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Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of America
*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.
426 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 22, 2019
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May 9, 2020
When Sergeant Isaac Woodard, who was black, was on his way home by Greyhound Bus from army service in 1946 he had a disagreement with the bus driver. The bus stopped at a small town in South Carolina (Batesburg) where the driver reported Sergeant Woodard to the local sheriff. This led to not only Sergeant Woodard being severely beaten by the local policemen, but being blinded in both eyes. Think of that, I would assume you would have to try pretty hard to do that. The sheriff (Lynwood Shull) had a blackjack which he said he only used once. Sergeant Woodard was also beaten to the point of unconsciousness. When he awoke and unable to see the next morning he was quickly put on trial, fined fifty dollars for disturbing the peace, and due to his condition was sent to a nearby Veterans hospital.
This was not the only violent incident perpetrated on returning black veterans from World War II in the Southern United States. However, this made President Truman fly into a rage when it was reported to him by the leaders of the NAACP. Truman did have a moral code and the South was transgressing that. Truman had also been a returning veteran in the First World War which undoubtedly played a significant role in his indignation in this foul treatment of returning black veterans. He pushed the justice department to put Sheriff Shull on trial. When this occurred, and this being the South, the prosecutor only half-heartedly presented its case (for example he didn’t even bother to produce the hospital forensic findings of their examination of Sergeant Woodard which demonstrated that it was highly improbable that one swat with the blackjack would have done such severe damage – it was indeed quite likely that the blackjack was inserted and pressed into each eye of Sergeant Woodard). The all-white jury dismissed all charges against Sheriff Shull.
There were two almost separate repercussions that evolved from this incompetent trial which lead to historic changes in United States Civil Rights history.
One triggered a campaign by President Truman to promote Civil Rights in the Unites States – in particular legislation to desegregate the U.S. military (army, navy and air force) in 1948. This was against the wishes of such military luminaries as Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, and Omar Bradly. Truman realized that the world-wide reputation of the United States was at stake because of its treatment of its own black citizens – more so in the Jim Crow apartheid South. It was hypocritical to espouse freedom in other countries when lynching and beatings were unpunished.
In a speech (page 141 - 142) to the NAACP in July 1947 Truman said: “The extension of civil rights today means, not protection of the people from government, but the protection of the people by government… [there is] no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry, or religion, or race, or color.”
The other interesting trajectory followed by the author is that of Judge J. Waties Waring who was the judge at the trial of Sheriff Shull. He was shocked by the poor work of the prosecution and then the “not guilty” verdict. Although brought up in the South Judge Waring at this trial came to know the full meaning of the Jim Crow South and how powerless black people were. Afterwards it became his life’s purpose to do away with the charade of “separate but equal” that was the legal backbone of the South. After numerous pre-trials that Judge Waring presided over it finally led to Brown vs Board of Education which ended the legality of “separate but equal”. Judge Waring was against the added on “with all deliberate speed” to the Supreme Court decision which led to further delays for the implementation of school desegregation.
For all this Judge Waring was ostracized by his community in Charleston, South Carolina. Among other incidents a K.K.K. cross was burnt in his yard.
This book gives us an excellent history of the Civil Rights movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II. There was an intense and sometimes violent struggle going on prior to the advent of Martin Luther King in the mid-1950’s.
This was not the only violent incident perpetrated on returning black veterans from World War II in the Southern United States. However, this made President Truman fly into a rage when it was reported to him by the leaders of the NAACP. Truman did have a moral code and the South was transgressing that. Truman had also been a returning veteran in the First World War which undoubtedly played a significant role in his indignation in this foul treatment of returning black veterans. He pushed the justice department to put Sheriff Shull on trial. When this occurred, and this being the South, the prosecutor only half-heartedly presented its case (for example he didn’t even bother to produce the hospital forensic findings of their examination of Sergeant Woodard which demonstrated that it was highly improbable that one swat with the blackjack would have done such severe damage – it was indeed quite likely that the blackjack was inserted and pressed into each eye of Sergeant Woodard). The all-white jury dismissed all charges against Sheriff Shull.
There were two almost separate repercussions that evolved from this incompetent trial which lead to historic changes in United States Civil Rights history.
One triggered a campaign by President Truman to promote Civil Rights in the Unites States – in particular legislation to desegregate the U.S. military (army, navy and air force) in 1948. This was against the wishes of such military luminaries as Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, and Omar Bradly. Truman realized that the world-wide reputation of the United States was at stake because of its treatment of its own black citizens – more so in the Jim Crow apartheid South. It was hypocritical to espouse freedom in other countries when lynching and beatings were unpunished.
