Greensboro turning a page

Last night, the Greensboro City Council took the tough but necessary step of expressing regret for the killings at the 1979 Death to the Klan march.

From the News & Record

Thirty years after a Greensboro shooting — and four years after the issue first came before the City Council — the council said Tuesday night that it regretted the 1979 killings at Morningside Homes and pledged to help the city heal.

The council voted 5 to 4 to approve a statement of regret about the incident — one of the recommendations the city Humans Relations Commission made after studying the shootings and the 2006 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report about it.

The statement addresses a central concern of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. By acknowledging problems in the past, the city is in a better position to move forward.

The statement does not go as far as the Commission has recommended, and it would be foolish to think that this will mend all of the racial division in the city. However, the statement does go farther than many thought possible and is a positive step for the community.