Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City's Soul – Based on Survivor Interviews and FBI Files: The Pursuit of Truth and Justice

by Aran Shetterly

An unflinching look at a shocking racial tragedy that divides a Southern city—comparable to the recent events in Charlottesville—and the activists who, in their tireless fight for justice, refuse to give up on America’s promised ideals, and pursue racial reconciliation with hope that their fractured city can heal. On November 3, 1979, as activist Nelson Johnson assembled people for a march adjacent to Morningside Homes in Greensboro, North Carolina, gunshots rang out. A caravan of Klansmen and Neo-Nazis sped from the scene, leaving behind five dead. Known as the “Greensboro Massacre,” the event and its aftermath encapsulate the racial conflict, economic anxiety, clash of ideologies, and toxic mix of corruption and conspiracy that roiled American democracy then—and threaten it today. In 88 seconds, one Southern city shattered over irreconcilable visions of America’s past and future. When the shooters are acquitted in the courts, Reverend Johnson, his wife Joyce, and their allies, at odds with the police and the Greensboro establishment, sought alternative forms of justice. As the Johnsons rebuilt their lives after 1979, they found inspiration in Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Martin Luther King Jr’s concept of Beloved Community and insist that only by facing history’s hardest truths can healing come to the city they refuse to give up on. This intimate, deeply researched, and heart-stopping account draws upon survivor interviews, court documents, and the files from one of the largest investigations in FBI history. The persistent mysteries of the case touch deep cultural insecurities and contradictions about race and class. A quintessentially American story, Morningside explores the courage required to make change and the evolving pursuit of a more inclusive and equal future. Morningside includes 30 images throughout.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Society, Race, Crime, American History

480 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2024

About the author

Journalist and narrative historian Aran Shetterly has spent decades writing about people who dream of changing the world and have the conviction and courage to try. His latest book MORNINGSIDE: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City’s Soul (HarperCollins, 2024) has been called “brilliant” (Publisher’s Weekly), “essential” (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow), and “revealing” (Dr. Reverend William Barber II). His previous book, THE AMERICANO, a new account of the Cuban Revolution, was praised as “history at its best” (National Book Award winner Carlos Eire).

He founded the English-language magazine Inside Mexico, which became the most widely distributed English-language periodical in Mexico, publishing long-form pieces on NAFTA, the Mexican-American border, African-Mexicans, Mexico City’s art scene, and many other topics.

Aran has worked as an independent editor and writing coach at Aspen Words, and since 2003, he’s collaborated with the Maine-based arts and education organization Americans Who Tell the Truth. He grew up in rural Maine, studied English Literature and Spanish Language and Culture at Harvard College, and earned an MA in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Charlottesville with his son and wife, the author Margot Lee Shetterly.

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever watched a movie which you were enjoying, but you also found yourself at times wishing certain sections would speed up? I felt that way a bit with Aran Shtterly's Morningside. I thoroughly enjoyed portions of the book and it is overall very well done, but I also found myself at certain points thinking, "Can we please get back to the actual Greensboro case?"

Morningside tells the story of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre where a bunch of Nazis and KKK members attacked a procession of protestors. The protestors were pegged as purely communists which is not a lie but also overly simplistic so I will instead call them "protestors". There is a lot to unpack including the roles of the Greensboro police, the FBI, and assorted informants.

There is enough in this story for about 20 books which is where I had some issues as a reader. Shetterly's narrative is strongest when he is talking about the massacre and aftermath. I was less enthralled when the story dug deeper into various history facets for extended periods of time. For example, the section on Greensboro's namesake, Nathanael Greene of the American Revolution, felt clumsy and extraneous. However, the section on Nelson Johnson's family is very good and made me feel much closer to the material.

The book's organization made this a bigger issue then it needed to be. Part I, III, and IV deal more directly with the massacre while Part II is 150 pages long and is a lot of background. As mentioned, the Johnson family history is a standout portion where others felt overdone. 150 pages out of 400 really breaks up the flow.

All that said, the great in here outweighs any criticisms. There are some huge surprises at the end which I won't spoil here. However, there is some light at the end of this tunnel.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

[Super Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morningside becomes the first major work of narrative history about the Greensboro Massacre, leaving Elizabeth Wheaton’s right wing apologist, CODE NAME: GREEN KILL interred in the 1980s where it needs to remain. Aran Shetterly brings to life a shocking event of mass murder against a multi racial Leftists by white racist extremists who were acquitted by all white juries-twice. Even with the entire event recorded on film, we are shown how the South and the Feds protected the Klan and Neo Nazis in plain sight. The event is chillingly and tragically relevant as I write this review today.

