CWP Massacred in Greensboro: This Date in History

[nycfan]

 

[Icky Mettle]

How quaint.

 

[donbosco]

OTD in 1969 Malcolm X Liberation University opened in Durham. #Dook students had protested the lack of AFAM Studies-Activist Howard Fuller led the founding. Durham’s Malcolm X Liberation University

“The stated mission of the radical new university was to provide an ideological and practical methodology for meeting the physical, social, psychological, economical and culture needs of black people as well as to provide an alternate to institutionalized racism in education.”
Malcolm X Liberation University - Empowerment Through History and Learning | Durham Civil and Human Rights Map

MXLU MOVED TO Greensboro after a year in Durham & closed before graduating any students. It was a bold, and for the times, radical, experiment. Universities had no African American Studies in their curriculums in those dayls. MXLU no doubt was key in striking blows against that ignorance.

 

[nycfan]

 

[donbosco]

This New Yorker is among my Top Ten Tar Heel Anti-Fascists. Modern imaginings might cause one to take a look at his photo portrait and think Right-Winger but that would be a dead wrong reckoning. George Watts Hill was raised in money and key institutions in N.C. like The Carolina Inn, UNC Press, Watts Hospital, Hill Hall at UNC, and The George Watts Hill Alumni Center have associations with his family. Born in 1901 he graduated UNC IN 1921 and earned a law degree in 1924. Observing the rise of fascism around the world in the late 1930s into the ‘40s, Hill, worked to spur an isolationist USA to recognize the dire threat of Nazism and Mussolini’s Italy as well as homegrown rightists like the America First Committee in this country. Past combat age as the US entered WWII in 1941, Hill nevertheless served in intelligence gathering with the group that would develop into the OSS.

After his service fighting the rising tide of fascism in Europe Hill opposed similar views at home with his strong opposition to the N.C. General Assembly’s Speaker Ban, a railroaded-in law meant to shutdown Free Speech on the campuses of UNC System schools and otherwise squelch anything but Patriotically Correct instruction, writing, and research at Carolina. An anti-fascist dedication to racial justice led to his early advocacy of desegregation in public accommodations. Hill also supported the creation and expansion of education for children with learning disabilities. (There are two links at the conclusion here where you can learn more)

#OTD (Oct. 27) in 1901 George Watts Hill was born in NYC to a prosperous family with deep North Carolina roots. A UNC Undergraduate and Law Graduate, he came early to the fight against fascism and was a key officer in The Office of Strategic Services. Later he stood vs the Speaker Ban and Segregation. The Alumni Center @UNC bears his name. George Watts Hill, Tar Heel in Cloak



A Tar Heel in Cloak: George Watts Hill, Interventionism, and the Shadow War Against Hitler - North Carolina History (And yes-I know the provenance of this site -I find irony in this)



Vote like George Watts Hill was your mentor.

 

[Zoo_View]

This New Yorker is among my Top Ten Tar Heel Anti-Fascists. Modern imaginings might cause one to take a look at his photo portrait and think Right-Winger but that would be a dead wrong reckoning. George Watts Hill was raised in money and key institutions in N.C. like The Carolina Inn, UNC Press, Watts Hospital, Hill Hall at UNC, and The George Watts Hill Alumni Center have associations with his family. Born in 1901 he graduated UNC IN 1921 and earned a law degree in 1924. Observing the rise of fascism around the world in the late 1930s into the ‘40s, Hill, worked to spur an isolationist USA to recognize the dire threat of Nazism and Mussolini’s Italy as well as homegrown rightists like the America First Committee in this country. Past combat age as the US entered WWII in 1941, Hill nevertheless served in intelligence gathering with the group that would develop into the OSS.

