Word: bermanzohn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...score of chanting demonstrators approached the courtroom doors. Guards informed the protesters that no one else would be allowed inside. Suddenly, a pushing match began, and officers wrestled one of the marchers to the ground. "Tell me, man, you're going to keep me out!" screamed Paul Bermanzohn, sitting in a wheelchair. "You try to live with a bullet in your head...
That angry cry came from a victim of one of the South's bloodiest clashes in years, a fight on Nov. 3, 1979, that pitted one extremist group against another and deeply disturbed the town of Greensboro, N.C. Bermanzohn is a member of a leftist group called the Communist Workers Party, which until late last year had been known as the Workers Viewpoint Organization. Though W.V.O. members had been trying to organize textile workers, most of whom are black, in and around Greensboro, the first stir of trouble came last July in China Grove, N.C., when two W.V.O. workers...
Last month Viewpoint members passed out handbills inviting people to a "Death to the Klan" protest march on Saturday, Nov. 3, in a mostly black section of the city. The Maoist group urged the Klansmen to attend. Taunted March Organizer Paul Bermanzohn: "We invite you and your two-bit punks to come out and face the wrath of the people." The handbill described the Klan as "the most treacherous scum element produced by the dying system of capitalism...
Then a dozen whites leaped out of the van and began firing pistols, shotguns and at least one automatic rifle at the demonstrators. Said Bermanzohn's wife Sally: "I saw a man in the right front seat of the lead car. He had a pistol. We shouted, 'He's got a gun!' Then I heard the firing start." Said Truck Driver Jeff Rackley: "It was just like a war movie, with everybody shooting all over the place and people screaming. I saw two people go down, a man and a woman." Added Photographer Don Davis...
...Chief William Swing in response to mounting criticism. "Until we saw weapons, no laws had been violated." All of the dead were anti-Klan demonstrators: Sandra Smith of Piedmont, S.C., and Caesar Cauce, William Samson and Jim Waller, residents of Greensboro. Wounded were two Klansmen and eight demonstrators, including Bermanzohn. Police arrested 14 people, including two marchers and twelve Klansmen. The Klan members were charged with murder. One demonstrator was charged with inciting to riot, the other with interfering with an officer...
| 1 |