While the historical erasure of civil and human rights violations towards the radical Left was common throughout the late 19th to mid 20th century US, the Greensboro massacre occurred (and was wiped from cultural consciousness) shockingly late in the game. Aran Shetterly not only meticulously researched the actual tragedy and those closely involved, but provides in-depth historical surveys of the American Left, the history of Greensboro , US intelligence and the US Far Right. Moreover, we get an in-depth analysis of all three trials that followed with the third (a partially successful wrongful death lawsuit brought by the Christic Institute) a ground breaking example of human rights justice.

The Greensboro Massacre was the first time (but not the last ), that the KKK collaborated with Neo-Nazis , law enforcement and US intelligence knowledge and backing. Yet MORNINGSIDE is also not a hagiographic look at the US Communist Party. Aran maintains a scholarly equanimity that would make historian and Paul Robeson biographer Martin Duberman proud.

Morningside, named for the Greensboro, North Carolina housing project where the massacre occurred, is not only the definitive history of the tragedy but Aran delved into both unseen and VERY uncomfortable US history to bring to life perhaps the most important US event of the late 20th century.

For instance, Labor history is the purposefully erased or forgotten third side of the US civil rights and racial history pyramid and the primary reason why the five CWP members were gunned down in cold blood. To challenge big business in right wing corporate America is to risk your life. While it’s true, that CWP members had physically confronted and challenged the Ku Klux Klan, both intelligence and law-enforcement stood down on November 3rd 1979 because for years the communists had been hard-core labor organizers in union fallow North Carolina. The CWP’s enemies stretched far beyond the Klan.

Not only has labor history been erased from both history books and cultural consciousness, but when Black male public figures (eg: Paul Robeson, MLK and the CWP’s Nelson Johnson) become heavily involved in trade Unionism they become dead men walking.

[Alandya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to read the manuscript of Morningside before its release.

All I can say is WOW, and thank you Aran Shetterly for sharing this story with the world. As a Greensboro native who grew up with little mention of the 1979 Massacre during school—save for a field trip my junior year of high school to the Greensboro Museum—this book gave me a holistic view of the city that raised me and shaped who I am today.

In the epilogue, Shetterly's words deeply resonated with me: “But who gets to tell the history and who gets to make demands on the history is changing...history can be re-examined from the original, primary documents and represented by people other than the creators of the data, the ‘victors.’”

This line puts the timeline into perspective and reminds me that nothing is ever truly “a long time ago.”



The 1979 Greensboro Massacre deserves to be brought back into our collective memory, especially for my generation, who were kept from learning about it. Aran Shetterly brilliantly captures the storied experiences of Black Greensboro, memorializing and giving humanity to the five spirits lost on November 3rd, and weaving centuries of history and context.

The dedication and sacrifices of Nelson and Joyce Johnson particularly moved me.

Reading Morningside made me reflect on my own connections and sent me down a rabbit hole, eager to learn about other historical events in NC that are not as well known.

A truly powerful work. It has inspired me deeply, and I hope that everyone in Greensboro and beyond can know this “forgotten” story.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always had an interest in the 1979 event labeled The Greensboro Massacre. It has alerted me to the ever present danger of political street violence. For those not familiar, five young people were killed by the Ku Klux Klan while leading a march meant to improve the lives of Greensboro's under privileged black citizens. The victims were member of the Communist Workers Party. No one was ever held responsible for the killings. The CWP evoked no sympathy.

I do credit this author with researching and publishing details of the tragedy. It has been relatively unknown to most people.

The book could have used extensive editing. Too many organizational acronyms were scattered on each page. The same with minor character's names. The lack of concise structure made important events seem indistinct. The book ends with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission not supported by the city and featuring unrepentant Klansmen as speakers. We cannot have a peace and joy moment before members of the community embrace the wrongs of history. That is more true than ever at the present moment in the United States.

[Books Amongst Friends · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morningside by Aran Shetterly may not be lengthy, but it is packed with insight and depth, which could feel overwhelming to some readers. I’m not surprised to see reviewers from North Carolina mentioning that they had no prior knowledge of the events detailed here—this only underscores the very issues Shetterly explores. His focus on the indifference from the perpetrators and the Greensboro community, alongside the ongoing legacy of injustice through misinformation and stripped history, reveals how deeply these wounds are embedded. The fact that the families of the five victims are still fighting for acknowledgment only highlights the persistence of these injustices.