After his service fighting the rising tide of fascism in Europe Hill opposed similar views at home with his strong opposition to the N.C. General Assembly’s Speaker Ban, a railroaded-in law meant to shutdown Free Speech on the campuses of UNC System schools and otherwise squelch anything but Patriotically Correct instruction, writing, and research at Carolina. An anti-fascist dedication to racial justice led to his early advocacy of desegregation in public accommodations. Hill also supported the creation and expansion of education for children with learning disabilities. (There are two links at the conclusion here where you can learn more)

#OTD (Oct. 27) in 1901 George Watts Hill was born in NYC to a prosperous family with deep North Carolina roots. A UNC Undergraduate and Law Graduate, he came early to the fight against fascism and was a key officer in The Office of Strategic Services. Later he stood vs the Speaker Ban and Segregation. The Alumni Center @UNC bears his name. George Watts Hill, Tar Heel in Cloak



A Tar Heel in Cloak: George Watts Hill, Interventionism, and the Shadow War Against Hitler - North Carolina History (And yes-I know the provenance of this site -I find irony in this)



Vote like George Watts Hill was your mentor.

One other thing George Watts Hill did was donate his home to UNC. It’s now the Chancellor’s Residence. Its driveway is at the bottom of Raleigh Road just before one gets to the former UNC System Headquarters, the Spangler Complex. Those buildings now house the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Now that the UNC System is located in Raleigh, I hope the UNC President’s House will become the Chancellor’s Residence (after the right-wing d00kie is no longer chancellor).

Despite his being born in NYC, I struggle to call Mr. Hill a New Yorker. His parents were long-time North Carolinians and moved back to Durham in 1903 when GWH wasn’t quite two.

One of Mr. Hill’s stepdaughters called Mr. Hill “Major.” I never knew why. Now I do. Definitely antifa!

 

[donbosco]

Addendum

"Hill Learning Center was established in 1977 in Durham, North Carolina as the Learning Development Center (LDC), with a mission to provide an intensive remediation program for students with specific learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders. Originally established as a program of nearby Durham Academy, in 1980 the Center was dedicated to founder George Watts Hill and renamed the Hill Learning Development Center (HLDC). The name was shortened to The Hill Center in 1996. In the 2017-18 school year Hill celebrated its 40th Anniversary and in the fall of 2018 The Hill Center name was changed to Hill Learning Center."

https://www.hillcenter.org/about/

 

[donbosco]

One other thing George Watts Hill did was donate his home to UNC. It’s now the Chancellor’s Residence. Its driveway is at the bottom of Raleigh Road just before one gets to the former UNC System Headquarters, the Spangler Complex. Those buildings now house the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Now that the UNC System is located in Raleigh, I hope the UNC President’s House will become the Chancellor’s Residence (after the right-wing d00kie is no longer chancellor).

Despite his being born in NYC, I struggle to call Mr. Hill a New Yorker. His parents were long-time North Carolinians and moved back to Durham in 1903 when GWH wasn’t quite two.

One of Mr. Hill’s stepdaughters called Mr. Hill “Major.” I never knew why. Now I do. Definitely antifa!

A friend wrote this...

"I never met him, nor did I know about his antifascist efforts, but he allowed all the kids in our neighborhood to use his front yard--the only flat, treeless space in the entire Greenwood area--as our regular football field. From 1970 to 1976, the Cashwells, Crumptons, Lathrops, Dunns, and other families regularly sent their youth out to test themselves on the local gridiron, using the gigantic tulip tree as one goal line, hammering each other and the grass Mr. Hill had planted on the ridge above Battle Branch. We howled and screamed away the afternoons. My brother broke his leg there. And not once did Watts Hill (as we always called him) step out of his house to admonish us or complain about the uproar. He was a civic treasure."

 

[Zoo_View]

A friend wrote this...

"I never met him, nor did I know about his antifascist efforts, but he allowed all the kids in our neighborhood to use his front yard--the only flat, treeless space in the entire Greenwood area--as our regular football field. From 1970 to 1976, the Cashwells, Crumptons, Lathrops, Dunns, and other families regularly sent their youth out to test themselves on the local gridiron, using the gigantic tulip tree as one goal line, hammering each other and the grass Mr. Hill had planted on the ridge above Battle Branch. We howled and screamed away the afternoons. My brother broke his leg there. And not once did Watts Hill (as we always called him) step out of his house to admonish us or complain about the uproar. He was a civic treasure."

The two Lathrop boys and the younger Dunn are lifelong friends. Bruce Crompton is a friendly acquaintance and has been since about 1979; but, Bruce and I have never been close friends.

Is the Cashwell named Peter?