In a speech (page 141 - 142) to the NAACP in July 1947 Truman said: “The extension of civil rights today means, not protection of the people from government, but the protection of the people by government… [there is] no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry, or religion, or race, or color.”
The other interesting trajectory followed by the author is that of Judge J. Waties Waring who was the judge at the trial of Sheriff Shull. He was shocked by the poor work of the prosecution and then the “not guilty” verdict. Although brought up in the South Judge Waring at this trial came to know the full meaning of the Jim Crow South and how powerless black people were. Afterwards it became his life’s purpose to do away with the charade of “separate but equal” that was the legal backbone of the South. After numerous pre-trials that Judge Waring presided over it finally led to Brown vs Board of Education which ended the legality of “separate but equal”. Judge Waring was against the added on “with all deliberate speed” to the Supreme Court decision which led to further delays for the implementation of school desegregation.
For all this Judge Waring was ostracized by his community in Charleston, South Carolina. Among other incidents a K.K.K. cross was burnt in his yard.
This book gives us an excellent history of the Civil Rights movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II. There was an intense and sometimes violent struggle going on prior to the advent of Martin Luther King in the mid-1950’s.
August 21, 2021
Gergel positions the blinding of sergeant Isaac Woodard as a seminal event in the civil rights movement. It inspired President Truman to desegregate the armed forces. Waties Waring, The South Carolina judge who presided over the case, was also so moved that he embraced the civil rights movement. His subsequent actions brought about a case challenging segregated schools that became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregating public schools in the U. S.
Gergel describes the brutal beating of Woodard, a returning WWII army veteran, by a local sheriff in a small South Carolina town. Such incidents were not uncommon in 1946, but this one stood out to NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White who brought it to Truman’s attention. White’s description convinced Truman who had fought in WWI that something had to be done. Truman could not accept that someone who had just spent years of service in WWII could be treated this way.
Gergel gives us a portrait of Waties Waring to show why this born and bred Charlestonian from a pedigreed family would challenge the Southern treatment of blacks. Waring, a respected U. S. District Court Judge in Charleston South Carolina enjoyed all the social and political connections. He gave them all up to stand up for African American rights. He engineered a successful strategy to send a case, in which he held that segregated schools per se were not equal, to the Supreme Court. This is what the Supreme Court found when Waring’s case and others were folded into Brown v. Board of Education. Waring faced all the intimidation that blacks faced in South Carolina. His house had bricks tossed through the windows. A KKK cross was burned in his yard. He received death threat after death threat. He required 24-hour protection by U.S. Marshals. He often noted how remarkable it was that he hadn’t been shot. Yet he never relented.
Truman told his Attorney General Tom Clark about the “Negro Sergeant…who had been discharged from the army just three hours, was taken off the bus and not only seriously beaten, but his eyes deliberately put out.” Many other instances of racial hatred broke out across the country, particularly in the South. Black soldiers were returning from the war and were not willing to endure the kind of treatment they had experienced in the South before. Southern whites expected returning blacks to assume their prior place as if nothing had changed. Truman said he was “very much alarmed at the increased racial feeling all over the country.” He asked Clark to draft proposals to address the situation and also to prosecute the sheriff who beat and blinded Woodard. The sheriff was quickly acquitted by a local South Carolina jury, but the presiding judge, Waties Waring, was deeply upset by the verdict, even though he knew it was inevitable. Waring had seen many similar cases and this one turned him from a southern civil rights gradualist to an advocate for quick reform.
In 1947 Harry Truman became the first president to address the NAACP, delivering its keynote address in which he said “we have reached a turning point...in efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all of our citizens…recent events…made us realize it is more important today…to ensure that all Americans enjoy these rights.” He added his own hand written remark “When I say all Americans, I mean all Americans.” When Walter White congratulated Truman on his ground breaking address, Truman responded “I said what I did because I mean every word of it – and I am going to prove that I do mean it.” White later wrote if Truman “had any premonition of the savage assaults which were destined to be made upon him…he showed no signs of it.” Truman’s Southern support immediately evaporated. With the 1948 election approaching, Southern Democrats formed a third party known as the Dixiecrats. FDR’s carefully constructed New Deal coalition that could house both Northern African Americans and Southern Whites was forever broken. Undeterred in July 1948 Truman issued executive orders ending segregation in the armed forces and federal agencies. Incurring resistance particularly from the Army, Truman made it perfectly clear they had no choice. Truman acted without consulting Congress, alienating many members. In the biggest upset of modern times, Truman still won the election. Perhaps Americans respected Truman as a person who for stood up for his beliefs even if it wasn’t popular.
The Truman Justice Department issued amicus briefs to support civil rights cases challenging segregation on interstate transportation and in higher education. The last brief was filed in the administration’s last days in December 1952 for Brown v. Board of Education which sixteen months later would overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” doctrine the courts had used since 1896. But Thurgood Marshall felt an even greater victory was the 1944 decision declaring party primaries must be open to all races. Blacks had been specifically prohibited from Democratic primaries in the South where these primaries determined who would ultimately be elected. Another case that stood out was South Carolina’s challenge to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow blacks to vote in primaries. Judge Waring in his opinion quoted from Truman’s keynote address to the NAACP and went on to write “it is time for South Carolina to rejoin the Union” - “to adopt the American Way of conducting elections.” The tone of the opinion coming from a southern U.S. District Court judge was shocking to white southerners whose unending wrath Waring incurred.
South Carolina tried to circumvent the order to allow blacks to vote in the primary by requiring signing an odious oath renouncing integration. Thurgood Marshall handled the case objecting to the oath. Waring presided over the case and ordered the South Carolina Democratic Party to drop the oath and comply with the order to allow blacks to vote. Subsequently 35,000 blacks did vote in the Democratic primary. Waring was blasted with hate speech from elected officials and newspapers. He and his wife received endless obscene phone calls. She couldn’t even walk down a Charleston street without being bumped, brushed and humiliated. Waring rose to national attention. Time magazine called him “a man of cool courage.” He went to Washington and met with Attorney General Tom Clark and privately with Chief Justice Fred Vinson. Waring sent Thurgood Marshall a note telling him that Chief Justice Vinson could be counted on to support civil rights. Waring also met privately in the White House with President Truman. Truman told Waring about how the blinding of Sergeant Woodard had infuriated him not knowing that Waring was the judge who had heard the case. Waring expressed his own frustration and they went on to discuss the president’s civil rights plans.
In 1950 Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues were filing suits on behalf of the NAACP to show that schools for blacks were separate but not equal, asking for equal facilities. Marshall was a gradualist and wasn’t ready to ask for desegregation as a remedy. But Waties Waring was and so was the NAACP Executive Director Walter White. Waring hatched a plan and White agreed. Waring looked for a case in South Carolina he could use. He found one and asked Marshall, who had little choice with both Waring and White in agreement, to take it over to present it. Waring knew he would be able to set up a three-judge panel and he knew he would lose 2 to 1. But appeals of decisions of three judge panels went directly to the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Vinson. The case Briggs v. Elliott went as planned, but not without some drama and surprises. South Carolina admitted its facilities were not equal and offered to float a new bond issue to build new facilities for blacks. Marshall held that the only true remedy was desegregation and he lost in a 2 - 1 decision. Dissenting, Waring wrote “that segregation in education can never produce equality and it is an evil that must be eradicated.”
The case then went to the Supreme Court where it was bound up with several other cases and presented in the name of one, Brown v. Board of Education even though the Briggs case had been filed and decided first. The Court may have wanted to avoid looking like it was targeting the South. Brown v. Board was from Kansas. In 1953 Chief Justice Vinson died and the new Chief Justice, Earl Warren, was in place when the case was decided in May 1954 once and for all declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. After hearing the decision White said “Waties I pay tribute to you that in so short a time…you have been proven right.” Here Gergel ends this story of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard and its dramatic impact on two men, Harry Truman and Waties Waring, who were inspired to push the cause of civil rights farther and faster than seemed possible in 1946. Gergel makes this a very readable book including many personal details that add much depth to the storyline. Highly recommended.
Gergel describes the brutal beating of Woodard, a returning WWII army veteran, by a local sheriff in a small South Carolina town. Such incidents were not uncommon in 1946, but this one stood out to NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White who brought it to Truman’s attention. White’s description convinced Truman who had fought in WWI that something had to be done. Truman could not accept that someone who had just spent years of service in WWII could be treated this way.