The audiobook added another layer to this experience, allowing Shetterly's passion for the topic to come through. His commitment to shining a light on the complexities of this tragedy and its far-reaching impact is evident in every word. This book urges readers to confront history, accept responsibility, and grow from it as a path forward—a profound message on how Greensboro could embrace its past to become a better place.

Shetty’s storytelling style is both meticulous and engaging. He goes beyond recounting the events of that tragic day, delving into the conditions that led to it and the lasting repercussions. Through his thorough research and nuanced perspective, he delivers a powerful and necessary examination of racial and political injustice that still resonates today. One of the aspects I found most compelling was the exploration of the Communist Workers Party (CWP), whose resilience and impact remain poignant reminders of the fight for justice.

This is a deeply educational and impactful read, one that Shetterly has crafted to hold readers’ attention and challenge them to reflect on history and its echoes in today’s world.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of the Greensboro Massacre and this book was very enlightening, frustrating [more on that later], deeply sad, and a VERY read reminder that the fight for Civil Rights is still very much a part of our world and we all need to be committed to continuing the fight.

The frustrating part is this: this was a well-written, and an obviously well-researched book [the author's notes at the end really delve more into this], but I DID spend a lot of time, whilst listening to lengthy histories [of the people and the area], wishing we could just get back to the actual massacre story itself and a more in-depth look of what happened before, during, and after the event and less of everything else [not that it wasn't interesting and informative, because it was, but I just feel it overshadowed the actual event]; I do feel a little let down because of this.

Overall, this was a very interesting and insightful book [I know more about Greensboro and the area than I did going in and commend the people that live there for trying to overcome horrible circumstances] about an event I knew absolutely nothing about and even with my frustration, I still recommend this book [I also recommend the audiobook for this; Leon Nixon is one of my absolute favorites and does an superb job here].

Thank you to NetGalley, Aran Robert Shetterly, and Amistad for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Amistad for providing me with a digital ARC of this book.

Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City’s Soul is a deeply salient account of the Greensboro Massacre, where a protest led by a local chapter of the Communist Workers’ Party (CWP) against the Klan culminated in an armed ambush by the KKK and neo-Nazis and ended with the deaths of five people on November 3, 1979.

As a Greensboro native who rarely ever heard of the 1979 Massacre growing up, I found this book to be devastatingly eye-opening and extremely detailed in its account of the event. Shetterly paints a colorful picture of a critical and overlooked point of American history through the lens of the Greensboro Massacre, when tensions between ideologies were on the verge of boiling over—post-McCarthy communist organizing, the blossoming white power militia movement in the wake of the Vietnam War, and the storied fight of multiracial coalitions in the South to create a better future in America. He also delves into the deep, conflicted history of the city of Greensboro, a city precariously balancing on a knife’s edge.

The violence committed on November 3, 1979 is unfortunately all too familiar to us now in an era where gun violence has become a startlingly regular occurrence. It has been almost a decade since a white supremacist killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It has been seven years since the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of counter protestors and killed Heather Heyer. Within the last several years, we have seen an increasingly violent response from police and right-wing agitators towards peaceful protests all across the United States. This is a story about America’s past and present—and a plea for our future.

While the individuals whose lives were abruptly cut short that morning never received justice, their deaths did not snuff out their work. Their families, friends and loved ones continued their fight for justice and push for equality, only deepened by that loss. Despite efforts to paper over the event with corporate amiability and deliberate obfuscation by the Greensboro Police Department, the FBI, and other prominent Greensboro institutions, their loss and their memories continue to persist.

A searing look at an overlooked act of racial and political violence, Aran Shetterly’s Morningside unravels the tensions between the multiracial fight for justice and the nation’s dark underbelly of white supremacy which still continue today. It is a call to reckon with the devastation of America’s racial past in order to move forward with clear eyes towards a brighter future.

[Joy Stover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a comprehensive look at not only this one event that transpired in Greensboro but the city’s long history and struggles for civil rights. We can’t just look forward, we need to learn about our complicated past and the many systemic problems we still have as a nation. I enjoyed listening to Aran Shutterfly at the VA Festival of the book and I was fascinated by the story.

[TheCalloftheLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps my most anticipated book of the past few months- when I heard this was published I had to read it. Would say that, for the most part, I found the whole monograph mostly generative and enlightening, albeit also frequently an infuriating read, given both the subject matter as well as some of the book’s bizarre scaffolding/framing. However, it must be emphasized how necessary this history is, how it quite literally provides a long-missing, measured account of a tragedy that up until this point just did not exist, especially to this degree of depth. Additionally, the decision to contextualize the narrative of Greensboro with focus on 70s organizing which never features in narratives around american liberation struggles was personally illuminating, emphasizing the long, unfulfilled aspects of resistance, both with regards to race and class, which have lead us to the present moment. So, even with considerable caveats to the work as a complete story, with a disappointing conclusive arc, this is still immeasurably important scholarship to have.

Speaking to the structural issues, I have to say the choice to open on the minute-by-minute of the shooting before giving any background feels to me like a short-sighted one, especially given that we never really return to these specifics from the grounded perspectives Shetterly uses initially. The closest is the minutiae of the trail, but even there Shetterly is oddly distant from sketching a exact timeline of events? It’s there to parse, certainly, but it’s not as clear as I would expect. More troubling is that we get so much more context about each person’s life after we’ve already “experienced” the massacre. I wish it was a bit more interwoven, in light of just how much detail and background Shetterly employs (one of the text’s positives!)

There’s also the quirk of the prose. Mostly inconsequential but the opening again frustrated me because Shetterly tries much too hard to employ gravitas and it ends up crossing a line for me of editorializing for the sake of it. Sentences like: “The fifty-nine-year-old Eddie related to something in the Weary Willie: An echo of the Great Depression’s tough times that shaped him” and so on. Sorry, I would literally prefer dry, overly-academic language to this kind of storytelling– it is much more exact!

I had additional frustrations with Shetterly’s ultimate treatment of the Klan as a narrative subject; he obviously has little sympathy for them, a step up from Elizabeth Wheaton I suppose, but Shetterfly has less interest in the Klan than this history deserves, choosing very specifically to focus on the (just as important) implication of police and FBI involvement in the massacre. To me, Kathleen Belew’s Bring the War Home becomes a required supplement for understanding how white supremacist organizing capitalized on the domestic murdering of communists with little consequence and the way the entire event spurred fundraising for the trial, as well as just in a general sense for the movement. These guys gave speeches! The closest we get to this is Shetterly mentioning one of the Klan members flaunting autopsy photos he managed to get a hold of, but the way this was illustrative of a larger pattern of behavior was offhanded at best.

Just generally, Shetterly is very shy around the larger context of mercenary anti-communist warfare that white supremacists were involved with, as well as the fact this directly aligned them with the goals of the FBI. Shetterly asks, after detailing the involvement of an informant in the violence against the Freedom Riders: “How much of the twentieth century’s shocking political violence had been caused by the FBI’s repressive tactics, the fear it fanned, and its cultivation of domestic terrorism by secret informants and provocateurs?... it seemed to [Philip Hart] that prevention wasn’t the FBI’s objective, ‘I was too dumb to realize,’ an agonized [Philip] Hart continued, ‘that [Rowe’s] presence there did not prevent violence and indeed, maybe contributed to it” but doesn’t really seem keen extrapolate this to a natural conclusion whatsoever about anti-communism. He keeps it squarely in the context of civil rights and the long partnership between violent southern racism and the law, to the detriment of the black organizers who were targeted by the Klan for being communists! This is especially galling considering the actual outcome of the civil suit: “The issue animating the four in favor of acquittal wasn’t that they believed the Klan or Nazis or even law enforcement to be innocent, but that a significant settlement would give fresh life to communist organizing” and the jury “agreed to find eight defendants… jointly liable for the death of Mike Nathan, awarding his widow $351,000… To the families of Sandi Smith, Bill Sampson, Cesar Cauce, and Jim Waller, the jury awarded nothing.” Mike Nathan was not a communist and he was unarmed, the clear reasoning behind the jury’s decision to provide his widow compensation and not the other families. The book does seem to agree with the lawyers, he presents it as a silver-lining that a jury found officers and Klansmen jointly liable for a crime in Greensboro. But to me this is generally emblematic of the uneasy conclusive arm of the last segment of the book around “reconciliation”.

