Greensboro Massacre

Soundcloud.  Written in memory of the 5 killed and 11 injured organizers, rank and file union members, anti-racist marchers, and journalists who were shot by the Klan and the Nazis in Greensboro, NC on Nov 3, 1979. The Klan and Nazis were trying to suppress the organizing of mostly black textile workers through communist-led labor organizations. The Communist Workers Party and local union activists planned a march as a show of force to show the Klan that the black community and the workers were prepared to defend themselves against fascist violence. However, the Klan and Nazis drove into town armed to the teeth and ready to massacre the marchers. Police stood by and did not intervene as for over a minute the fascists poured gunfire into the marching workers. Only five Klansmen were charged for the killings; they were acquitted on grounds of self defense, despite witnesses establishing that a Klansman had opened fire, and the only rounds fired by the demonstrators coming in response to the hail of fire from the fascists. 

Dm F C Dm (or Am C G Am)
There’s an order to the world in the mills of Caroline
Dm C G Am (Am G D E)
When the white worker’s above the black, it keeps ‘em both in line
Dm Am F G (Am G D)
and under the shadow of the chimney they all knew
Dm F C Dm (Am C G Am)
The Klan comes in their cotton whites, and in their shirts of blue

Chorus

Dm C G Dm (Am G E Am)
And the klansman heels faster than a hound dog to his master
Dm C G Am (Am G D E)
And the strange fruit tumble down to the roots of the tree
DM C G DM (Am G D Am)
Wounds still coming never heal, and blood’s baked into the cotton fields
Dm f c Dm (Am C G Am)
And the Romans still are hangin’ the man from Galilee

The cops said down in Greensboro, those union folk are reds
they’re stirring up the blacks, they’re putting notions in their heads
But both sides know that power grows from the barrel of a gun 
They said we’ll leave it to the good old boys, we’ll stand by until they’re done

Chorus

Like dogs on the chain, turned loose at the order
The Klan drove in column, and tore into the town
With bullets that pounded out the drum beat of murder 
And in the reek of the powder, five comrades cut down

[instrumental break, two-finger style banjo melodic line]

The Jury sat in the southern style in judgement of the dead
and acquitted all the killers for passing lynch law on the reds
You can get your sheets and dresses, or your uniforms so fine
But there’s blood upon the cotton gin in the mills of Caroline

Chorus