The property described for neighborhood football games belonged (belongs?) to Watts Hill, Jr. It’s at the corner of Greenwood and Houston Roads.

Turn left on Houston and go down that road and you come to where Paul Green’s Cabin was. You also cross the creek coming out of Battle Park.

If anyone ever wonders why Estes Drive at University Mall floods, the creek coming out of Battle Park, Bolin Creek, and Booker Creek all converge there.

The Barbee-Hargraves Slave Cemetary is at the end of Greenwood.

Watts Hill, Sr.’s property is on the opposite side of Hwy. 54 from Greenwood Road.

 

[donbosco]

Three years ago (2022) in late October Neo-Fascist Paramilitary Proud Boys gathered at a Sanford, NC brewery to protest and intimidate participants and attendees of a Drag Show Brunch. https://www.rawstory.com/proud-boys-drag-queens/ (https://www.huggermuggerbrewing.com ) - the event was associated with The Sanford Yoga & Community Center www.sanfordyogacenter.com - a “veteran-owned and trauma-informed yoga studio fighting to bring a safe-space to you wherever you may be.” From their websites it appears that both businesses have weathered the efforts of clear-cut fascists to cancel them - Christian activists joined the Proud Boy protest with signs and Neo-Confederates also pitched in. The Proud Boys took the moment to do some impromptu recruiting.


I “shudder to imagine” the horror these “Modern” Conservatives would experience were they to go back in time and witness families all over the Tar Heel State gathering in small town school auditoriums and gymnasiums to fund-raise for PTAs and Rotary Club projects by way of the always packed performances of a “Womanless Wedding!”

I distinctly remember going to the #Bonlee Elementary School auditorium as a young boy to attend one such event. That evening local men dressed in drag and followed a comedic script featuring nuptials between an unlikely pair (a very tall “bride” and a diminutive groom). Who else remembers this type of event? While I only remember specifically a horrible rendition of ‘I Love You Truly’ by a grown man dressed as a young woman and a lot of other men who went to my church or frequented my Deddy’s hardware store in various states of drag, just a little searching turns up some good writing on the performances. Read on here about one held in Burgaw, NC in 1957:

https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/womanless-weddings/

Obviously the equivalency Implied here is strained considerably but it does show an interesting closing off of the mind to anything not sanctioned by rightists within a rigid ideological construct of intolerance. This isn’t a “Good Ole Days” observation either because we all know, and some admit, that those times were really the “Bad Ole Days” for most anyone not embracing, or faking, straight-ness and also well-off enough financially to be a middle to upper-class white man. No — “Womanless Weddings” were not affirmations of gay rights by any stretch. Gay and bisexual men and women in small town North Carolina in the old days lived their lives primarily in the closet with all of the accompanying oppressions and even dangers associated.

I am wondering what is behind so much deep insecurity among some citizens today - mostly men but not solely - regarding masculinity - and in so many cases their own? I am riffing somewhat here and while I’ve thought on this I admit that I have not ‘studied’ it. Kind and constructive ideas from friends are certainly welcome. It is no secret that we find ourselves this very day in a nation poised to go the way of the Proud Boys or to continue forward with our experiment in constitutional democratic republicanism so I think pondering just what you think about the things that happen or may yet happen in places like Sanford should be foremost.

 

[nycfan]

 

[donbosco]

46 Years Ago Today (November 3) The Ku Klux Klan and Nazis gunned down 5 members (and wounded 6 others) of the local arm of The Communist Workers Party on Morningside Dr. in Greensboro, NC. No one was punished for these murders though there were many eyewitnesses and film. In 1979 I was only beginning an acquaintance that would turn into friendship with Bob Sheldon. He identified with The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade back then. In those days Bob was a familiar voice in The Pit at UNC. Through both a wide range of literature not otherwise available and a calm, informed, demeanor Bob brought ways of seeing to that sacred space on campus that weren’t often heard in classroom, despite the fevered false nightmares of Rightist Dixiecrats and imaginings of Jesse Helmsians.

So Bob Sheldon brought an enduring presence of Leftist thought (and action) to Chapel Hill, and by extension, North Carolina, through his work as an independent educator. He opened The Internationalist Bookstore in 1981 which was a hub for information until he was murdered there in 1991. Sheldon wasn’t the only voice on the Left in The South of course.