Gergel gives us a portrait of Waties Waring to show why this born and bred Charlestonian from a pedigreed family would challenge the Southern treatment of blacks. Waring, a respected U. S. District Court Judge in Charleston South Carolina enjoyed all the social and political connections. He gave them all up to stand up for African American rights. He engineered a successful strategy to send a case, in which he held that segregated schools per se were not equal, to the Supreme Court. This is what the Supreme Court found when Waring’s case and others were folded into Brown v. Board of Education. Waring faced all the intimidation that blacks faced in South Carolina. His house had bricks tossed through the windows. A KKK cross was burned in his yard. He received death threat after death threat. He required 24-hour protection by U.S. Marshals. He often noted how remarkable it was that he hadn’t been shot. Yet he never relented.
Truman told his Attorney General Tom Clark about the “Negro Sergeant…who had been discharged from the army just three hours, was taken off the bus and not only seriously beaten, but his eyes deliberately put out.” Many other instances of racial hatred broke out across the country, particularly in the South. Black soldiers were returning from the war and were not willing to endure the kind of treatment they had experienced in the South before. Southern whites expected returning blacks to assume their prior place as if nothing had changed. Truman said he was “very much alarmed at the increased racial feeling all over the country.” He asked Clark to draft proposals to address the situation and also to prosecute the sheriff who beat and blinded Woodard. The sheriff was quickly acquitted by a local South Carolina jury, but the presiding judge, Waties Waring, was deeply upset by the verdict, even though he knew it was inevitable. Waring had seen many similar cases and this one turned him from a southern civil rights gradualist to an advocate for quick reform.
In 1947 Harry Truman became the first president to address the NAACP, delivering its keynote address in which he said “we have reached a turning point...in efforts to guarantee freedom and equality to all of our citizens…recent events…made us realize it is more important today…to ensure that all Americans enjoy these rights.” He added his own hand written remark “When I say all Americans, I mean all Americans.” When Walter White congratulated Truman on his ground breaking address, Truman responded “I said what I did because I mean every word of it – and I am going to prove that I do mean it.” White later wrote if Truman “had any premonition of the savage assaults which were destined to be made upon him…he showed no signs of it.” Truman’s Southern support immediately evaporated. With the 1948 election approaching, Southern Democrats formed a third party known as the Dixiecrats. FDR’s carefully constructed New Deal coalition that could house both Northern African Americans and Southern Whites was forever broken. Undeterred in July 1948 Truman issued executive orders ending segregation in the armed forces and federal agencies. Incurring resistance particularly from the Army, Truman made it perfectly clear they had no choice. Truman acted without consulting Congress, alienating many members. In the biggest upset of modern times, Truman still won the election. Perhaps Americans respected Truman as a person who for stood up for his beliefs even if it wasn’t popular.
The Truman Justice Department issued amicus briefs to support civil rights cases challenging segregation on interstate transportation and in higher education. The last brief was filed in the administration’s last days in December 1952 for Brown v. Board of Education which sixteen months later would overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” doctrine the courts had used since 1896. But Thurgood Marshall felt an even greater victory was the 1944 decision declaring party primaries must be open to all races. Blacks had been specifically prohibited from Democratic primaries in the South where these primaries determined who would ultimately be elected. Another case that stood out was South Carolina’s challenge to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow blacks to vote in primaries. Judge Waring in his opinion quoted from Truman’s keynote address to the NAACP and went on to write “it is time for South Carolina to rejoin the Union” - “to adopt the American Way of conducting elections.” The tone of the opinion coming from a southern U.S. District Court judge was shocking to white southerners whose unending wrath Waring incurred.
South Carolina tried to circumvent the order to allow blacks to vote in the primary by requiring signing an odious oath renouncing integration. Thurgood Marshall handled the case objecting to the oath. Waring presided over the case and ordered the South Carolina Democratic Party to drop the oath and comply with the order to allow blacks to vote. Subsequently 35,000 blacks did vote in the Democratic primary. Waring was blasted with hate speech from elected officials and newspapers. He and his wife received endless obscene phone calls. She couldn’t even walk down a Charleston street without being bumped, brushed and humiliated. Waring rose to national attention. Time magazine called him “a man of cool courage.” He went to Washington and met with Attorney General Tom Clark and privately with Chief Justice Fred Vinson. Waring sent Thurgood Marshall a note telling him that Chief Justice Vinson could be counted on to support civil rights. Waring also met privately in the White House with President Truman. Truman told Waring about how the blinding of Sergeant Woodard had infuriated him not knowing that Waring was the judge who had heard the case. Waring expressed his own frustration and they went on to discuss the president’s civil rights plans.
