Download Unexampled Courage The Blinding of Sgt Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S Truman and Judge J Waties Waring Richard Gergel 9780374107895 Books
Download As PDF : Unexampled Courage The Blinding of Sgt Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S Truman and Judge J Waties Waring Richard Gergel 9780374107895 Books
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.
Download Unexampled Courage The Blinding of Sgt Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S Truman and Judge J Waties Waring Richard Gergel 9780374107895 Books
"‘Unexampled Courage†is the phrase Waties Waring used to describe the plaintiffs in the landmark case Briggs v Elliott. They risked their lives. By the end of this book, the reader understands why this phrase is fully justified in describing Waring himself. I grew up on Tradd Street, where the Warings lived. I heard my parents disparage him. To paraphrase Clifford Durr, they were good and decent people but for one idea. From my childhood experiences and knowledge of Charleston in those days, I can attest that Gergel has this part of the story exactly right. Gergel writes with a wonderful legal clarity. And his dispassionate style renders the passions in the story — violence, anger, prejudice — all the more real. A wonderful book on critical, but perhaps under appreciated, events in the civil rights movement."
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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 9780374107895 Books Reviews :
Unexampled Courage The Blinding of Sgt Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S Truman and Judge J Waties Waring Richard Gergel 9780374107895 Books Reviews
- ‘Unexampled Courage†is the phrase Waties Waring used to describe the plaintiffs in the landmark case Briggs v Elliott. They risked their lives. By the end of this book, the reader understands why this phrase is fully justified in describing Waring himself. I grew up on Tradd Street, where the Warings lived. I heard my parents disparage him. To paraphrase Clifford Durr, they were good and decent people but for one idea. From my childhood experiences and knowledge of Charleston in those days, I can attest that Gergel has this part of the story exactly right. Gergel writes with a wonderful legal clarity. And his dispassionate style renders the passions in the story — violence, anger, prejudice — all the more real. A wonderful book on critical, but perhaps under appreciated, events in the civil rights movement.
- This is a tremendous book. Judge Gergel has done a great job of bringing to light the courage of Isaac Woodard, a decorated African-American service member who fought in WWII only to be blinded by a racist police officer in South Carolina only hours after his discharge from the army. The other hero of the book is Judge Waties Waring, the 8th generation Charlestonian who was so moved by the Woodard case that he became a civil rights pioneer, at great cost to himself. Familiar figures like Thurgood Marshall and Harry S. Truman round out this well-written and gripping story. A fabulous read for anyone interested in the history of the civil rights movement.
- A magnificent book. Brilliantly written on a true landmark case that reads like a novel. This a riveting portrait of one of the century’s great heroic figures, a judge who braved a bigoted community. Gergel's account was extremely moving for me and a real eye-opener.. This should be required reading. Philip Prioleau
- The experiences of Jackie Robinson and Emmett Till are often cited as the beginning of the Civil Rights period but the 1946 experience of an often forgotten individual named Sgt. Isaac Woodard certainly deserves to be resurrected and given its rightful place in American history. Sgt. Isaac Woodard had been only hours before been released from his position in the United States army when he had the audacity to demand respect from a haughty police chief named Lynwood Shull in Batesburg, South Carolina who used his blackjack to beat Sgt. Woodard which resulted in blinding the returning soldier from World War II for life.
The resulting trial of the police chief resulted in his acquittal which was no surprise considering the segregationist beliefs in the deep south. Heroes by the name of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring rose themselves above public opinion demonstrating "unexampled courage" by putting their reputation and their lives on the line by dedicating themselves to advancing the cause of civil rights in America. This was by no means an easy task due to the 1896 Supreme Court decision involving Plessy vs. Ferguson which stated that segregation was acceptable as long as the facilities were equal. Of course, in reality, they were not.
Author Richard Gergel spends time on various court cases involving civil rights and the courage involved by those who were willing to stand up to the inequality of rights that should be shared by all American citizens. Judge Waring and his wife, for example found themselves having to find themselves a new set of friends.
The book contains sixteen photographs with a conclusion as to what happened to many of the individuals in the remainder of their lives. We owe our thanks to author Richard Gergel for bringing to light this often forgotten episode in America's history which our citizens need to be aware of especially in these present challenging times when bigotry is once again raising its ugly head, and sadly even encouraged. I'll let it go at that. - Judge Gergel's wonderful book describes the utter venality and cruelty of white supremacy and its tentacles extending into the highest levels of government. Two courageous men, one an accidental president and the other a dissident federal judge, blazed the long and difficult trail toward human dignity for all citizens of the United States.
- I heard about this book by mere happenstance. On the death of a distant cousin, I talked to another cousin who recommended it. He had heard about it because we have family roots in Aiken, SC and Aiken was mistakenly sited at the place were the attack on Sgt. Woodward happened.
I think that if there were a subtitle to the book it should be "He lost his sight so that other could see" because that is really what happened. The terrible tragedy led to other people opening their eyes to the injustice that were going on in America toward African Americans.
For people with background in civil rights litigation it is a good review. For people with no back ground on the evolution of civil rights cases in the courts, it is an excellent starting point.
Judge Gergel has done an outstanding job of mixing facts about the case, American history and legal history to create and outstanding book that I am recommending to all of my friends. Should be a must read for everyone in America. - One of the best books I have read in a long time. Our nation needs more explications like this of our sad history of discrimination, disregard, and mistreatment of fellow human beings because of the color of their skin. Done without ranker or emotion, but with facts, legal reasoning and frankness, the author takes the reader on a journey where persons in positions of authority who can make difference act with courage and do, in fact, make a positive difference that lifts us to be our better selves. This kind of courage — doing the right thing when the circumstances require it — is what makes America great. I strongly recommend this terrific book.
