Rev. Nelson Johnson, Civil Rights leader and Greensboro Massacre survivor, dies at 81

Featured photo: Renowned Greensboro civil rights activist Rev. Nelson Johnson speaks at the Revival Reimagined event in 2024. (photo by Brandon Demery)

Troy, Alabama had John Lewis. The Triangle has William Barber II. And Greensboro had Nelson Johnson.

On Monday afternoon, news spread of the passing of Greensboro’s Civil Rights icon, who was the co-founder of the Beloved Community Center, Faith Community Church, and a survivor of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre.

For most of his life, Johnson has been deeply involved in civil rights movements. Born in Airlie, NC, Johnson moved to Greensboro after a few years in the Air Force, quickly embedding himself in civil rights activity in the city.

He helped found the Greensboro Association for Poor People and was present at the 1969 Dudley High School and NC A&T State University riots, according to the University of Georgia’s Civil Rights Library. A few years later, Johnson became a Marxist and joined the Communist Workers Party (CWP).

And in 1979, he was part of the Greensboro Massacre, a historic event which forever altered the trajectory of both Johnson’s life and the fabric of the city.

As has been reported by TCB and numerous other outlets, on Nov. 3, 1979, members of the Communist Workers Party planned a “Death to the Klan” march at Morningside Homes in Greensboro as a protest against racial terror in the city.

As the activists convened to begin their action, a group of vans carrying more than 40 KKK and American Nazi members drove up to the site. After a verbal confrontation broke out, a gun was fired, leading to multiple gunshots ringing out. While the activists were largely unarmed, a promise they had to make to in order to get the permit to march, police onsite looked on.

A historic reconciliation process years later found that members of the KKK and Nazis had embedded themselves within the city’s police department as informants which resulted in the lack of response by police during the shootout, despite their presence on site.

In the end, five people were killed, including four members of the Communist Workers Party.

In a 2019 interview with TCB, Johnson recalled his realization after the shots first rang out.

“Instinctively then, it just flashed in me that these people had totally set us up,” Johnson said. “I stood up and said out of all of the energy in my body that the police were part of this… and that they are responsible for these murders.”

In 2017, 38 years after the massacre, the city officially apologized for its role in the killings.

In the decades that followed the massacre, Johnson remained committed to his role as a civil rights activist, often speaking at rallies protesting police violence and killings in the city.

In 2024, much of Johnson’s life, including his partnership with his wife Joyce Johnson, was memorialized in author Aran Shetterly’s book, Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City’s Soul.

In a post on Monday, the Beloved Community Center noted Johnson’s passing, and quoted the late reverend’s wishes for the world: “We, the people, must strive to walk toward each other, seeking deep truths, promoting mutual understanding and growing sincere unity, with the fierce urgency of NOW.”  

According to the post, the Beloved Community Center has established the Nelson N. Johnson Legacy fund and donations can be sent to The Beloved Community Center, PO Box 875, Greensboro, NC 27402, and online.  Other expressions of comfort may be sent to the family at 12 Mill Creek Ct., Greensboro, NC 27407.

Details on funeral arrangements will be forthcoming, according to the post.