Reviews for Grassroots Social Action

The average rating for Grassroots Social Action based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-03-03 00:00:00 Michael Tappan 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.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-03-10 00:00:00 Joel Cason 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.