Thanks to our partner, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a batch containing 1980-1981 issues of the college’s student newspaper are now available.
While similar to previous batches of The Carolina Journal with articles voicing frustrations with campus parking and coverage of popular campus events such as Jam-Up, this batch is set apart by its coverage of the aftermath of the Greensboro Massacre (Greensboro Klan-Nazi) trial on at least two North Carolina college campuses including UNC-Charlotte and UNC Chapel Hill.
On November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, the Communist Workers Party (CWP) held the “Death to the Klan” march. At the march, members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and American Nazi Party (ANP) killed five participants. A year after the incident, which has sense become known as the Greensboro Massacre, the six individuals charged with first-degree murder and felony riot in the Greensboro Klan-Nazi trial were acquitted. In its November 20, 1980 issue, the UNCC’s student newspaper reported little reaction to the acquittal which had been announced three days earlier.
Less than a week later, however, UNCC’s Black Student Union and Student Body Government sponsored a rally to protest the verdict of the trial. Noted speakers at the rally included President of the Black Student Union, Mike Kemp; Charlotte Equal Rights Council Member, Cary Graves; Student Body President, Ron Olsen; and sociology professors Drs. Michael Pearson and Ray Michalowski. In their speeches, they discussed the consequences of the outcome, North Carolina law and history, and the meaning of justice. The newspaper continues to publish articles about the impacts of the trial outcome—both in the state and on-campus—as well as related topics, throughout the remainder of the school year.
To learn more about the Greensboro Massacre, view UNC Greensboro’s project “March for Justice: Documenting the Greensboro Massacre” and UNC’s “Researching the Greensboro Massacre at Wilson Library.“
To learn more about the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, please visit their website.
To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.
