From Lorraine Ahearn's front-page article in this morning's N&R:

On Feb. 4, 1957, a Guilford County grand jury emerged from its closed session and issued a bundle of indictments of a scope unlike any before or since — against 32 men accused of being homosexual.

After witnesses named the men during police interrogations, the suspects were tried one by one in a Greensboro courtroom for crimes against nature, almost exclusively with consenting adults.

The now-obscure episode, which some longtime residents came to call "the purge," was the largest attempted roundup of homosexuals in Greensboro history and marked one of the most intense gay scares of the 1950s.

Unlike sweeps of subsequent decades, involving raids on public parks and gay bars, Greensboro's 1957 trials focused on private acts behind closed doors.

Comments

[Kim]

That's crazy. I had no idea. One of my very good friends is gay, and he told me that he's afraid to visit me down here because of the attitudes towards gays. I told him that I didn't think the attitudes where any different than in upstate NY, but I'm thinking that maybe he knew about the stuff that went on here in the late 50's and that's what's making him nervous. That is totally insane. I can't believe that happened. :-0

[Spag]

Something that happened 50 years ago and could not happen today is not front page news. What was the purpose of this story? Maybe John Robinson can help us out here.

[David Hoggard]

It was news to me and apparently to others... maybe that was the point: Where did we come from? I'm into history and enjoy such retrospectives.

Do you sense some hidden agenda in the article, Sam? Your comment and question suggests as much to me.

[Ed Cone]

I grew up here, and may know a little more local history than the average resident, and this episode was news to me.

In light of our ongoing cultural debates, and as a signifier of how far we've come, and as a snapshot of our past, I found it to be a valuable history lesson.

[Joe Killian]

I can tell you as a cop reporter that people are, in fact, being charged with crimes against nature in North Carolina - and this county - all the time, even today.

The supreme court struck down consensual sodomy laws but, as in so many other things, someone's going to have to go to court to get this stuff off the books state by state.

[Fec Stench]

This is local journalism at its finest. Congrats to all involved.

[Samuel Spagnola]

Under the law, a "crime against nature" includes oral sex, heterosexual or homosexual. I agree these laws should be repealed, and are probably unconstitutional. Usually the underlying crime is not punished, rather these laws are used to combat prostitution. A person is often charged with solicitation to commit a crime against nature, as opposed to crime against nature itself. I have also seen crime against nature charges appear in juvenile cases, perhaps as a deterrent against "experimentation" although it also frequently arises in male on male sexual assault cases.

To the rest, I just don't understand why a history lesson is front page "news", sounds more like "olds" to me. So I do sense an agenda. I think "Greensboro- Forever Stuck in the Past" is becoming a more appealing slogan. Or maybe "Greensboro- Come Explore Our Awful History". Better still "Greensboro- Where You Can Relive Our Dreadful Past Over and Over and Over..."

[Ed Cone]

Sunday front pages have been feature-oriented for years, Sam.

Please come out and say what the agenda you sense might be.

[Joe Killian]

Well, despite the name a newspaper isn't exclusively for news.

A news feature - something that isn't breaking but is in fact "news" to many people, or lets people in on something they might not have known - is one of my favorite things in a newspaper most days.

Jim Schlosser does a lot of this and does it well. I don't see why the past -pleasant, unpleasant or neutral - should be banned from the front page.

[Samuel Spagnola]

The agenda is the same as usual with the N&R- "Look how awful we treated people. Never forgot how bad we treated people. Feel guilty about it. What a terribly backwards/racist/conservative place Greensboro is. Vote progressive. Please invite me to the next big newspaper ball in New York City because I've been a good liberal by separating myself from the rest of the hicks in North Carolina by writing stories that blame THEM for our backwards ways. I'm sorry I'm from the south. Really, I am. But pretty please let me come to the party. I really want to be accepted by liberal northeastern establishment colleagues. I'm doing my best down here to soften these people up so they will accept gay marriage."

Something along those lines. The N&R is constantly digging up some unpleasant chapter from our past to push an agenda which usually ends up dividing people more and preventing real progress, particularly on race. I don't know what the agenda is on this issue, but I do know that this story is not front page news.

[Fec Stench]

Jeepers, Sam. You seem to be the one who hasn't moved on.

[David Hoggard]

You're scaring me, Sam. It must be terribly difficult living in a world where there is consiracy hiding behind every tree.

But your comment does make sense on one level: I hear JR does love a party so he may very well have directed Lorraine A. to examine this story simply to cop an invitation to the next "big newspaper ball in New York City".

