The 'sit-ins' at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro launched the passive resistance phase of the civil rights revolution. This book tells the story of what happened in Greensboro; it also tells the story in microcosm of America's effort to come to grips with our most abiding national dilemma--racism.

Greensboro has reinvented itself in recent decades. By the time of its 1958 sesquicentennial, Greensboro was North Carolinas second-largest city and the worlds largest producer of denim. It was home to many textile companies, including the worlds largest; major insurance firms; and manufacturers of other products. Greensboro holds an important place in the civil rights movement, with the sit-ins at Woolworths department store, a site now preserved as the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. In 1982, a grocery store opened in Greensboro that wanted to bring the old-fashioned market experience back to consumers. The Fresh Market has since expanded to over 100 stores in more than 20 states. Greensboros roster of colleges and universities has grown over the years, and it remains a key education and research center. Founded in 1991, RF Micro Devices, Greensboros largest company, makes components of most cell phones. Greensboro showcases the rich commercial and community history of this city over the past 50 years.

Before the Civil War, diverse groups brought their skills to the wild back country and formed the first population of Greensboro amid forests and farmland. The rapid growth of railroads, industry, and educational institutions contributed to the ongoing development of a modern city.

History of the First Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States

Historian G. Ward Hubbs first encountered the Confederate soldiers known as the Greensboro Guards through their Civil War diaries and letters. Later he discovered that the Guards had formed some forty years before the war, soon after the founding of the Alabama town that was their namesake. Guarding Greensboro examines how the yearning for community played itself out across decades of peace and war, prosperity and want. Greensboro sprang up as a wide-open frontier town in Alabama's Black Belt, an exceptionally fertile part of the Deep South where people who dreamed of making it rich as cotton planters flocked. Although prewar Greensboro had its share of overlapping communities--ranging from Masons to school-improvement societies--it was the Guards who brought together the town's highly individualistic citizenry. A typical prewar militia unit, the Guards mustered irregularly and marched in their finest regalia on patriotic holidays. Most significantly, they patrolled for hostile Indians and rebellious slaves. In protecting the entire white population against common foes, Hubbs argues, the Guards did what Greensboro's other voluntary associations could not: move citizens beyond self-interest. As Hubbs follows the Guards through their Civil War campaigns, he keeps an eye on the home front: on how Greensborians shared a sense of purpose and sacrifice while they dealt with fears of a restive slave populace. Finally, Hubbs discusses the postwar readjustments of Greensboro's veterans as he examines the political and social upheaval in their town and throughout the South. Ultimately, Hubbs argues, the Civil War created the South of legend and its distinctive communities.

An insider's look at the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission's process, strategic choices, challenges, and context, Learning from Greensboro tells the story of how one U.S. community struggled to come to terms with events in its past and model truth-seeking as a tool for addressing the country's legacy of racist violence.