Ubuntu Weekly #57

With the date set, we’re now planning the details of our closing ceremony on May 25 – 58 days from today – at the same time that we continue working to complete our report in time.

• Community reconciliation in Greensboro is going to require a lot of work by a lot of groups, which we’re now beginning to identify. All groups interested in standing for truth and reconciliation by becoming GTRC Report Receivers can click here for the invitation and agreement form. For more information, contact our volunteer Receivers coordinator, Samantha Hargrove, at samhargrove@hotmail.com or 336-988-2019.
• Volunteer of the Week: Steve Swanson, a legal scholar who worked through the International Center for Transitional Justice to complete a fact memo for our final report on First Amendment questions inherent in our work. Thanks, Steve!
• This week’s progress indicator: So far, nine colleges and universities have expressed interest in purchasing our public hearings DVDs as a research and teaching tool. Click here for more information on how to order this collection.

Latest news coverage:
UNCG Carolinian mention, Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Mississippi Public Broadcasting coverage, Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Poverty & Race newsletter coverage, January/February 2006

Our upcoming events:
“Poetry, Truth and Reconciliation,” 2-5 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Nussbaum Room, Central Library, 219 N. Church St. Workshop co-sponsored with the Greensboro Public Library as part of Poetry GSO, led by Jacinta White of the Word project, who will present techniques for using poetry as a means of community healing. For info, e-mail info@greensborotrc.org.

GTRC Report Receivers Gathering, 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, Tuscana Cuisine, 709 E. Market St. Meeting to begin making plans for continuing community reconciliation work. For more info, contact our volunteer Receivers coordinator, Samantha Hargrove, at samhargrove@hotmail.com or 336-988-2019.

GTRC Closing Ceremony, 6 p.m. Thursday, May 25, 2006, Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel, Bennett College for Women, 900 E. Washington St.

UBUNTU – “I am what I am because of who we all are.” For a more complete definition, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

Deffense Attorneys' Public Hearing Statement Transcript

Click here to read the transcript from the public hearing statements of Bob Cahoon, Hal Greeson and Percy Wall.

Mr. Cahoon, Mr. Greeson and Mr. Wall were publicly appointed defense attorneys for Roland Wayne Wood, Coleman (Johnny) Pridmore, and David Mathews, respectively, in the 1980 state murder trial.

Thanks to Sarah Marshall and Kristi Parker for volunteering to transcribe this statement.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Joyce Johnson's Public Hearing Statement Transcript

Click here to read the transcript of Joyce Johnson's statement at the Commission's third public hearing.

Joyce Johnson is the director of the Jubilee Institute of Greensboro's Beloved Community Center and wife of the Rev. Nelson Johnson since 1969. A mother, grandmother and activist, she has worked for black liberation in the United States and Africa, quality public education, economic justice and women's rights. She retired in 2000 after 27 years of service to NCA&T State University, where she was director of the Transportation Institute. A native of Richmond, VA, she graduated from Duke University in 1968.

Thanks to volunteers Melody Thomas and Sue Keith for transcribing this statement.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

GTRC Report Receiver Invitation

To: All Greensboro community, civic and religious organizations (and national organizations, too!)

From: The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Date: Spring 2006

At a ceremony June 12, 2004, witnessed by more than 500 people, the seven members of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission – the first of its kind in the United States –accepted a mandate from the grassroots Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project to seek the truth and work for reconciliation around the five deaths of Nov. 3, 1979.

In the 21 months since then, with the help of a five-member staff, the Commission has examined the context, causes, sequence and consequences of an event that traumatized the city. We held three public hearings and a community dialogue that highlighted the many different perspectives that exist about the shootings and their aftermath.

At a report release ceremony on Thursday, May 25, we will deliver our final report, which will include recommendations for concrete community healing and restorative justice and mark the official end of our work. Our mandate directs us to deliver our report to the residents of Greensboro, the city, the Project (which launched the democratic process that created the Commission), and “other public bodies.”

We now invite you, as a representative of a local organization working for the good of Greensboro, to make your organization one of those other public bodies by becoming an official GTRC Report Receiver, acknowledging that truth and reconciliation are worthy goals and that the Commission has taken its mandate seriously. Specifically, without agreeing in advance with any of our findings, GTRC Report Receivers agree to do the following:

· Send a representative from the organization to symbolically receive the Commission’s final report at our report release ceremony, 6 p.m. Thursday, May 25, in the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel at Bennett College for Women, 900 E. Washington St.;
· Read the report or the executive summary as a group, then engage in an open and honest dialogue about our findings;
· (Local organizations only) Send a representative to a community-wide gathering of GTRC Report Receivers at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 4, 2006, at Tuscana Cuisine, 709 E. Market St.
· Assess the report’s findings and recommendations, then work to help implement any of the recommendations we agree will further the cause of community reconciliation and healing.