[Samuel Spagnola]

Dave, there are black helicopters outside of my window right now. I was only commenting on why this was FRONT PAGE news, not that the story was even written. I do think the N&R does write stories for other writers and not just the public, and I do believe they have a definite agenda. That is hardly engaging in conspiracy thinking. A conspiracy requires an agreement between two or more people. In this case, it's just the N&R being the N&R and once again portraying Greensboro- historically one of the most progressive cities in the South- as a backwards place where minorities are persecuted. A better question might be why Ahearn chose to write about this police roundup (50 years ago) instead of for example, a drug bust, prostitution sting, or other police roundup. What made her decide on this topic?

Again, I'm not commenting on the substance of the story. I believe these laws should be repealed because they are not supported by the vast majority of people, particularly when they discover that oral sex is illegal under these laws. I am commenting on the N&R's reasons for making this a front page story. People should know about this...why?

[Ed Cone]

Wow.

In my limited experience with the N&R staff, and in my much more extensive experience as an N&R reader, I have not sensed such a nasty mindset toward Greensboro or its people.

Personally, I'm happy to be from Greensboro, I chose to live here as an adult, I write a lot about it, past and present, good and bad. I'm a big booster of the city, and am hopeful for its future. And I thought that was an interesting story and a fine piece of journalism.

[David Hoggard]

But I think you ARE commenting on the substance, Sam - in that you think that the feature's substance is not fitting for the front page of the Sunday paper.

As far as your conspiracy goes, I doubt that Ahearn both wrote the story AND decided it would be above the fold on the front page. That would be the job of at least some editor or layout person. That makes two. So your conspiracy theory that the N&R is working to get tickets to that 'big newspaper ball in New York City"', has legs. No?

As for Ahearn's reason for this subject matter, I can't say... but I know she reads these here blogs and the resulting comments.

Calling Lorraine Ahearn... come in Lorraine.

[Fec Stench]

I wouldn't step in front of this bus if I were her.

[Ed Cone]

Really. The work speaks for itself.

But I do want to know why she hates America, and when she stopped beating her wife.

[Joe Killian]

Is there some reason people shouldn't know about this?

As a citizen of the city and a student of history it certainly interested me - and as Ahearn's story nails in the first few graphs, even for the time and the area this was a large and unusual bust that dealt not with raids of motels or bath houses (which is what most of us think of when we hear Crimes Against Nature sting) but private, consensual sex acts.

I think if you don't think a story like this belongs in a newspaper or on the front page of the Sunday edition - which, as Ed said, is a traditional place for news features - then you have a very narrow definition of what journalism is and what it should do.

Your description of what you think the motives of the paper are (which I have to assume means the motives of the staff, the editorial board, the publisher and whatever cabal of these many different people involved you imagine exists to push the paper in this direction)...it's simply without relation to any objective reality about how the paper and its stories are produced day to day, how that happens and why. It would be amusing that people who've spent no time in actual newsrooms could think it works this way if it wasn't kind of scary.

[David Hoggard]

Come to find out, she already has Fec... I shouyld have checked ealier.

Herb did his usual great job in the N&R podcast department and recorded Ahearn and Stephen Gee of the Broach Theater reciting the article. At the end of the podcast, Ahearn explains her sinister motives.

[Samuel Spagnola]

You all are missing my point. This happened 50 years ago. Why is it a front page story? I never mentioned any conspiracy, so you can cut that out now. Let's put more easily for those in the cheaper seats:

Why is a story about a police bust of homosexuals who were violating a statute that was then on the books a front page news story 50 years later? It was an interesting read, I'm not denying that. I just don't get the prominent position of the story unless there is some other agenda being promoted. And although I do find that it was interesting, what made Ahearn dig up this story?

[John D. Young]

Thanks to Lorraine Ahearn and the N&R for this excellent piece of historical journalism. Please bring us more of these insightful historical stories about Greensboro. This article is certainly relevant within the context of the "cultural wars" being waged today by religious fundamentalists who seek to dictate the private behavior of consenting and loving adults.

Maybe Jerry Bledsoe's efforts to help bring greater historical understanding to the Wray case has also help to nudge the N&R to pursue more historical journalism. I think we can all benefit from a better understanding of Greensboro's history including our "shadow" or buried history.

[Ed Cone]

You may bridle at the word 'conspiracy,' fine, we can just call it an imaginative rant about ulterior motives.

History matters. We write about it all the time. It's legit feature material. This was news to a whole lot of people. And it has resonance in today's world.

No mystery. No conspiracy, er, made up complex explanations required.

[Fec Stench]

Sammy boy, you can't say things like the above and just deny them. We can read and unlike you, we can remember.

Hogg, Why in the world should the thoughtful Ahearn subject herself to such?

[Samuel Spagnola]

"This article is certainly relevant within the context of the "cultural wars" being waged today by religious fundamentalists who seek to dictate the private behavior of consenting and loving adults." Ah...sounds like there IS an agenda...Maybe this is why it is relevant and has "resonance" in today's world.

I wouldn't disagree, but my points have not been about the story itself, but the N&R. Could it be they were hoping the story would have "resonance" in the "cultural wars"? Is that news or advocacy?

[Samuel Spagnola]

Fec, go look up the definition of conspiracy and then get back to me. I have never denied anything.

[David Hoggard]

Yes you did, Sam... although you will likely claim you were just kidding... your imagined agenda-explaining scenario by the N&R to "liberal northeastern establishment colleagues" above ended with this...

"...I'm doing my best down here to soften these people up so they will accept gay marriage."

[Ed Cone]

Aha! John Young is setting policy for the N&R! (Have fun at the next big newspaper ball in New York City, JY!)

[Sam Spagnola]

John's heard my argument about the New York social scene many times. And David, that passage does not relate to an agreement, rather it relates to the N&R doing something in order to be accepted. It is intended to be meant as an offering by the N&R, not an agreement, which is a necessary element of a conspiracy.

[meblogin]

Perhaps that was the reason that most nights I cried myself to sleep...or it could have been I was only 1 or 2 at the time....hmmm

I guess I did not read every single word from today's paper. What was the point of the article again? Front page news...wow... I wonder if every gay reader has cancelled yet?

Does this mean that Greensboro will need to set up a Truth and Reconcilation group again? Should Greensboro consider paying restitution to somone or group? Should current Greensboro police apologize for their actions and participation?
(I do believe that something should be done to help any that are still alive for their imprisonment...seriously)

Maybe Greensboro is planning another legal roundup? Unfortunately there are those that would support this in 2007 just as it was in 1957.

I am hopeful that all jury members, judges and lawyers swore that they had never participated in oral sex prior to 1957 and have not since. We could have saved millions on Clinton if it could have been determined back then that oral is not sex.

Maybe another great reporter can dig up some more dirt on Greensboro from the 1800's. (...darn...maybe Greensboro was a haven for yankees..back then I mean..smile)

Have a great week.

[Ed Cone]

You guys better get out of town before 2008 -- they are going to be making a huge deal out of Greensboro's bicentennial.

I bet some of it even ends up on the front page.

Sheesh, who cares about history, especially if any of it is negative?

[Brian Clarey]

This is a tad disturbing... not that Spags is unleashing his knee-jerk vitriol, because he does that every chance he gets. It's disturbing that we're actually debating the importance of this piece. It was certainly an ugly episode, and it was news to me.
I am also of the opinion that everything Lorraine does should be on the front page.
Also disturbing: I have never been invited to the big newspaper ball in New York City. What's up with that?

[Samuel Spagnola]

Ed, translating what I have said into a claim that I don't care about history is extremely licentious. What is knee jerk, Brian, is the number of reactions to a simple statement about not understanding why a story about an obscure, insignificant police sting that happened 50 years ago is front page news. Not too mention that upon re-reading, the story plays a little loose with the facts. For example, Ahearn implies they were indicted for being homosexuals. That's not correct, they were indicted for "crime against nature" as I pointed out above, is not limited to homosexual sodomy.

It's sad that some have such a difficult time with the proposition that "it was an interesting read, but I don't know why it's on the front page of the newspaper unless the N&R is trying to make some sort of statememt."

There is no disdain for history in this position. Jeez. And you can't get to the ball unless when standing around your more enlightened liberal friends from up north you first apologize for being from the south and make sure you know that you aren't one of the "dumb" ones who elected Jesse Helms over and over and voted for Bush and Reagan. Then apologize again for being from the south. Hopefully, when your done, your liberal friends will say to one another "he's not too bad for a southerner. I guess they aren't all rednecks. Let's invite him up to the Hamptons some time. He'll be quite the novelty with his cute little accent. We can say "he's from North Carolina, but he's not one of THEM".

[Joe Killian]

This is the point where I stop even trying to respond and just sort of shake my head at the ridiculousness of the argument...

Clarey: After the food (cocaine and placentas) those big newspaper balls are mostly a snooze.

[Bubba]

"And you can't get to the ball unless when standing around your more enlightened liberal friends from up north you first apologize for being from the south and make sure you know that you aren't one of the "dumb" ones who elected Jesse Helms over and over and voted for Bush and Reagan."

Ha!

That reminds me of a story told about Pauline Kael.

Upon the landslide re-election of Nixon in '72, she is reported to have expressed incredulity. "I can't imagine how he won!" she supposedly said. "Why, ALL my friends voted for McGovern!"

[Ed Cone]

the history crack was actually for meblogin, Sam (but you might want to look up "licentious.")

for you: "insignificant police sting?" No.