The Rightist terrorist cabal, the Ku Klux Klan had deep roots in the region. In 1979 in Greensboro the Workers Viewpoint Organization was working to energize and organize African American communities and workers in general to realize their civil rights. Connections with the Communist Workers Party were growing among the group’s membership. Some members were already CWP. The KKK found that type of action, especially because it was seeking to break down racism, as anathema. Both groups were aware of the natural hostility extant in their worldviews.

When the word went out that a battle had happened in Greensboro - then it became clearer and clearer that it was an ambush that turned into a massacre, the paramilitary presence of the KKK in our lives hit home. The KKK was a real thing in the #DeepChatham where I grew up to be sure - my Deddy would secretly signal to me that certain customers in his hardware store/post office were associated - most were known buffoons rather than formidable folk. But the events in Greensboro - murderous events - changed things, at least for me. Not only did the human face, kind, giving, and educated, of Bob Sheldon convey to me that the KKK was indeed not simply evil but also dangerous but I too felt the peril from that day on - and still do. No longer could I or mine go unprepared.

There was no Justice realized over the Rightist murdering in Greensboro and our nation still suffers that travesty for the emboldening it brought on. That is, sadly, why today none of us should relax. The KKK has been joined by The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, and myriad other militarist anti-democratic combines - and as Greensboro 1979 and January 6 2021 and many other operations have shown us - they will kill. Remarkably, today masked government agents do the Klan’s bidding.

Vote please friends. And watch one another’s backs. I once hoped that my sense of foreboding was off the mark but now we all know better. Be on guard.

There is a good deal more to tell about the injustice of Greensboro 1979 than I’ve related here. At the link directly below read an excellent piece with a great many hit links and attributions by Eric Ginsburg. Don’t let the publication source fool you, this is legit historical writing. This 1979 Massacre by the KKK Should Be Taught in Schools

 

[donbosco]

Sweet D Left This Mortal Coil

Here’s remembering..,

The 1976-77 Carolina Men’s Tar Heel Basketball Team carried us along in their wake through a March Mad with Miracles. As a freshman in Chapel Hill I - gloriously - have never recovered. In those days the Atlantic Coast Conference was a compact league of 7 bitter rivals — UNC, Wake, State, dook, Clemson, Virginia, and Maryland. We played one another twice - home and away - and rival arenas were pits packed with palpably intense loathing and deafening vitriol.

An interesting footnote to the texture of seasons in those times were the schedules interspersed with non-conference matches not just early but throughout. Small leagues made that sort of play possible. In ‘76-77 after the ACC season started Carolina had games with Georgia Tech, Furman, Tulane, South Florida, and Louisville. Oh, and in North Carolina we STARTED off with The Big Four Tournament - the very first games of the season - in Greensboro - a blood and guts kickoff between Carolina, wake, state, and dook. This meant 3 guaranteed games between the four in-state powers every year (a fourth might come in the ACC Tournament). Those were some heavenly days. In ‘76-77 after a solid thumping of the wolpfack in the opener, UNC lost the Big Four Championship in overtime to Wake Forest (96-97). Grudges were renewed all around.

Carolina won 11 straight after that loss until being tripped up in a revenge game to State in mid-January at mean, nasty, barnlike Reynolds Coliseum, 73-75. That one hurt but payback would come - in that very spot for Clyde Austin and state college in 1979 by the quick hands of then bench bound freshman Dudley Bradley - but that half court pickpocket was still in the future in 1977. That State game led to The Tar Heels dropping another tilt to Wake and an embarrassing loss to Clemson in Littlejohn (talk about a PIT) before Coach Smith righted the ship and led his charges to 15 wins in a row and a Final Four Championship game versus Marquette in Atlanta.

The final 6 wins, all in March, of that 15 victory streak were particularly remarkable and for a freshman from #DeepChatham made memories still bold over 45 years later. The ACC Tournament saw UNC with a bye by virtue of a 9-3 first place finish and a second round meeting with State - the fourth of the season. Carolina actually dispatched the Wolfpack easily and followed that up with a championship win over a Marc Ivaroni-led Virginia. It was March 5.