Once our report is delivered, the Commission will no longer exist. It will then be the responsibility of our community to use what we’ve learned through this process to ensure the long-lasting results envisioned in the Project’s Declaration of Intent, which calls for six to 12 months of dialogue based on our impartial report.

Will you stand with us? The more groups that choose to take ownership of this pioneering effort, the stronger it will be. If you have questions, a GTRC representative can come speak with your group to answer them. Thank you in advance for completing and returning the form by mail, personal delivery, fax or e-mail, using the contact information below.

122 N. Elm St., Suite 505, Greensboro, NC 27401 ● Phone: 336-275-6462 ● Fax: 336-275-6227 ● info@greensborotrc.org

Tammy Tutt's Public Hearing Transcript

Click here to read the transcript of Tammy Tutt's statement at the Commission's third public hearing.

Tammy Tutt is a Greensboro resident who was living in Morningside Homes, the Greensboro community where the shootings happened on November 3, 1979. She was borned and raised in public housing and now is active in the community.

Thanks to Neubia Williams for help with transcribing this statement.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Public Hearing Statements of Drs. Millicent Brown and Michael Roberto

Click here to read the transcript of statements of Dr. Millicent Brown and Dr. Michael Roberto at the Commission's third public hearing.

Dr. Millicent Brown is an assistant professor in the history department at N.C. A&T State University. Her introduction into issues of segregation and educational equity began with her role as a child in Millicent Brown vs. School Board District 20, City of Charleston, SC, which was South Carolina’s first desegregation case in 1963. Dr. Brown grew up in an activist household as the daughter of a NAACP official who was president at both local and state levels and who has active since the 60s in civil rights work , especially focusing on police brutality and educational equity.

Dr. Michael Roberto is also an assistant professor in the history department of N.C. A&T State University and a resident of Greensboro for more than 25 years working as a journalist part of that time working with the Carolina Peacemaker and the News & Record. A contemporary world historian, his primary teaching fields also include world history and the history of socialism. He has his B.A. degree from Adelphi University, his Masters from the University of Rhode Island and a Ph.D. from Boston College.

Special thanks to our volunteers - Kristi Parker and Neubia Williams - for transcribing these statements.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Ubuntu Weekly #56

We’re thankful this week to Bennett College for Women, which will house our archives, for agreeing to host the May 25th ceremony at which we’ll deliver our final report to the community (details below). Please mark your calendars and plan to join us.

• Thanks, too, to the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and Southern Truth and Reconciliation for organizing “Southern Exposure: A Regional Summit on Racial Violence and Reconciliation,” an educational and inspiring Mississippi conference that brought Commission staff members together with others seeking truth and working for reconciliation around tragic events throughout the South.
• On the way to Mississippi, Commission staff members, along with GTCRP Local Task Force Representatives, led a workshop for Davidson College student leaders on “Leading in the Face of Resistance.” Young people will have to carry this work forward, so we always appreciate opportunities to share our work with them.
• Volunteer of the Week: Samantha Hargrove, the community organizer who has agreed to coordinate our recruiting effort for GTRC Report Receivers. Thanks, Samantha!
• This week’s progress indicator: Representatives from15 organizations working for racial reconciliation across the South learned about and offered insight and encouragement to the GTRC at last weekend’s conference.

Latest news coverage:
Ed Cone blog coverage, Monday, March 20, 2006
Lorraine Ahearn column mention, News & Record, Sunday, March 19, 2006

Our upcoming events:
“Poetry, Truth and Reconciliation,” 2-5 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Nussbaum Room, Central Library, 219 N. Church St. Workshop co-sponsored with the Greensboro Public Library as part of Poetry GSO, led by Jacinta White of the Word project, who will present techniques for using poetry as a means of community healing. For info, e-mail info@greensborotrc.org.

GTRC Closing Ceremony, 6 p.m. Thursday, May 25, 2006, Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel, Bennett College for Women, 900 E. Washington St.

UBUNTU – “I am what I am because of who we all are.” For a more complete definition, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

GTRC Public Hearing DVDs

If you didn't make it to the Commission's public hearings, or if you did and want to remember what was said, click here for more information on ordering the DVD footage of these events.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Ubuntu Weekly #55

As our research team works furiously to find all the facts for the truth portion of our work, we’re looking to the larger community to help carry out the reconciliation part when we’re gone. Will you be there?

