Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this brilliant investigative deep dive, historian Shetterly (The Americano) revisits the 1979 slaying of five radical Black activists by the KKK during an anti-Klan protest in Greensboro, N.C. The Klansmen who fired on the protest were acquitted--they alleged self-defense, though surviving activists maintained their group had not been armed, a fact that Shetterly carefully pieces together evidence to confirm. He traces the legal fallout as the shooting's survivors, with support from the Communist Workers Party, spearheaded a lawsuit alleging a government cover-up. What began as allegations that the police had failed to protect the protesters spiraled into accusations of conspiracy as local newspapers revealed that several Klansmen involved in the shooting--including Eddie Dawson, who recruited his fellow Klansmen to respond to the protest and drove the shooters to the site--were working as informants for both the local police and the ATF. Shetterly digs into the informants' backgrounds, finding evidence that the FBI was involved in their surveillance work, and expands his story into a history of the FBI's extensive COINTELPRO-era use of informants in white supremacist groups for the apparent purpose of harassing and monitoring Black activism. Propulsive and precise, this brings into startling focus the freewheeling world of law enforcement's Cold War--era anticommunist crusade. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In November 1979, Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party members fired on an anti-Klan rally near Morningside Homes in Greensboro, NC, killing five people. After the killers' acquittal, Rev. Nelson Johnson, who had helped assemble marchers, sought to make the city face its responsibility for the tragedy with methods based on Nelson Mandela's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Martin Luther King Jr's concept of Beloved Community. Greensboro finally issued an apology in 2020. With a 40,000-copy first printing.
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Review by School Library Journal Review
In his second full-length book, Shetterly (The Americano) presents a deeply researched and highly detailed account of the November 3, 1979 mass shooting in Greensboro, NC, that left five people dead. Those murdered had planned later that day to participate in an anti--Ku Klux Klan march, but before the march started, three dozen Klan members and neo-Nazis arrived in a caravan and opened fire on the unarmed protestors, spraying 53 bullets over 88 seconds. Shetterly's narrative covers three distinct phases of this tragic episode: the first leads up to and includes the event, the second encompasses the immediate aftermath of the shooting and three different trials, all of which resulted in no jail time for the perpetrators. The third takes a longer view, including the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission founded in 2004. Shetterly most closely follows the arc of Nelson and Joyce Johnson, providing thorough accounts of their community organizing, their marriage, and Nelson's religious awakening, which makes him determined to reach out and communicate with those who killed his friends. VERDICT High school students with a deep interest in history, race relations, and the roots of modern American gun violence will want to pick this up, though more casual readers may find its length and depth too intimidating.--Jessica Epstein
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The full story of an atrocious, racially motivated mass shooting still too little known after a half century. Journalist Shetterly (The Americano: Fighting With Castro for Cuba's Freedom) offers an exhaustive and authoritative rendering of the murderous attack by Klansmen and neo-Nazis that killed five participants at an anti-Klan rally on Nov. 3, 1979. The rally took place near a public housing project called Morningside Homes in Greensboro, North Carolina; it was organized by the Communist Workers Party, a grassroots, multiracial organization. Shetterly's meticulously researched book draws on discoveries among the files of the FBI civil rights investigation (code-named "GreenKil"), the records of the court cases that followed the shootings, and his interviews with more than 70 individuals, including organizers, survivors, and witnesses of the 88-second attack. (In his acknowledgments, Shetterly thanks in particular then-CWP activist and rally organizer Nelson Johnson and FBI special agent Cecil Moses for their cooperation and insights.) The author masterfully uses this material to construct a detailed, nuanced, and gripping narrative that describes all of the principals' motivations, struggles, and aims. Shetterly builds compelling personal profiles of those involved, which enhance his narrative and provide balance. His work constitutes the most definitive account to date of the Morningside massacre and its subsequent political, social, and legal ramifications. Astonishingly, the attack's perpetrators were all acquitted, but Shetterly notes the inspiration that many of the survivors took from the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project, launched in 2001 to search for the justice that local and federal law enforcement and courts of law could not or would not provide. A must for anyone interested in the history of race and social structure in the United States. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
