest cwp members. , twoeople who are killed of them are trained medical doctors. one of them was a recent graduate of will. a fourth one was a union organizer. and the fifth was the only female and the only black, sandy smith, and she was a graduate of bennett college. involved inwere improving the lives of the poor. diseases thatting were common with workers. and they believed in it unionizing to improve conditions. they lived in it the area and has been active.

they decided to move it up a notch and in october they merged into a communist workers party to thehink that change -- thest party probably whole situation. it did anger the clan, because they were known to be antiunion, anti-communist, anti-black. i think that the communist party applied for the parade permit, but the police were concerned. there, so theory police decided that maybe the primary thing to do was to have an informant that could report to them on what was going on with the to put plan -- with the

reaction to and the this. -- thereormant informant kept them up-to-date on what the conflicts can was -- ku klux klan was going to do on monday. report on issued a what the officers on the scene should do that day. they did encourage a low profile. they were concerned that the police could cause a problem. either with the clan or the cwp, or even with black residents. said they were actually supposed to be stationed about two blocks away at a high school and then to appear if anything happened. but they also said that they be present at 11:30 a.m.,

that was 30 minutes before the parade was going to take place. as it turned out, all of those people were killed by 11:30 a.m. i think that residents of the city were shocked when they heard reports about what had happened. shocked to know that people could be killed on a city street . one reason that the cwp felt a safeve in the parade -- in the parade, is because this is a modern city and the police were there. a majority of these residents in the city had not heard of the cwp, they did not know that they at aunionizing activities local plant.

response,at the city again we have to talk in segments, that the official response from the mayor and government, they were outraged. who hadre outsiders ,ome in and provoked violence so they had suffered the consequences of the violence. they denied that greensboro had any part in this, that the police had done nothing wrong. that there was confusion about where the parade was supposed to start, and when. and the television coverage that was there, the media began to defend the city, that this could not have happened here. results --ases that

resulted, there were three. the first was a murder trial. forges against clansmen murder. that was the murder of i people, possiblewere 30 verdicts. the trial, even to select jury took six weeks. then took 14 weeks. when you read the testimony that , when you read manreport, you see what a -- mammoth task it was to charge and try these people. he said that a thousand pieces of evidence were submitted and it took hours of testimony. the problem was that to find these people guilty of murder,

there had a clear evidence that they were not acting in self-defense. at that point in north carolina law, there was a loose definition of that. shots were fired by demonstrators. that is what the jury had to rule on, there was a lot of examination of the footage to determine who fired shots and win. the i studied it for over a year -- the fbi studied it for over one year. in that case, self-defense work andrk and -- did they were acquitted.

they were also acquitted by an all-white jury. there was a second trial, a federal trial, and in that trial the clansmen were charged with violating the law right -- the civil rights of those people. they were acquitted. then a third trial. plaintiff's where the survivors , they brought trial greensboro,city of .pecifically to policeman the city was implicated in that trial. the city of greensboro ended up paying a summit to the widow of one of the killed men, one of the doctors. $351,000 in damages.

but they paid it and never admitted liability. the truth and reconciliation commission was created in 2005 people whor of serves on the commission -- i will say that there was little support for participation from the white leaders of greensboro .or this commission the city council was not in favor, the mayor was not in aber -- in favor, many of them who could have given valuable information chose not to participate. i think that this goes all the way back to the initial reaction of city leaders who said this is not a green wrote -- greensboro you that. a fewappened because people made it happen. there was a grant that came

from outside the community to fund this commission. it was managed from the outside and they began to talk to people, maybe people who had contacts in the event, they were interviewed by the commission. they came out with a report and this report indicated that the presence of police would have made a difference in what happened. ,ost people agree with that they just do not agree with why the police were not there. i think that people in greensboro will always a divided about what happened on november --1979 area this depends 1979. this depends where you grew up, whether you are black or white, resentmentalways

that this happened in breakthrough. happened inhat -- greensboro. i do think that happened with the citizens that sits in -- sit ins as well. i do not think that this event will ever be pretty -- praised. -- it willeviate always be a blot. >> our last stop on the city tour i