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Codename Greenkil: The 1979 Greensboro Killings
Describes the conflict between the Communist Workers Party and the KKK in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1979 and looks at the FBI investigation of charges of conspiracy against the local police force
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2020
This is a definitive history of one of the more bizarre instances of political terrorism in American history: November 3, 1979, when members of both the Klan and the local Nazi party killed five anti-Klan demonstrators, all affiliated with the Maoist Communist Workers' Party, which was trying to organize local North Carolina textile mills.
Wheaton excels at laying out the social dynamics of the CWP (previously the Workers' Viewpoint Organization, among other pseudonyms): how a bunch of idealistic medical students centered around Duke came to embrace Maoism as an extension of their basic commitment to social justice, how their ideological commitments basically ruined whatever chance they had of working collaboratively with other groups to solve concrete problems (like brown lung disease in cotton mills), and how members reacted to five of their group being massacred.
The sections on the Klan and the Nazis are, perhaps inevitably, harder to follow, perhaps due to less access. The tick-tock of the shootings is useful as a reference but difficult to grok as a non-expert trying to understand the sequence of events; names are mentioned without any introduction, and then become important in tracking who was where, when.
There's probably room for a newer history of the case, with more focus on the Klan and putting the events in context of the broader rise of the white power movement (Bring the War Home touches on Greensboro but only in passing). But until then this is the most comprehensive guide we have.
Wheaton excels at laying out the social dynamics of the CWP (previously the Workers' Viewpoint Organization, among other pseudonyms): how a bunch of idealistic medical students centered around Duke came to embrace Maoism as an extension of their basic commitment to social justice, how their ideological commitments basically ruined whatever chance they had of working collaboratively with other groups to solve concrete problems (like brown lung disease in cotton mills), and how members reacted to five of their group being massacred.
The sections on the Klan and the Nazis are, perhaps inevitably, harder to follow, perhaps due to less access. The tick-tock of the shootings is useful as a reference but difficult to grok as a non-expert trying to understand the sequence of events; names are mentioned without any introduction, and then become important in tracking who was where, when.
There's probably room for a newer history of the case, with more focus on the Klan and putting the events in context of the broader rise of the white power movement (Bring the War Home touches on Greensboro but only in passing). But until then this is the most comprehensive guide we have.
October 27, 2024
A white Southern liberal’s patronizing and truncated history of a tragedy where all eyewitness evidence-including actual documentary film footage of the murders- was dismissed twice by all white juries.
Elizabeth Wheaton’s, “Code Name GreenKil” aligns closer to the mode of William Styron’s The Confession of Nat Turner. While the latter is fiction, both books are white liberal distortions of history and at the end of the day feed the white supremacist power structure. Despite her talent as a wordsmith I rapidly revised my initial take on Wheaton as a, “great journalist” once I delved into this book. As a historian she was appalling. In a manner akin to a two-faced Janus, she cloaked herself in a veneer of “balance and equanimity“ while upholding white supremacy..
Moreover, both White liberals and conservatives, perennially enraged at Black/ multi racial US Communists for daring to stand up to white domestic terrorism head on, can feel validated by Wheaton’s , “No heroes but many, many fools” abysmally fallacious logic.
Granted, Wheaton’s book was perhaps good *for its time* when White liberals of the 1980’s grossly underestimated or blithely ignored race and class. The opening -essentially a white liberal’s version of, “Some very fine people on both sides” and her quotes over the years promoting her book are both sanctimonious of herself and infantilizing of the CWP.
For instance, it’s a white liberal circa 1980s belief, that the pattern of the Nazis and the KKK rolling up with high powered weapons to create a human slaughterhouse has “its own logic” in juxtaposition with a multi racial group of radical Leftists exercising their first amendment rights. And by admonishing the survivors for their reluctance towards speaking to her shows a paucity of awareness for mental health -to say nothing of a well reasoned anger at the white supremacist power structure.
That Wheaton sanctimoniously stated the survivors were seeking from her a, “story of their heroism and martyrdom” shows bias and worse, has no empirical basis. Those who are seeking “heroic martyrdom” don’t spend years of their lives trying to unionize textile mills in NC. This is a journalist who said on the record that, “it’s easy to demonize the KKK and the neo-Nazis but…” Yes!! It IS easy to demonize some of the most violent and deadly RACISTS to ever walk the face of the modern American landscape. How many different fallacious arguments are there In her bogus logic?
An example of the white liberal upholding of white supremacy- however inadvertently-Wheaton said that the communists had every right to, “issue a fatwa against the Nazis in the KKK.”