In 1950 Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues were filing suits on behalf of the NAACP to show that schools for blacks were separate but not equal, asking for equal facilities. Marshall was a gradualist and wasn’t ready to ask for desegregation as a remedy. But Waties Waring was and so was the NAACP Executive Director Walter White. Waring hatched a plan and White agreed. Waring looked for a case in South Carolina he could use. He found one and asked Marshall, who had little choice with both Waring and White in agreement, to take it over to present it. Waring knew he would be able to set up a three-judge panel and he knew he would lose 2 to 1. But appeals of decisions of three judge panels went directly to the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Vinson. The case Briggs v. Elliott went as planned, but not without some drama and surprises. South Carolina admitted its facilities were not equal and offered to float a new bond issue to build new facilities for blacks. Marshall held that the only true remedy was desegregation and he lost in a 2 - 1 decision. Dissenting, Waring wrote “that segregation in education can never produce equality and it is an evil that must be eradicated.”
The case then went to the Supreme Court where it was bound up with several other cases and presented in the name of one, Brown v. Board of Education even though the Briggs case had been filed and decided first. The Court may have wanted to avoid looking like it was targeting the South. Brown v. Board was from Kansas. In 1953 Chief Justice Vinson died and the new Chief Justice, Earl Warren, was in place when the case was decided in May 1954 once and for all declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. After hearing the decision White said “Waties I pay tribute to you that in so short a time…you have been proven right.” Here Gergel ends this story of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard and its dramatic impact on two men, Harry Truman and Waties Waring, who were inspired to push the cause of civil rights farther and faster than seemed possible in 1946. Gergel makes this a very readable book including many personal details that add much depth to the storyline. Highly recommended.
January 18, 2021
UNEXAMPLED COURAGE by Richard Gergel reads almost like a first hand account of one of the pioneering cases of the civil rights movement in the United States. The blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard made it clear to many Black Americans, including those at the NAACP, that it was time for change. Black Americans had been suffering from white aggression for generations, but now seeing Black American soldiers returning from the Second World War being treated as nothing more than dirt, it was time for a stand to be taken. Drastic measures for drastic times. The case and trial of Lynwood Shull, the Batesburg police Chief who was responsible for the attacks on Woodard, would be tried in the U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. After only thirty minutes of court time, Shull would be acquitted by an all white jury. No punishment would ever come to Shull, who would die at home in Batesburg in 1997 at the age of 95.
The news of the blinding of Isaac Woodard, as well as the acquittal of Lynwood Shull, made its way to president Harry Truman, a man who was brought up in 1890's Missouri, and had his own fair share of racial prejudices. Truman was horrified by the thought of Black Americans returning home from combat only to be met by another enemy. Upon hearing of Woodard's blinding, Truman exclaimed, “My God! I had no idea it was as terrible as that! We have got to do something.” Harry Truman would be the first president to use an executive order as a tool of social justice and civil rights in 1948, with the signing of two orders, 9980 which called for fair employment of all races within the United States government, and order 9981 which called for the integration of all United States Military branches.
Harry Truman would also be the first president to address a gathering of the NAACP. In his speech he delivered historic lines: "Every man should have the right to a decent home, the right to an education, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a worthwhile job, the right to an equal share in making the public decisions through the ballot, and the right to a fair trial in a fair court." On the subject of continuing the fight for racial and social justice in the United States, he said, "I pledge my full and continued support." Although Harry Truman may have still carried his own prejudices, he believed in an America where truly "all men are created equal." When Harry Truman spoke of Americans, he meant ALL Americans.
I was completely engrossed in this book, and read it in a weekend. My eyes were indeed opened during the reading process. I had been aware of Isaac Woodard and his story, but I had never read first hand the horrors of what happened to a man guilty only of the crime of wanting to be an equal citizen. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of the deep south legal system during the 40's, 50's, and 60's, as well as those who stood up to a broken system and fought for its mending. Five stars.
The news of the blinding of Isaac Woodard, as well as the acquittal of Lynwood Shull, made its way to president Harry Truman, a man who was brought up in 1890's Missouri, and had his own fair share of racial prejudices. Truman was horrified by the thought of Black Americans returning home from combat only to be met by another enemy. Upon hearing of Woodard's blinding, Truman exclaimed, “My God! I had no idea it was as terrible as that! We have got to do something.” Harry Truman would be the first president to use an executive order as a tool of social justice and civil rights in 1948, with the signing of two orders, 9980 which called for fair employment of all races within the United States government, and order 9981 which called for the integration of all United States Military branches.