• Legal questions surrounding the First Amendment, self-defense, and other issues were the focus at our last Commission meeting. We were grateful for the expertise of NCCU Law Professor Irv Joyner, his student assistant Angelica Reza Wind, and Lisa Magarrell of the International Center for Transitional Justice.
• A collection of DVDs from our three public hearings is now available for sale, with proceeds going toward our remaining fundraising needs. Click here to order (and encourage other individuals and organizations to do the same).
• Volunteer of the Week: Dr. Bill Gentry, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership, who analyzed all evaluations from our public hearings and other events. Thanks, Bill!
• This week’s progress indicator: We’ve set the evening for our report sharing ceremony: Thursday, May 25, 2006. Stay tuned for more details!
  

Latest news coverage:
Yes! Weekly coverage, March 14, 2006

Our upcoming events:
“Poetry, Truth and Reconciliation,” 2-5 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Nussbaum Room, Central Library, 219 N. Church St. Workshop co-sponsored with the Greensboro Public Library as part of Poetry GSO, led by Jacinta White of the Word project, who will present techniques for using poetry as a means of community healing. For info, e-mail info@greensborotrc.org.

UBUNTU – “I am what I am because of who we all are.” For a more complete definition, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

Ubuntu Weekly #54

Is there hope that the United States can transcend its past and build loving, just and sustainable communities, or is reconciliation just a pipe dream? We’re believers, and we believe our work will make a valuable contribution to the enormous body of work, near and far, toward this end.

• We send thanks this week to some fellow contributors, including the Rev. Michael Battle, author of books including “Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu,” the Rev. Julie Peeples, pastor of Congregational United Church of Christ, and Dr. Bennett Ramsey, associate professor of Religious Studies at UNCG, who joined Commissioners on Monday to talk about reconciliation from a religious perspective.
• Hitting it from another angle, we’re grateful to the Greensboro Public Library for helping us explore the power of poetry as part of Poetry GSO, a community-wide celebration of National Poetry Month, April 1-30. We’re co-sponsoring the workshop “Poetry, Truth and Reconciliation” on April 22. More details are below.
• The newest member of our Commission work team is Jennifer McHugh. We’re glad to have her sorely needed research assistance, her experience with community reconciliation initiatives and the International Center for Transitional Justice, and her spirit. Welcome, Jen!
• Volunteers of the Week: Jim Keith, John Young and Bishop Chip Marble, three friends and supporters of this process who helped organize our meeting with Rev. Battle. Thanks, Jim! Thanks, John! Thanks, Chip!
• This week’s progress indicator: Thanks to a $1,200 mini-grant from the N.C. Humanities Council (Thanks, N.C. Humanities Council!), our fundraising total now stands at $425,109.48, $68,800 short of the total we need to complete our work and produce the high-quality final products we envision.

Latest news coverage:
Blue Plate Special Story Mention, Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Allen Johnson column mention, News & Record, Sunday, March 5, 2006

Our upcoming events:
“Poetry, Truth and Reconciliation,” 2-5 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Nussbaum Room, Central Library, 219 N. Church St. Workshop co-sponsored with the Greensboro Public Library as part of Poetry GSO, led by Jacinta White of the Word project, who will present techniques for using poetry as a means of community healing. For info, e-mail steve.sumerford@ci.greensboro.nc.us.

UBUNTU – “I am what I am because of who we all are.” For a more complete definition, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

GTRC Receives Two New Grants

Thanks to the Julian Price Family Foundation for making a recent donation of $2,000 to support the GTRC's work.

We also just received word that the GTRC has been awarded a North Carolina Humanities Council mini-grant of $1200 to cover a portion of the interactive timelines in the multimedia version of our report. Here is a portion of our grant proposal describing these timelines:

Our primary goal is that through the Commission’s final report, in general, and an interactive timeline, in particular, we will be able to present the facts and information about the context, causes, sequence and consequence of November 3, 1979, so that community members can begin to examine how their own experiences shape their worldviews and how the Greensboro community can learn from this tragedy. As the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States, our secondary goal is to empower other communities to examine their own pasts through similar models. In order to accomplish these goals, we plan to create two interactive timelines that will serve to organize copious amounts of information about the historical context of the events of November 3, 1979, and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation process in a way that will be accessible to Greensboro community members and also to interested parties on a
national and international level. Both timelines will be available on a DVD and also on a website, which will be available to the public at the end of the Commission's mandate (spring 2006).

The first interactive timeline will identify the events surrounding November 3, 1979, (1960s through 1985) that the Commission finds to be immediately relevant to understanding the shootings. Each of these event entries will include ways to access all relevant newspaper articles, radio and television reports, video footage and/or other documentary evidence. With this information, community members will be equipped to have more thoughtful and fact-based conversations about the tragedy of November 3, 1979. Even those community members who disagree with the Commission’s findings and recommendations will be better equipped to discuss the events.

