Feb. 12, 1946, Sargent Isaac Woodard boarded a Greyhound bus in
Augusta, Georgia headed for his home in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He was excited
as he had just been discharged from the Army after serving in the Pacific during
World War Two. Sargent Woodward had been given an honorable discharge; he was a
decorated veteran of the war.
When the bus stopped again in North Augusta on the South
Carolina side of the city Sargent Woodward asked the driver, Alton C.
Blackwell, if he had time to use the restroom. The driver insulted him but
allowed him time; “Talk to me like I am talking to you,” Sargent Woodward told
him in response, adding: “I am a man just like you.”
Sargent Woodward returned to his seat and was unaware of Blackwell
having contacted the police in the city of Batesburg, South Carolina. When the
bus stopped in Batesburg police chief Lynwood Shull and officer Elliot Long
came on the bus to remove Sargent Woodward whom the driver had reported as
being drunk and disorderly.
The police took Sargent Woodward into an alley next to the
station and preceded to beat him severely.
They then took him to the police station and charged him with being drunk and
disorderly and then left him in his cell. They at no point attempted to get him
medical care, although he complained of great pain.
The next morning Sargent Woodward appeared in court and was
convicted of the charges and fined $50, at this time he again requested medical
care. It took another two days before he was seen by a doctor. Not knowing
where he was and still experiencing amnesia, Woodard ended up in a hospital in
Aiken, South Carolina but he was receiving substandard medical care since he
was Black. Three weeks after he was reported missing by his relatives, Woodard
was discovered in the hospital at Aiken. He was immediately rushed to an Army
hospital in Columbia.
Finally receiving care his memory began to return his vision
did not his eyes had been gouged by both fingers and a police nightstick as
well as multiple contusions and possible Intracranial hematoma. The damage was at
this point permanent there was no way for them to restore his vision.
Although it was not reported very much initially, news of the
assault slowly began spreading across the nation and people were outraged that
this happened to a veteran. The NAACP worked hard to make Sargent Woodard’s
case a national referendum on civil rights. Orson Welles took up the case on
his national ABC radio show. Welles criticized the lack of action by the South
Carolina government as intolerable and shameful. Woodard was the focus of
Welles's four subsequent broadcasts. The NAACP felt that these broadcasts did
more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on
the case.
In August of 1946 the NAACP held a benefit for Sargent
Woodward and his family at Harlem’s now-defunct Lewisohn Stadium, the show was
headlined by Billie Holiday and boxer Joe Louis. Folk singer Woody Guthrie
performed a song he wrote, “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard” the benefit concert drew
a crowd of 20,000 and raised $10,000 for Sargent Woodard and his family.
Also, in August NAACP leader Walter White met with President
Harry S. Truman and asked for the Department of Justice to look into the case. Truman
had only heard a few things about the case but when White gave him a detailed account
of the attack. Truman reportedly exploded in rage, “My God! I had no idea it
was as terrible as that! We’ve got to do something!” He immediately ordered Attorney
General Tom C. Clark to investigate why the state of South Carolina had not
done anything.
The DOJ did a short investigation and then indicted Lynwood
Shull and several of his officers. The bus stop was at Camp Gordon and Sargent
Woodward was in uniform so it was a federal crime.
What followed was by all standards a travesty of justice. Claude
Sapp, the local U.S. Attorney charged with handling the case, failed
to interview anyone except the bus driver, in fact, other veterans who
witnessed the argument with the bus driver and had signed affidavits were
never called as witnesses and their statements were not introduced as evidence. Sapp
only called upon. The defense was as unprofessional with Shull’s lawyer using
racial epitaphs, “The way he spoke is not how a sober nigger speaks in the
south.” He called Shull himself as a witness and the bus driver Blackwell. Both
insisted Sargent Woodward was drunk and
threatening; Shull said he drove Sargent Woodward to the Veteran’s hospital himself once it was clear he was wounded, this was
perjury. He added that a conviction of Shull would be equal to South Carolina
once again seceding from the union.
After the cases wrapped up Judge Julius Waring gave
instructions to the all-white jury to review all evidence and do their due
diligence as a jury, they took 15 minutes to do so and ruled Shull, Elliot Long, and other officers innocent. Waring was visibly upset with the verdict.
Truman was so moved by the entire case and its outcome that
he signed executive order 9808 that established
the Civil Rights Commission by; a fifteen-member, interracial group,
including the President of General Electric, Charles E. Wilson;
academics such as John Sloan Dickey from Dartmouth College; and Sadie
Tanner Alexander, a black attorney for the city of Philadelphia, as well
as other activists.
In a 1947 speech, the President said that civil rights were a
moral priority, and it was his priority for the federal government. He had seen
by Woodard's and other cases that the issue could not be left to state and
local governments. He said: “It is my deep conviction that we have reached a
turning point in our country's efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all
our citizens. Recent events in the United States and abroad have made us
realize that it is more important today than ever before to ensure that all
Americans enjoy these rights. When I say all Americans—I mean all Americans.”
On February 2, 1948, Truman sent the first comprehensive civil
rights bill to Congress. It had incorporated many of the thirty-five
recommendations of his commission. In July 1948, over the objection of senior
military officers, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, banning racial
discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces, and Executive Order 9980 to
integrate the federal government. (Facilities had been segregated under President Woodrow
Wilson). This was in response to a number of incidents against black veterans,
most notably the Woodard case. The armed forces and federal agencies led the
way in the United States for the integration of the workplace, public facilities,
and schools. Over the decades, the decision meant that both institutions
benefited from the contributions of minorities.
Sargent Woodard moved to New York City after the trial and was
active to some extent in the Civil Rights movement. He died in a VA hospital in
the Bronx in 1992.
Sources:
Woody Guthrie’s Song “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A7A5VGjSFk
https://time.com/5950641/blinding-isaac-woodard/
https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/woodward-isaac-beating-of/
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/woodard-isaac-1919-1992/
Egerton, John. Speak Now Against the Day, Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
Gergel, Richard. Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt.
Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J.
Waties Waring, FSG, 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment