KKK Chief Testifies About 1979 Shootings

[Judi Lynn]

KKK Chief Testifies About 1979 Shootings By ESTES THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jul 17, 3:02 AM ET

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A Ku Klux Klan leader who was at a workers' rally more than 25 years ago where five people died and 10 others were injured gave defiant testimony to a commission Saturday, saying "maybe God guided the bullets."

Virgil L. Griffin of Mount Holly, imperial wizard of the Cleveland Knights of the KKK, said someone in the crowd of Communist Workers Party marchers fired first and hit a van driven by a Klansman.

"We had every right to drive down that street with nobody touching the cars," he said. "I didn't come to shoot or kill anybody."

Griffin spoke before the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an effort modeled on similar commissions in South Africa and Peru.
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