BCC Supports Historical Marker

BELOVED COMMUNITY CENTER BOARD STRONGLY ENDORSES NORTH CAROLINA HIGHWAY HISTORICAL MARKER ADVISORY COMMITTEE'S WORDING AS "GREENSBORO MASSACRE" FOR PROPOSED NOVEMBER 3, 1979 MARKER AND INVITES COMMUNITY TO PUBLIC INFORMATION SESSIONS

The Beloved Community Center Board has affirmed its support for the placement of a NC State Highway Committee Historical Marker in the former Morningside Homes Neighborhood, site of the daylight killing of 5 labor and community organizers, wounding of 10 others, and terrorizing of an African-American community on November 3, 1979.  Some members of the Greensboro City Council have voiced disagreement with erecting the historical marker; others have expressed disunity with the marker's wording; still others have affirmed unity with the wording and placement of the marker. 

So, what is the significance of this public debate?  The Board of Directors of the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro has scheduled two public information sessions to help inform and educate the community on the importance of erecting the marker and keeping the wording recommended by the NC Highway Historical Marker Advisory Committee -- Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 12 Noon - 2 pm, at Beloved's Office, located at 417 Arlington Street (Faith Community Church building) and Monday, February 2, 2015, 6:30 - 8 pm, at Bethel AME Church, 200 Regan Street.  The public is invited.

Mr. Lewis A. Brandon, III, a veteran Greensboro community organizer and a volunteer Beloved staff person (Grassroots History Coordinator) submitted the application to the State Historical Marker  Committee.  The Beloved Board approved Brandon's action.  The State Historical Marker Committee approved the request to erect a marker, acknowledging the murders of November 3, 1979 as an important event in our state.  Brandon's request was not the first that the Committee had received over the years.  Consistent with its established process, the Committee carefully screened the request, agreed on the appropriate brief wording for the marker, its placement, etc.  As part of that process, the Committee received input from several established historians to insure historical accuracy, clarity of the wording of the marker, etc. 

The Committee decided that the marker should be placed at the corner of Willow Road and McConnell Road and that the wording should read:

Ku Klux Klan & American Nazi Party members,
On Nov. 3, 1979, shot & killed five Communist
Workers Party members one-tenth mile north.

Some city councilpersons have expressed views that the term "massacre" is inappropriate and that the term "shoot-out" is more appropriate.  Beloved thinks the wording agreed upon by the state Committee should stand because it is historically accurate and acknowledges the significance of events of November 3rd. The January 28th noontime event at Beloved's office and the February 2nd gathering at Bethel AME will elaborate why Beloved stands with the Highway Marker Committee's wording. 

Plan now to attend one or both of these events -- ask questions, share your views.  Beloved has also asked concerned community members to attend the February 3, 2015 City Council meeting, at 5:00 pm, to show support for erecting the November 3, 1979 marker and to insist that the historically accurate wording, "Greensboro Massacre," be maintained.

Additional background information on the November 3, 1979 may be found on the Beloved website at www.belovedcommunitycenter.org and the website of the independent  Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission at www.greensborotrc.org