The terminology “Fatwa” in this manner is so racist and offensive that I’m appalled at Elizabeth Wheaton. Fatwas have their antecedent via the Imperialist white supremacist power structure aggression upon Middle Eastern countries. Operation Ajax is a tragic example. Unfortunately, because of what the right wing white supremacist power structure did in Iran etc artists and writers have had to pay with their personal safety or lives.
To claim the CWP would even have the remote power akin to *issue a Fatwa* is appalling and fictional.The term “issue a Fatwa” in this manner denigrates both people of Middle Eastern descent andor Muslims and the victims of the Greensboro Massacre. Wheaton had access to KKK leaders on film issuing the equivalent of TRUE Fatwas which the Klan and Nazis followed through on
Do I believe that Wheaton purposely upheld white supremacy?
In light of what we know 45 years on about the often perfidious nature of white liberalism, the benefit of the doubt makes her work no less dangerous to continuing the dissemination of history regarding the Greensboro Massacre. Read Morningside by Aran Shetterly and leave Code Name Green Kill 45 years in the past where it came from and needs to stay.
Elizabeth Wheaton’s, “Code Name GreenKil” aligns closer to the mode of William Styron’s The Confession of Nat Turner. While the latter is fiction, both books are white liberal distortions of history and at the end of the day feed the white supremacist power structure. Despite her talent as a wordsmith I rapidly revised my initial take on Wheaton as a, “great journalist” once I delved into this book. As a historian she was appalling. In a manner akin to a two-faced Janus, she cloaked herself in a veneer of “balance and equanimity“ while upholding white supremacy..
Moreover, both White liberals and conservatives, perennially enraged at Black/ multi racial US Communists for daring to stand up to white domestic terrorism head on, can feel validated by Wheaton’s , “No heroes but many, many fools” abysmally fallacious logic.
Granted, Wheaton’s book was perhaps good *for its time* when White liberals of the 1980’s grossly underestimated or blithely ignored race and class. The opening -essentially a white liberal’s version of, “Some very fine people on both sides” and her quotes over the years promoting her book are both sanctimonious of herself and infantilizing of the CWP.
For instance, it’s a white liberal circa 1980s belief, that the pattern of the Nazis and the KKK rolling up with high powered weapons to create a human slaughterhouse has “its own logic” in juxtaposition with a multi racial group of radical Leftists exercising their first amendment rights. And by admonishing the survivors for their reluctance towards speaking to her shows a paucity of awareness for mental health -to say nothing of a well reasoned anger at the white supremacist power structure.
That Wheaton sanctimoniously stated the survivors were seeking from her a, “story of their heroism and martyrdom” shows bias and worse, has no empirical basis. Those who are seeking “heroic martyrdom” don’t spend years of their lives trying to unionize textile mills in NC. This is a journalist who said on the record that, “it’s easy to demonize the KKK and the neo-Nazis but…” Yes!! It IS easy to demonize some of the most violent and deadly RACISTS to ever walk the face of the modern American landscape. How many different fallacious arguments are there In her bogus logic?
An example of the white liberal upholding of white supremacy- however inadvertently-Wheaton said that the communists had every right to, “issue a fatwa against the Nazis in the KKK.”
The terminology “Fatwa” in this manner is so racist and offensive that I’m appalled at Elizabeth Wheaton. Fatwas have their antecedent via the Imperialist white supremacist power structure aggression upon Middle Eastern countries. Operation Ajax is a tragic example. Unfortunately, because of what the right wing white supremacist power structure did in Iran etc artists and writers have had to pay with their personal safety or lives.
To claim the CWP would even have the remote power akin to *issue a Fatwa* is appalling and fictional.The term “issue a Fatwa” in this manner denigrates both people of Middle Eastern descent andor Muslims and the victims of the Greensboro Massacre. Wheaton had access to KKK leaders on film issuing the equivalent of TRUE Fatwas which the Klan and Nazis followed through on
Do I believe that Wheaton purposely upheld white supremacy?
In light of what we know 45 years on about the often perfidious nature of white liberalism, the benefit of the doubt makes her work no less dangerous to continuing the dissemination of history regarding the Greensboro Massacre. Read Morningside by Aran Shetterly and leave Code Name Green Kill 45 years in the past where it came from and needs to stay.
March 1, 2023
nazis freaking suck!!!!
July 16, 2025
I have lived in NC my whole life, and this is the first time I've ever heard of this event.
March 16, 2009
Hard for a northener to believe this story of racial killings, travesty of justice that happened as recently as 1979. A book group selection to be discussed today. The author will be a guest at our meeting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews