July 15. 2005 9:23PM
Public hearing on quarter-century-old Klan shootings begins
By TIM WHITMIRE
Associated Press Writer
The widow of a communist labor organizer who died when members of the Ku Klux Klan opened fire at a workers' rally more than 25 years ago charged Friday that city and federal law enforcement officers knew the Klan planned violence but allowed the "government-sanctioned killings" to go forward.
Signe Waller spoke Friday at a public hearing held by the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a grass roots effort modeled on similar commissions in South Africa and Peru.
"It appears to me that a death squad of terrorists was normalized in this city long before Sept. 11, 2001," Waller told commissioners.
Organizers of the seven-member, racially-mixed commission say their effort seeks to uncover the full story behind the shootings, which they believe has not been told, and to seek healing and "restorative justice." But leaders of this central North Carolina city of 223,000 have refused to endorse the commission and its hearings, with many saying they fear the effort will stir up old animosities.
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