Morningside in America: The “Greensboro Massacre” and the Contested History of Race, Class, and Power in the New South

FAIN: FEL-262599-19

Aran Shetterly
Unaffiliated independent scholar

A re-examination of the 1979 murders of five labor and racial justice organizers in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the trials of the Klansmen and Neo-Nazi who shot them.

Morningside in America examines the 1979 murders of five labor and racial justice organizers in Greensboro, NC and the trials of the Klansmen and Neo-Nazis who shot them. In the absence of a shared narrative, the city’s historically rooted race and class conflicts are reinforced. My research assembles the facts—many new—to tell a character-driven story that explores the relationship between the police and the mill owners in Greensboro and the North Carolina Piedmont; the history of black liberation and the post-King-assassination radicalization of Civil Rights and New Left activists during the 70s; the rise of a white power movement in the wake of the Vietnam war; and the FBI’s complicated, Cold War history with radicals on the left and the right. As these threads of history intersect and collide, two narratives of the massacre emerge, one that struggles to account for America’s long, complicated past, and another, ahistorical narrative, that treats the murders as an accident.

Associated Products

Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City's Soul (Book)
Title: Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City's Soul
Author: Aran Shetterly
Editor: Patrik Bass
Abstract: An unflinching look at the all but forgotten though no less shocking 1979 racial tragedy that divided Greensboro, N.C., and the nation, and the grassroots activists who, in their tireless fight for justice, refused to give up on America’s promised ideals. On November 3, 1979, as activist Nelson Johnson assembled people for a march adjacent to Morningside Homes in Greensboro, North Carolina, gunshots rang out. A caravan of Klansmen and Neo-Nazis sped from the scene, leaving behind five dead. Known as the “Greensboro Massacre,” the event and its aftermath encapsulate the racial conflict, economic anxiety, clash of ideologies, and toxic mix of corruption and conspiracy that roiled American democracy then—and threaten it today. In 88 seconds, one Southern city shattered over irreconcilable visions of America’s past and future. When the shooters are acquitted in the courts, Reverend Johnson, his wife Joyce, and their allies, at odds with the police and the Greensboro establishment, sought alternative forms of justice. As the Johnsons rebuilt their lives after 1979, they found inspiration in Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Martin Luther King Jr’s concept of Beloved Community and insist that only by facing history’s hardest truths can healing come to the city they refuse to give up on. This intimate, deeply researched, and heart-stopping account draws upon survivor interviews, court documents, and the files from one of the largest investigations in FBI history. The persistent mysteries of the case touch deep cultural insecurities and contradictions about race and class. A quintessentially American story, Morningside explores the courage required to make change and the evolving pursuit of a more inclusive and equal future
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/morningside-aran-robert-shetterly?variant=41135081029666
Publisher: Amistad
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 0062858211

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