Longtime Activists Discuss Impact of
Bush Presidency on Civil Rights Struggle

Community activists Nelson and Joyce Johnson of the Greensboro Justice Fund will be at Smith College Wednesday, March 28, to discuss "Struggle and Hope: A View from the Black South 60 Days after Bush's Election." The talk is at 7:30 p.m. in Neilson Library Browsing Room and is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

Both active student leaders during the 1960s civil rights movement, the Nelsons have remained committed labor and community activists for the past 30 years.

In 1979, Nelson was wounded during a Ku Klux Klan attack in Greensboro which resulted in the deaths of five anti-Klan demonstrators. Although the KKK and Nazi defendants were acquitted of murder by all-white juries, the Johnsons and other victims successfully sued the city of Greensboro for police complicity in the attack. With the proceeds from the judgement, they created the Greensboro Justice Fund, which continues to fund civil rights activists throughout the South.

As founders of the Faith Community Church in the 1980s and working with the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, the Johnsons have been a moral voice in all aspects of the city's life. In the 1990s, they helped organize a successful city-wide coalition of labor, religious and community leaders seeking justice and equal pay for predominately black K-Mart workers.

Their talk is co-sponsored by Smith, Amherst and Hampshire Colleges, the University of Massachusetts and Five Colleges, Inc.

Contact: Marti Hobbes, mhobbes@smith.edu

March 15, 2001