Shetterly focuses the last chapters heavily on Nelson Johnson, the primary target of the Greensboro Massacre and someone Shetterly was introduced to and knew personally. Later in life Johnson had a pretty significant change of faith which informs nearly all of the conclusions Shetterly comes to about Greensboro. Johnson is quoted thusly: “We are in large part responsible for whatever misunderstanding arose from that phrase, because it was our decision to use that phrase ‘Death to the Klan’ as a slogan” and he not only regretted the use of the term communist but also threatening the Klan at all. “That was wrong… I do apologize for my brothers and sisters who were and may still be Klan or Nazi members”. I have no ill will toward Johnson, who probably had very good reasons for his decision to turn toward religion and soften his rhetoric post-massacre after literal decades of surveillance and harassment. But this, coupled with the over-reliance on the possible “healing” which could have come out of 2020-era city acknowledgement of the massacre and Greensboro's attempt at truth and reconciliation, just feels so out of touch by 2025 on the part of the author. This was published in October! The tide was already past turning!

But, regardless, these misgivings are mostly secondary to the meat of the text; as many problems as I have, once this gets into gear as an actual narrative, it is truly incredible. I love histories that feel shaded with the real weight of time and place and Shetterly is dedicated to infusing the text with the vast history of Greensboro itself as emblematic of the wider black freedom struggle- from sit-ins to riots to the communist attempts at unionization. And the depth of information Shetterly manages to impart during the trial portion really shines, some of my qualms, like his over-novelistic tone, completely disappears and the events are given proper detail/weight. And, more generally, this is doing really important work on the whole, it functions at all points like it is very specifically countering the “outside agitators” narrative which appears in nearly every other mention of the massacre.

Anyway. Other Unused Miscellaneous Quotes:

“The agents gathering in Greensboro all knew that more rode on the GreenKill investigation than the indictments of a few ‘dumb Kluckers’... the crime gave them license to freely investigate the Communist Workers Party”

“The Bureau stopped using the politically charged term subversives and adopted terrorists to emphasize violence rather than ideology”

Some stuff about the comparison between protest and performance: “They were like directors of elaborate, provocative street theater, moving people around their communities in an effort, as the German socialist playwright Berolt Brecht coached, to usher in a new historical reality by making ‘the familiar strange’”
and
“In response [to police and National Guardsmen killing three teenagers who’d been protesting a segregated bowling alley at SCSU], Nelson, his new mentor and collaborator Howard Fuller, and others planned demonstrations in cities around North Carolina. Nelson borrowed three coffin boxes from a Black funeral home, filled them with donated flowers, and fashioned a crude effigy of South Carolina’s governor”
and
“The effort culminated in an elaborate community theater performance. Joyce Johnson presided over a people’s court. Appointed citizen-prosecutors presented evidence… The community solemnly and unanimously convicted Joe Judge, law enforcement officials, and others for murder and conspiracy to avoid justice”

“The president placed Donald Rumsfeld ‘a ruthless little bastard,’ as Nixon called his deputy, in charge of the OEO. Rumsfeld brought along another ambitious young conservative, Richard ‘Dick’ Cheney, as an assistant… Multiracial democracy spreading to an organized base of poor and marginalized people threatened conservatives’ political prospects, which depended on the solidarity of the white majority. If Nixon… could hamstring the OEO and secure votes while doing so, all the better” (average Nixon staffer of racism to consequential war criminal pipeline)

[Ben S · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a longtime Greensboro resident, was I more inclined to have a favorable view of this book? Possibly. But it's about time someone wrote this story, and everybody should read it.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about Peaceful protests and the environment in which the Civil Rights Movement sprang from is important and necessary for Americans to understand our history in full. Our schools gloss over much of this time in history, focusing primarily on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches and activities. King was hardly the only activist at the time, and it's important that we all understand that and know how many leaders were able to organize to stand up for what they believed.

The book focuses on the Greensboro Massacre and highlights the life of Nelson Johnson and his wife, Joyce. Nelson and Joyce Johnson have dedicated their lives to fighting against oppression.

The account starts with the Massacre, the 88 seconds that killed 5 people. The book then back tracks to the events leading up to the massacre, incorporating the political climate at the time. The federal and civil trials are then detailed. All in all, the account is fairly thorough and covers various views of what led up to the Massacre, also presenting the idea of potential government involvement (to the point of influence).

By the way..
If you Google "Nelson Johnson," some white dude shows up.

