Reconciliation from Grassroots: Lesson Learned Initiated from Victims and Communities in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.
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Abstract
On November 3rd, 1979, the Greensboro Massacre perpetrated by members of the Ku Klux Klan which iswere white American members of pro-Nazi group. The victims were members of the Communist Workers’ Party, mostly rather poor
people of color. The attack left five people dead and ten injured. In 2003, the victims and members of various parties in Greensboro established a committee called “Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to investigate the incident.
This commission was the world’s first grassroots-initiated reconciliation commission. This commission was also well recognized by various organizations. The author of this article intended to reflect on lessons learned from the work of the committee. The author will focus on how the committee employed the concept of restorative justice. The core concepts include non-revenge and non-violence. At the same time this concept works along with deliberative dialogue relating to the cause and structure of violence during the 1979 Massacre and its impact. The process moved along with dialogue among involved parties. All participants listened to each other in a participatory democratic atmosphere. The author also proposed that if any community in the world faces a tragedy like the Greensboro Massacre, this lessons learned model for conflict resolution can be applied at the initiative of the people in the community
themselves.
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