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Unexampled courage : the blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring / Richard Gergel.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: 324 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780374107895
  • 0374107890
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: A collision of two worlds -- Part I: The blinding. A tragic detour ; A wave of terror ; "The place was Batesburg" ; The bystander government -- Part II: The awakening. "My God ... we have to do something" ; The Isaac Woodard road show ; The gradualist ; A "baptism in racial prejudice" -- Part III: The call to action. "I shall fight to end evil like this" ; "We know the way. We need only the will" ; Confronting the American dilemma ; There will be no fines ; Fighting the "battle royal" ; Driving the "last nail in the coffin of segregation" -- Conclusion: Unexampled courage.
Summary: "Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a battlefield-decorated African American soldier, climbed aboard a Greyhound bus on February 12, 1946, in Augusta, Georgia, on his last leg home after three years of military service. Things suddenly went awry when a brief heated exchange with the bus driver resulted in Woodard's removal from the bus and his arrest in the small town of Batesburg, South Carolina. Shortly after the Batesburg police chief, Lynwood Shull, took Woodard into custody, he beat the soldier with his blackjack, blinding him. Details of Woodard's tragic encounter soon reached President Harry S. Truman. Outraged by the treatment of a uniformed American soldier, Truman wrote to his attorney general and made it clear that there was a need for an effective federal response. Within days, criminal civil rights charges were brought against Shull in the federal district court in South Carolina and Truman began establishing the first presidential committee on civil rights. Truman's committee recommended groundbreaking reforms, including ending segregation in the armed forces. On July 26, 1948, Truman, over vigorous opposition, issued Executive Order 9981, integrating the American military and marking the beginning of the end of Jim Crow. Shull was tried before United States District Judge J. Waties Waring, a Charleston patrician whose father was a Confederate veteran. An all-white jury quickly acquitted Shull, but Judge Waring was conscience-stricken by the failure of the justice system to hold the obviously culpable police chief accountable. Waring soon began issuing landmark civil rights decisions that rocked his native state and challenged the foundations of racial segregation and of black disenfranchisement. His courageous dissent in a 1951 school desegregation case, in which he declared segregation per se unconstitutional, became the model for the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education three years later. Richard Gergel's [book] details the long-overlooked story of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard and its transformative effect on President Truman, Judge Waring, and, ultimately, America's civil rights history. This is a story that deserves to be told, with all its pathos, its brutality, and its redemption of the American system of justice."--Jacket.Summary: "A nonfiction book detailing the case of Isaac Woodard, its influence on Judge J. Waties Waring, and how Waring went on to lay the groundwork for landmark civil rights rulings"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 323.1196 G367 Available 33111009317955
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

*The book that inspired the 2021 PBS American Experience documentary, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.*

How the blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard changed the course of America's civil rights history.

Richard Gergel's Unexampled Courage details the impact of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard on the racial awakening of President Truman and Judge Waring, and traces their influential roles in changing the course of America's civil rights history.

On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a returning, decorated African American veteran, was removed from a Greyhound bus in Batesburg, South Carolina, after he challenged the bus driver's disrespectful treatment of him. Woodard, in uniform, was arrested by the local police chief, Lynwood Shull, and beaten and blinded while in custody.

President Harry Truman was outraged by the incident. He established the first presidential commission on civil rights and his Justice Department filed criminal charges against Shull. In July 1948, following his commission's recommendation, Truman ordered an end to segregation in the U.S. armed forces. An all-white South Carolina jury acquitted Shull, but the presiding judge, J. Waties Waring, was conscience-stricken by the failure of the court system to do justice by the soldier. Waring described the trial as his "baptism of fire," and began issuing major civil rights decisions from his Charleston courtroom, including his 1951 dissent in Briggs v. Elliott declaring public school segregation per se unconstitutional. Three years later, the Supreme Court adopted Waring's language and reasoning in Brown v. Board of Education .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: A collision of two worlds -- Part I: The blinding. A tragic detour ; A wave of terror ; "The place was Batesburg" ; The bystander government -- Part II: The awakening. "My God ... we have to do something" ; The Isaac Woodard road show ; The gradualist ; A "baptism in racial prejudice" -- Part III: The call to action. "I shall fight to end evil like this" ; "We know the way. We need only the will" ; Confronting the American dilemma ; There will be no fines ; Fighting the "battle royal" ; Driving the "last nail in the coffin of segregation" -- Conclusion: Unexampled courage.

"Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a battlefield-decorated African American soldier, climbed aboard a Greyhound bus on February 12, 1946, in Augusta, Georgia, on his last leg home after three years of military service. Things suddenly went awry when a brief heated exchange with the bus driver resulted in Woodard's removal from the bus and his arrest in the small town of Batesburg, South Carolina. Shortly after the Batesburg police chief, Lynwood Shull, took Woodard into custody, he beat the soldier with his blackjack, blinding him. Details of Woodard's tragic encounter soon reached President Harry S. Truman. Outraged by the treatment of a uniformed American soldier, Truman wrote to his attorney general and made it clear that there was a need for an effective federal response. Within days, criminal civil rights charges were brought against Shull in the federal district court in South Carolina and Truman began establishing the first presidential committee on civil rights. Truman's committee recommended groundbreaking reforms, including ending segregation in the armed forces. On July 26, 1948, Truman, over vigorous opposition, issued Executive Order 9981, integrating the American military and marking the beginning of the end of Jim Crow. Shull was tried before United States District Judge J. Waties Waring, a Charleston patrician whose father was a Confederate veteran. An all-white jury quickly acquitted Shull, but Judge Waring was conscience-stricken by the failure of the justice system to hold the obviously culpable police chief accountable. Waring soon began issuing landmark civil rights decisions that rocked his native state and challenged the foundations of racial segregation and of black disenfranchisement. His courageous dissent in a 1951 school desegregation case, in which he declared segregation per se unconstitutional, became the model for the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education three years later. Richard Gergel's [book] details the long-overlooked story of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard and its transformative effect on President Truman, Judge Waring, and, ultimately, America's civil rights history. This is a story that deserves to be told, with all its pathos, its brutality, and its redemption of the American system of justice."--Jacket.

"A nonfiction book detailing the case of Isaac Woodard, its influence on Judge J. Waties Waring, and how Waring went on to lay the groundwork for landmark civil rights rulings"-- Provided by publisher.

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