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Loading... Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring| 101 | 1 | 284,118 | 
(3.94) | 5 | History.
Politics.
Sociology.
Nonfiction.
HTML: *The book that inspired the 2021 PBS American Experience documentary, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.*
This program includes an introduction read by the author.
How the blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard changed 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.
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. . … (more) |
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To Belinda  | |
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The United States emerged from World War II in ascendency, having conquered Nazy Germany and imperial Japan. Looking over a war-ravaged world, American leaders sought to remake foreign governments in America's own image, as democracies committed to individual liberty and human rights. But beneath the veneer of America's grand self-image was a stark reality: African Americans residing in the old Confederacy lived in a twilight world between slavery and freedom. -Introduction: A Collision of Two Worlds As the clock struck 7:00 p.m. on August 14, 1945, President Harry S. Truman assembled the White House press corps in the Oval Offices. The ebullient president, standing behind his desk, informed the reported that afternoon the Japanese government had unconditionally surrendered, bringing an end of World War II. -Chapter 1, A Tragic Detour | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions History.
Politics.
Sociology.
Nonfiction.
HTML: *The book that inspired the 2021 PBS American Experience documentary, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.*
This program includes an introduction read by the author.
How the blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard changed 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.
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. . ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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As news about Sgt. Woodard's abuse began to spread, a small handful of people eventually decided that something had to be done to stop mistreatment of blacks in the jim crow south. Among those people was President Harry Truman, NCAA lawyer Thurgood Marshall, and District Judge Julius Waties Waring of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina. Each of these men, and of course Sgt. Woodard, exemplified "Unexampled Courage", leading to a significant movement toward civil rights for blacks in the U.S.
The Woodard blinding became the spark that led to significant progress in court cases which led to the ending racial discrimination and jim crow laws. Especially interesting in the book were the descriptions of how each of the individuals (Stg. Woodard, President Truman, Judge Waring, and Thurgood Marshall) stepped up and stood out in their bravery and fights for civil rights.
The book is a worthwhile read. While President Trump has claimed he's done more for the blacks in the Country since Abraham Lincoln, Gergel's book reminds us that other Presidents played a more significant role in advancing civil rights for blacks. Included in this list are President Lyndon B. Johnson in fighting for the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960's, and Harry Truman's insistence on ending segregation in the armed forces and federal workplace 70 years ago. Until that time, passing civil rights legislation was little more than a dream. The book points out the strength of character demonstrated by President Truman to go against the social norms of the time. And reading of Judge Waring's determination to see civil rights enforced in his courtroom, and how his civil rights case verdicts were later cited in U.S. Supreme Court cases such as Brown vs. the Board of Education was enlightening. (