Solidarity Forever

From an exchange during the testimony of Klansman Virgil Griffin at the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings (unofficially transcribed at Chewie World Order; this excerpt is unedited):

Did you ever work in the textile mills?

VG: Yes I have.

Would you describe where you worked and when?

VG: Well, I worked in a bunch of textile mills last one was J.P. Stevens in Stanley, Dobbs [?] Spinning.

Could you describe for the Commission the working conditions there?

VG: Pretty good working conditions.

Does the Klan have any opinion or thoughts on union organization?

VG: I belonged to the union one time. I worked [?], I belonged to the union. Sure as hell wasn’t no Communists comin’ in there with us. Not then. I thought the union, um... I liked it pretty good under the union. I tried to organize it in the mill. I tried to organize J.P. Stevens. I asked the Communist – uh, the union rep to come down there. You sure you not in with the Communist Party? I said no, I don’t wanna be in no Communist Party. They had better benefits. I don’t have a thing against the union.

What are your thoughts on African-Americans and non-African Americans being in the same union?

VG: Do what? I didn’t hear that.

OK, what is the Klan’s position on having both African-American and white people in the same union?

VG: Well, if you’re gonna have a union, they gonna be in there together. Blacks was in the union I was in. Hey man, I worked around blacks all my life, don’t be sayin’ this is the first day I seen a black. I grew up on a farm picked cotton with ‘em, played with ‘em.

Mr. Griffin, are you presently a member of the Ku Klux Klan?

VG: Yes I am. Will be until I die. I’m Imperial Wizard of Cleveland Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, I’m over several states.