Instead, you will have to Google "Nelson Joyce Johnson" to find direct results about Nelson Johnson, the activist. And they don't even have a Wiki page...

It seems indicative of America.

Therefore, thank you to Shetterly for taking the time to record this bit of history that would have otherwise been minimized and potentially lost.

Needed some basic maps, an index, and a reference of all the people involved.

[Ana Hebra Flaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read to discover and to understand, if you love illuminating, true stories about the quest for justice—especially racial justice—you need to read Aran Shetterly’s latest book.

I just finished it, and I’m in awe of what Shetterly has accomplished in "Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City’s Soul."

I’d read Shetterly’s "The Americano," so I knew this would be a historically important but little-known story and that it would be carefully researched and skillfully told. But I was astounded by the depth of Shetterly’s 360-degree investigation, his success in capturing the why of the tragic event, and his effort to give all parties involved a chance to explain their motives, however hard they might be to read or think about.

"Morningside" takes you to 1979 Greensboro, North Carolina, and drops you in the middle of a collision between naïve young communists intent on revolution, a Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis determined to “protect” white supremacy, and local police and FBI who were either deliberately or negligently asleep in the wheelhouse of law enforcement and the mission to protect all citizens. The cost. Five people killed, a Black neighborhood ripped apart, and victims’—and survivors’—families scarred forever.

From the tense prelude to the painful aftermath, Shetterly lights up each scene with sensory details and insights. His attention to people’s emotions, motives, background, their hidden injuries and secret dreams, make this complex, detailed account riveting.

Shetterly weaves in tangential topics that are interesting on their own, but he stays on course, carefully pulling the threads together to strengthen the narrative. We see the roots of Greensboro’s racist past, its once thriving Black community, how leading Quakers played both sides of the racial relations game, the surprising union between capitalists’ foundations and the young revolutionaries, how city leaders deftly hid the ugly parts of Greensboro’s history as they pursued national accolades.

The weight of the loss of five vibrant lives touches every page of "Morningside." But the survivors’ paths to redemption and transformation left me with a somber hopefulness I suspect many of us need right now.

"Morningside" and its lessons will stay with you long after you’ve closed the cover of this amazing book. You’ll want to read more, and Shetterly gives you the chance, in the Notes section. The more I read, the more I admired the author’s respect for truth and his reach for justice.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important and very needed examination of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre. Well written and researched - highly recommended.

[Tay · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audio) this was a fantastic read that I think was incredibly thorough, thought provoking, and well told. It did tend to drag in some places or be a bit too detailed, but i overall think I learned a lot from it and took a lot away from it.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, is this book ever in desperate need of an index. It could probably use a cast of characters, but it surely needs an index. I spent much of the book in an amorphous fog, not fully sure who the main characters were. About 100 pages in, I realized "OK, it's this Nelson Johnson guy" but it took that long. In the first chapter, there are repeated references to a guy called "Big Man" - actual name Thomas Anderson. With a nickname like that, and with frequent references to him, I figure this is a guy to keep an eye on. I'm not sure he even showed up in the book after the first chapter.

The book has four main sections. The first section, lasting 90 pages, is about the Massacre itself. The second part goes into the years that led up to it. (Much of this focuses on Nelson Johnson, which is how I figured out for sure he's the top guy). The third section covers a series of trials that took place after the massacre. The final section looks at post-trial reconciliation.

The shooting was essentially a pre-planned massacre by the KKK and American Nazi Party, where local authority figures essentially took a series of non-actions to let it happen. Yet, the criminal trials kept finding the accused innocent. A final civil trial found some Klansmen and a few officials guilty of damages for the murder of one of the five killed that day. One thing hurting earlier prosecutions: the march was put on by the Communist Workers Party, which limited sympathy, even though they were the victims here. Nelson Johnson later left the party and became a Christian preacher.

There is a legitimate narrative here and points made - but some basic issues made it a lot harder for me to follow than it should have.

Random thing: Nelson Johnson died last month, about the time I started reading this. R.I.P.