Harry Truman would also be the first president to address a gathering of the NAACP. In his speech he delivered historic lines: "Every man should have the right to a decent home, the right to an education, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a worthwhile job, the right to an equal share in making the public decisions through the ballot, and the right to a fair trial in a fair court." On the subject of continuing the fight for racial and social justice in the United States, he said, "I pledge my full and continued support." Although Harry Truman may have still carried his own prejudices, he believed in an America where truly "all men are created equal." When Harry Truman spoke of Americans, he meant ALL Americans.
I was completely engrossed in this book, and read it in a weekend. My eyes were indeed opened during the reading process. I had been aware of Isaac Woodard and his story, but I had never read first hand the horrors of what happened to a man guilty only of the crime of wanting to be an equal citizen. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of the deep south legal system during the 40's, 50's, and 60's, as well as those who stood up to a broken system and fought for its mending. Five stars.
April 26, 2019
In the history of ideas, it is sometimes hard to trace the origin of a concept that inspires someone. But Sgt. Woodard's attack by a small-town South Carolina police chief helped spark Harry Truman's path toward civil rights. Gergel adds interesting context to Truman's course on civil rights. I just knew about segregation of the armed forces and the 1948 Dixiecrats revolt. Gergel fills in the blanks for me and it is pretty amazing. Here was this Missouri guy whose mom was a Confederate sympathizer and his son made the biggest strides towards civil rights since U.S. Grant.
The author also covers another fascinating aspect and that is Judge Waites who sat on a federal bench in South Carolina. In the wake of the police chief walking free from blinding Woodard, Waties goes on this amazing personal journey to change his mind about civil rights. He was an important player later for Brown v. Board of Education. It is an inspiring part of the story and it is a hopeful one.
The author also covers another fascinating aspect and that is Judge Waites who sat on a federal bench in South Carolina. In the wake of the police chief walking free from blinding Woodard, Waties goes on this amazing personal journey to change his mind about civil rights. He was an important player later for Brown v. Board of Education. It is an inspiring part of the story and it is a hopeful one.
May 7, 2019
We all know (or should know) the story of Brown v. Board of Education. The NAACP. Thurgood Marshall. The role of Chief Justice Warren. The decade-plus of court cases and strategic legal maneuvering that led to the overturning of Plessy v. Ferguson and the abhorrent "separate but equal" doctrine it stood for.
I came to appreciate this epic legal battle even more when I read Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality a couple of years ago. In addition to amazing detail, the book introduced me to a player I had not heard of before: Judge J. Waites Waring.
Simple Justice left me with a curiosity to know more about this Judge so when I saw Leah K's review of Unexampled Courage I knew I had to read it. Immediately.
This book focuses on Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a black man traveling home in the south after being honorably discharged from the army. He was still in his uniform when he was dragged from a bus by a local sheriff and beaten so badly that he lost his eye sight. He—with the help of the NAACP—took his horrific story on the road and inspired people from all races and regions to support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as it executed its plan to challenge and overturn discrimination. Woodard's story is heart-breaking, but his role was critical.
Harry Truman is my favorite president. Probably most well known for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and narrowly winning a Presidential election, he was the unlikely president who made bold statements about equality and making discrimination illegal. Not a popular opinion at the time someone was trying to win a presidential election, and unheard of from a Missourian politician. But, he stuck by his guns and not only orchestrated one of the most powerful governmental reports on the effects of discrimination, but also was the president that ordered the entire military be desegregated.
But, for me Judge Waites Waring was the part of the book I was most drawn to. He was a federal judge in South Carolina. He lived in Charleston, South of Broad. His family were confederate to their core and he strongly defended segregation. But then he changed his mind. He heard about Woodard. He heard about other racial atrocities. His second wife was very progressive and did not support segregation. Waites Waring completely shifted positions. He eventually was the one who pushed Thurgood Marshall to challenge Plessy head on as a way to set up a Supreme Court challenge that he thought the court had been signaling they were ready for. He wrote an amazing dissent in the case that Marshall argued, a dissent that was heavily quoted by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board. He desegregated his courtroom. He socialized with black people and civil rights leaders, he was admired by President Truman. And, he was completely ostracized by the white community in South Carolina. Don't get me wrong, he was not the "white savior" of the segregation story, but he was an interesting character who played an important role.