The NCAA opened with a Carolina/Purdue match-up in Raleighwood in the previously mentioned old barn - and it was a burner. Playing without injured star Walter Davis UNC prevailed 69-66. Center Tommy LaGarde was also out - and would not return that season. At the buzzer we went pretty wild back in Chapel Hill. It had been close.

Next game up was in College Park - another crackerbox and home to the Maryland Terrapins - yet another hated conference rival. The foes were the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame led by mouthy Coach Digger Phelps. The Irish were a muscle team but with Walter Davis playing hurt Carolina rallied from behind and won 79-77. This was my first ‘taking over Franklin Street’ night. A little place called Kirkpatrick’s was my evening venue in those days and we were there until far past Last Call that night.

There was no time to rest though because March 19 meant a Blue Blood struggle against Kentucky - since Coach Smith’s upset victory over racist Rupp in 1962 the waters had been roiled - as they remain - between the Tar Heels and the Wildcats. UK had an early version of the Twin Towers in Robey and Phillips and Givens was a star. There was controversy and rough play - Davis led the scoring with 21 and Carolina’s freshmen tandem, O’Koren and Yonakor (Class of 1980 like me) came through. Zaliagaris was a particularly stalwart soul and with Phil Ford limited to 15 minutes of court time due to a hyper-extended elbow, #15, John Kuester stepped in and ran the Four Corners Offense to perfection. Kentucky fell 79-72. In Chapel Hill we once again hit the streets.

For the next two weeks the student body took to taping together their middle and index fingers on their right hand in solidarity with their injured hero Sweet D. (H/T Arnold Watkins for the recollection)

This ship was beginning to look unsinkable. Charmed perhaps. And now - with stars Ford and Davis at three-quarter speed and center Tommy LaGarde’s last court time far in the past Coach Smith was proving wiley beyond our wildest dreams at the helm. So this improbable squad was on to the Final Four which featured Nevada-Las Vegas, shirt-tailed Marquette, and from down highway 49, Cornbread’s UNC Charlotte.

Back in Chapel Hill Yonakor and O’Koren had earned a lot of campus cred with both their hustle and around town antics. The team had captured all our hearts and minds in The Southern Part of Heaven heading into the Saturday night game against UNLV. Of course Ford was our captain and Walter Davis an equally beloved hero - both were injured but soldiering on. And Kuester - in the Semis and versus UNLV he proved the glue that held it all together.

Heading into the Monday night final against Marquette it was the walking wounded (Carolina) meeting the Cinderella (Marquette) - the calm calculator (Smith) versus the wild man of Milwaukee (Al McGuire). My Psychology 10 professor had the cluelessness to schedule a test for Tuesday morning (I have no idea how many showed - I know that I did not). We lost and all was sadness in town and on campus. McGuire’s announcement to retire after the game was too much ‘win it for the gipper’ for Carolina. That and Ford’s elbow and Sweet D’s broken finger. It hurt a lot.

Davis, Kuester, and LaGarde graduated and played pro (even Kuester). Walter Davis, of the tying 35-footer his freshman year in the legendary 8 points in 17 seconds game, went on to be a 6-time NBA All Star with his jersey retired in Phoenix. He won a Gold Medal in the 1976 Olympics where his coach was Dean Smith. He was a huge part of the team that made my freshman year at Carolina so incredible. As the springtime slowly sprung that year in Chapel Hill Sweet D and Company took us on a ride that set the tone. Many others would do likewise - still do - most recently the 2021-22 squad whose essence was reminiscent in its miraculousness.

If you know me then you know that I put great stock in how one ‘plays the game.’ One’s sense of fairness and values shine through in competition and teamwork. Now Walter Davis is gone - Tom Zaliagaris and Rich Yonakor from that team preceded him and of course Coach Smith left us in 2015. Of course we’re also reminded by such titans of mortal flaws and the impermanence of it all. It’s a wake up call when folks - your contemporaries - pass on - even more so when once upon a time they lifted your spirit with heroic deeds and gave you moments, now memories, that altered the path of your life.

Sweet D Left This Mortal Coil.