The second interactive timeline will trace the development of the truth and
reconciliation process in Greensboro. This will span from 1999 when community members first discussed the potential of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to 2006 when the Commission’s final report is released to the community. This timeline will primarily be helpful to other communities in the United States and beyond who are considering their own truth and reconciliation processes. Because of the support of volunteers, the entire process has been documented through video quite thoroughly. In addition to the rich video footage of events like the Swearing-In Ceremony and several meetings with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this timeline would include many newspaper articles, radio and television news stories and other media for documenting this process.

Special thanks to humanities scholars Millicent Brown and Steve Flynn for being consultants in this project. Millicent is a nationally renowned US civil rights historian at NCA&TSU and Steve is a doctoral student in cultural studies at UNCG.

For an updated list of the GTRC's current funding sources, click here.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

GTRC Welcomes New Research Assistant

We are pleased to welcome Jennifer McHugh to Greensboro for the next two months as research assistant for the Commission. Jen is volunteering her time and expertise over the next several weeks as she assists with various aspects of our documentary research, report writing, and fact checking efforts. Describing her own background, Jen writes:

Having worked over three years at the ICTJ as a Program Assistant, I grew interested in community reconciliation initiatives and the attempts to address larger issues in society. I am excited at this opportunity to contribute directly and experience the inner workings of a truth commission. Prior to arriving in Greensboro, I completed a Masters degree in International Relations (Univ of Sussex) and worked as a Research Assistant, conducting interviews amongst ethnically diverse neighborhoods in London, for a project on Immigration and Inclusion.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Lewis Pitts' Public Hearing Statement Transcript

Click here to read the transcript of Lewis Pitts' public hearing statement to the Commission at its second public hearings.

Lewis Pitts has been a public interest attorney since 1973 focusing on civil rights, environmental justice, children's rights and participatory democracy. He served as lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the 1985 federal civil trial from which the jury found eight defendants, including a Greensboro police lieutenant, a police detective, a police informant, and five Klan members and Nazis liable for the wrongful death of Dr. Michael Nathan.

Thanks to Chewie and Riley Driver for transcribing this statement.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Deena Hayes and Spoma Jovanovic's Public Hearing Statements

Click here to read the transcript from Deena Hayes and Spoma Jovanovic's statements to the Commission in the third public hearing.

Biographical Information:

• Dr. Spoma Jovanovic is a Department of Communication faculty member at UNC-Greensboro. Originally from California, she received her B.A. from UCLA and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Denver. Her scholarly interests include ethics, civic participation and community. She’s active in community-building projects including work to support the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project and Action Greensboro's Creative Character initiative.
  
• Deena Hayes is a member of the Guilford County Board of Education whose work in the community centers on anti-racism efforts and has included service as board chair for the Partnership Project and chair of the state and local NAACP education committees, and active participation in the weekly Community Dialogue on Education. She is a graduate of Guilford College.
  

Special thanks to Sarah Marshall for transcribing this statement.

posted by Jill Williams, exec. dir.

Ubuntu Weekly #53

This is our three-part challenge right now: 1) to create a complete, well-documented final report; 2) to package it in the most broadly accessible formats; and 3) to raise enough money to cover the cost.

• Commission Research Assistant Eli Mungo spent three days at Yale University last week at a conference on truth commission archives organized by both the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Artemis Project. Click here to read some of his reflections.
• For having us participate in last week’s panel discussion on “Healing Via Truth and Reconciliation,“ we offer thanks to Dr. Sheila Whitley, Dr. Eleanor Gwynn and others teaching and learning through the “American South Meets South Africa” project at N.C. A&T State University.
• Volunteer of the Week: Matt Perault, a Master of Public Policy student at Duke University who has helped us through work with our friends at the Duke Human Rights Initiative. Thanks, Matt!
• This week’s progress indicator: The number of recipients of this weekly newsletter, which we like to think of as the world’s shortest, has recently topped 800.

Latest news coverage:
Yes! Weekly coverage, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006
Related News & Record letter, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006

Related upcoming events:
Call for Dialogue Workshop, 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2, Glenwood Library, 1901 W. Florida St. Workshop designed to explore the concept of dialogue and how to apply it to current issues including the truth and reconciliation process. Sponsored by the Call for Dialogue Project (funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro). For info, e-mail Dialogue@uncg.edu.

Call for Dialogue Workshop, 2:30-5 p.m. Sunday, March 5, Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch, 1420 Price Park Road. Workshop designed to explore the concept of dialogue and how to apply it to current issues including the truth and reconciliation process. Sponsored by the Call for Dialogue Project (funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro). For info, e-mail Dialogue@uncg.edu.