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Greensboro Massacre Survivor Responds To City’s Formal Apology

WUNC | By Frank Stasio,
Amanda Magnus
Published October 7, 2020 at 12:01 PM EDT
Nelson Johnson kneels with a victim on Nov. 3, 1979.
Nelson Johnson kneels with a victim on Nov. 3, 1979.

More than four decades after the Greensboro Massacre, the city formally apologizes for the role of city police. On Nov. 3, 1979, a caravan of Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazi Party members pulled out weapons and killed five people protesting at an anti-Klan march in Greensboro. Ten people were injured, and the police were nowhere to be found — even though they knew a violent attack was coming. 

Host Frank Stasio talks to Greensboro Massacre survivor Reverend Nelson Johnson about the news that the Greensboro City Council voted to formally apologize and recognize the role of the city in the 1979 tragedy.The Greensboro City Council voted 7-2 on a resolution that includes both a formal apology and details about an annual scholarship program that awards $1,979 to five graduates of Dudley High School in memory of the five victims.

Host Frank Stasio gets reaction from Reverend Nelson Johnson, executive director of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro and a survivor of the Greensboro Massacre.

Archival image courtesy Greensboro News & Record.

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio
Amanda Magnus
Amanda Magnus grew up in Maryland and went to high school in Baltimore. She became interested in radio after an elective course in the NYU journalism department. She got her start at Sirius XM Satellite Radio, but she knew public radio was for her when she interned at WNYC. She later moved to Madison, where she worked at Wisconsin Public Radio for six years. In her time there, she helped create an afternoon drive news magazine show, called Central Time. She also produced several series, including one on Native American life in Wisconsin. She spends her free time running, hiking, and roller skating. She also loves scary movies.
See stories by Amanda Magnus