[Catherine Cambron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to read Aran Shetterly’s Morningside in manuscript. It is an incisive and meticulously researched account of the tragic 1979 Greensboro massacre, a racially motivated attack that remains under-recognized even decades later; I’ve lived in North Carolina for 20 years but was unaware that this happened in my home state. Shetterly takes a very granular approach, following the stories of all the participants, to relate the events of the November day when Klansmen and neo-Nazis targeted a peaceful anti-Klan rally organized by the Communist Workers Party, murdering five participants. He then tells the story of the aftermath, as survivors tried to make sense of their commitments and the apparent indifference of a community where police failed to provide protection for the rally and the courts of law then failed to hold the murderers accountable for their actions. Shetterly uses a wealth of sources, including FBI files and firsthand interviews, to craft a compelling and balanced narrative. Particularly moving was the story of the survivors’ efforts, more than 20 years later, to extract from these events a sense of meaning and justice through the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project. Morningside stands out as an essential read for anyone interested in the intersections of race, justice, and social change in America.

[Matthew Heller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Without a doubt, one of the worst non-fiction books I've ever read (and I've read hundreds). I've always been interested in the Greensboro Massacre since I stumbled upon an earlier (much better) book about it by one of the survivors. This book, however, is a turgid, stultifying slow-paced mess that initially gets bogged down in an interminable account of the struggles of various labor and anti-poverty organizations in the years leading up to the massacre and then inflicts a completely unnecessary post-massacre coda on the reader. Shetterly takes the omniscient narrator approach to the most annoying extreme, constantly putting himself inside his characters' heads so he can pontificate about what they were thinking. There's also all manner of inaccuracies, e.g. civil defendants are not "acquitted" but are found not liable. The book's fatal flaw, however, is to single out Greensboro activist and massacre survivor Nelson Johnson as its saintly hero. The man is sanctimonious, self-righteous and boring but Shetterly presents him as a mixture of Jesus Christ, MLK and Gandhi. Sadly, what gets lost in all this fog is the true significance of the massacre and the collaboration between the Klan and local and federal law enforcement that appears to have made it possible. I somehow plowed my way through all this but I would strongly advise others not to bother.

[Evan Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

History is best seen through the eyes of dramatic personal stories, which Aran Shetterly vividly brings to life in his latest book Morningside. Racist local police, arrogant FBI agents, furious Klansmen, naive labor leaders, idealist communists - they’re all part of the combustible mix of Greensboro NC in 1979, colliding violently in an American tragedy that has somehow fallen under the radar. Shetterly joins David Grann and Erik Larsen as a history story-teller, writing a griping account of an under-covered event, steeped in primary research, fascinating minutia, and the authentic voices of the protagonists. The story is important and engrossing, yet another chapter of the social, economic and cultural divisions that cleaves American society as much 45 years ago as they do today.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very ambitious book which tries to reconcile the causes of the 1979 Greensboro massacre with the social forces at work during this time. Unfortunately the author gets way too deep into other societal influences which may or may not have any relevance to what happened in Greensboro. I found this book somewhat convoluted and difficult to read at times.

[Bonnie Fournier · Rating 2 out of 5]

troublemaker

Lessons have been learned. Tables have turned. Please quit poking the bear. I was there for much of this history. Young people today are taking these stories and they don't know that it is just that, HISTORY. Authors today should take care to explain that to young readers and clarify the changes That have been made. It is not time for them to retaliate.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest this book was a big giant bore. it was very confusing and nearly impossible to read. The description of the actual event was muddled, the backgrounds of all of the groups and individuals involved was poor it did a very poor job clearly setting up the central story. it did tell them but in a non-linear fashion

I say pass.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was not aware of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre or of the organizing activities of the Communist Workers' Party in North Carolina. This story feels both geographically specific and also universal with its uncomfortable echoes in 2017 Charlottesville. Shetterly has the ability to distill reams of research into a compelling narrative that will keep you turning the page.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish. I tried but the author's inconsistencies in the names of the people, one paragraph using surnames, another first names, and a general jumping around and spendind pages and chapters on distracting episodes just made for a hard read........

[Chastity Stanfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! You should be prepared to be shocked, mad, happy, sad, and ready to find out the truth of what happened in Greensboro, NC, that stopped a town that had the beginnings to be a great place for African American growth.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

POPSUGAR 2024: A book with a one-word title you had to look up in a dictionary

[Stephen Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy hell that was a great book. If you think the government, the security forces and the media are there for you, read this and you’ll think otherwise

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. This isn't history. It's current events. And there are lessons this story shares about how to move forward.

[Julie Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Kathy Kirstner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longtime residents or history buffs will enjoy this book. I came to Greensboro in 1986. I now have a greater understanding of the 11/3/79 events that killed 5 people.