[2] Teachers of both races perceived Barnes to be the puppet of Nelson Johnson, who was a university student and the leader of Greensboro Association of Poor People.
[1] Barnes studied political science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, in Greensboro, graduating with a BA in 1979.
[6][7] Barnes held a series of jobs as a lecturer in political science at: North Carolina A&T State University (1982–82), Georgia Institute of Technology (1983–84), and Gainesville College (1984–88).
[6] Michael Anthony Williams spent from 2002 to 2008 making a documentary film about the 1969 Greensboro Rebellion, called Walls that bleed.
[10] Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project was set up to study an incident where five people were killed at an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in 1979.
[6][11] Barnes gave evidence to the first public hearing of the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project on 15 July 2005.
[1] Instead, Barnes worked with Koretta Ann King (the deceased's in-home nurse), Andrea Lee Barksdale and Alex Habersham to embezzle the estate.
[1][6][12] King and Barksdale fraudulently closed the deceased's annuity receiving a cheque for $93,600, which Barnes deposited in the estate's bank account, and then shared with the group.
[1] Barnes spent approximately $14,000 of the deceased's money to buy a laptop computer, attend the inauguration of Barack Obama, and rent cars.
[1] Barnes was accused of mail fraud, identity theft and engaging in monetary transactions from unlawful activity.