[Brian Clarey]

Spag: I'm not from the South. I'm from Long Island, though I've been gone a long time. And they still don't invite me out east. And yeah, it's fine to ask why the desicion was made to run it on p. 1. It was pretty ballsy, if you ask me, because this town can be weird about the sisterhood and the naughty things they do, and I guarantee the N&R will get at least a handful of letters from offended readers. As for your comments, I'll give you "obscure" — I had never heard the tale, and people tell me all kinds of crap. But dude, you're gonna have to explain to me how rounding up 30 or so queers and slapping them with felonies just for a little man love is "insignificant." Add to that a maverick judge with a McCarthy hangover and some seriously dicked-up police procedures, and it's just a great story. It doesn't even sound like something that could happen in America.
I admire your pugnacity. I just think you're wrong this time.

Joe: Screw the typesetters' ball. Let's get out of this racket and re-open thee General Greene. Seriously. I'll work the bar, you work the floor.

[meblogin]

How can we get good history without a few simple answers to some downhome questions?

If it is gonna be news..then it ought to be newsworthy....why not in some other part of the paper than front page?

Do you feel the gay community favors the front page?

...now about the answers...

[Samuel Spagnola]

Ed, I purposely used the term licentious. I believe it applies not only to the subject matter but to the extreme liberty taken when transforming my words into "I don't care about history". It was supposed to be a pun.

Brian, I will say again, I don't have a problem with the story. I just don't understand why the N&R believes something that happened 50 years ago (which must not have been that significant if it has been so easily forgotten) is front page news.

[greendog]

"I purposely used the term licentious."

Sure you did, counselor.

But why do you hate history?

[sean coon]

sam, local newspapers need to focus on local stories to survive moving forward in this information age of the intertubes. where better to emphasize such a position than on the front page of the sunday paper?

i won't speak for JR, but i assume that's the angle more than anything: write a great, local article that enlightens even the local history buffs -- good for business, good for community.

in attacking the n&r, you submit their agenda is to say,

"Look how awful we treated people. Never forgot how bad we treated people. Feel guilty about it.[...]"

the ironic thing is that the majority of people who think the '57 incident was messed up and can't ever happen again don't feel guilty one iota by being exposed to such historical fact. instead, we tend to keep a more vigilant eye open for similar human injustices nowadays across all segments of society.

i'm guessing that's a bad thing in your book?

[sean coon]

make that monday's paper... gotta love being a freelancer, eh? ;)

[Lex]

I'm late to the discussion, and most of the points I would make already have been made, but I would just offer my favorite quote from William Faulkner, who knew a thing or two about the past: In the South, the past isn't dead. It isn't even past.

Put another way, the influence of what we do can last far beyond us. It seems to have in this case, a previously little noted but outrageous case of law enforcement and justice run amok. I don't KNOW that I would have run it on the front page, given the decision, but I don't think it looks out of place there.

Also, having lived in New York for a while before going to work in newspapers, I can assure Sam, and anyone else who cares, that if they have newspaper balls up there, that's just about literally the last social event I'd be up for. There's way too much else to do.

[Dick Barron]

What I don’t understand is that when we write interesting stories about long-forgotten restaurants, soda-jerks or other pieces of local history – glorious or notorious – we’re seen as great purveyors of interesting history of the city and the region. Most of those end up on the front page.

But when we have the temerity to run a story that shows changing attitudes toward social issues, we’re attacked for having an “agenda.”

I guess we do have an “agenda” if we’re simply showing people how things were 50 years ago and letting them draw their own conclusions about how far things have changed. If they don’t like how things have changed, that’s their opinion. If they do, that’s their opinion too.

The story belonged on the front page if, for nothing else, that it’s a “good read.” Sometimes a story is so intriguing that you don’t want to put it down. That’s the way I felt about that story. I’ve lost interest midway through many more “important” stories if the writing quality just wasn’t there.

Having an agenda, in my book, is when a newspaper tells people what to think after it has told them what happened. I don’t think we told people what to think. But we did show them how our world contrasts with what it used to be. And there’s value in that, regardless of the issue.

[Ed Cone]

More from the boss his own self.

[Patrick Eakes]

Well said, Dick.

[Cara Michele]

I found the story interesting because it shows the sea change in our community's attitude toward homosexuality. From the 50's "gay scare" and "roundup" to the current decision by elected leaders to grant domestic partner benefits. Times change.

[Billy The Blogging Poet]

Question for Sammy,
If not the front page then what page? I mean, surely you have an answer, right? Page 2, 3, 9, 17, 37?

[Robert]

If we could take a break from Sam digging his ever-deepening hole: The Newspaper Ball. It appears my tickets were lost in the mail and I'm coming up empty on eBay. Can somebody spare two tickets? I've already secured a babysitter and rented my big-city tux.

[shika]

no one has to the right tell someone what they should do in their own home behind closed doors, that's what called privacy, i honestly feel that's what wrong with the world today. Everyone is so quick to pass judgement on someone, hello if no one is harmed, let them be!