I definitely recommend this book for those who love history, who are interested in civil rights, who are in awe of Thurgood Marshall, and who want to learn lessons from our past to inform our present and future.
I came to appreciate this epic legal battle even more when I read Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality a couple of years ago. In addition to amazing detail, the book introduced me to a player I had not heard of before: Judge J. Waites Waring.
Simple Justice left me with a curiosity to know more about this Judge so when I saw Leah K's review of Unexampled Courage I knew I had to read it. Immediately.
This book focuses on Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a black man traveling home in the south after being honorably discharged from the army. He was still in his uniform when he was dragged from a bus by a local sheriff and beaten so badly that he lost his eye sight. He—with the help of the NAACP—took his horrific story on the road and inspired people from all races and regions to support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as it executed its plan to challenge and overturn discrimination. Woodard's story is heart-breaking, but his role was critical.
Harry Truman is my favorite president. Probably most well known for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and narrowly winning a Presidential election, he was the unlikely president who made bold statements about equality and making discrimination illegal. Not a popular opinion at the time someone was trying to win a presidential election, and unheard of from a Missourian politician. But, he stuck by his guns and not only orchestrated one of the most powerful governmental reports on the effects of discrimination, but also was the president that ordered the entire military be desegregated.
But, for me Judge Waites Waring was the part of the book I was most drawn to. He was a federal judge in South Carolina. He lived in Charleston, South of Broad. His family were confederate to their core and he strongly defended segregation. But then he changed his mind. He heard about Woodard. He heard about other racial atrocities. His second wife was very progressive and did not support segregation. Waites Waring completely shifted positions. He eventually was the one who pushed Thurgood Marshall to challenge Plessy head on as a way to set up a Supreme Court challenge that he thought the court had been signaling they were ready for. He wrote an amazing dissent in the case that Marshall argued, a dissent that was heavily quoted by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board. He desegregated his courtroom. He socialized with black people and civil rights leaders, he was admired by President Truman. And, he was completely ostracized by the white community in South Carolina. Don't get me wrong, he was not the "white savior" of the segregation story, but he was an interesting character who played an important role.
I definitely recommend this book for those who love history, who are interested in civil rights, who are in awe of Thurgood Marshall, and who want to learn lessons from our past to inform our present and future.
January 9, 2019
In 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard was on a Greyhound bus heading home from having served in WWII. He asked to step off the bus to use the restroom. He and the bus driver had words. Police were called. The police chief beat the tar out of him and drive his nightstick into both of Woodard's eyes, blinding him. More than a decade before when we think of the Civil Rights Movement beginning, it had already begun. This case galvanized the NAACP, taught a young lawyer named Thurgood Marshall a thing or two about trying politically charged cases, and most importantly, it changed the mind of a young judge named J. Waties Waring in South Carolina. Waring couldn't change the outcome of this case. But the shocking things he learned about the treatment of African-Americans in America made him look into it further, made him an activist, and his dissent in a public school segregation case in 1951 was pretty much quoted word for word a few years later by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education.
We often see the big events only, without context, without understanding of what lead up to them. We don't understand the decades of anguish and servility and mistreatment that lead up to them. And we also don't understand what events lead great men (and this era, it was mostly men) to buck the trend and to stand up for what was right instead of what was accepted. Woodard and Waring's names have been mostly lost to history, except for those who study the Civil Rights movement in the United States. We ought to remember them. What might seem like solitary incidents of brutality and incivility can later lead to great change. One can find much inspiration in stories like these today.
We often see the big events only, without context, without understanding of what lead up to them. We don't understand the decades of anguish and servility and mistreatment that lead up to them. And we also don't understand what events lead great men (and this era, it was mostly men) to buck the trend and to stand up for what was right instead of what was accepted. Woodard and Waring's names have been mostly lost to history, except for those who study the Civil Rights movement in the United States. We ought to remember them. What might seem like solitary incidents of brutality and incivility can later lead to great change. One can find much inspiration in stories like these today.
January 31, 2019
No one remembers Isaac Woodard, but this remarkable book shows that this WWII veteran was coming home from the war and the war had changed him; it made it harder for him to take the consistent racial abuse people of color were expected to endure. When abuse occurred, he didn’t just take it, and it resulted in him being blinded from the beating he received from the sheriff. A joke of an investigation, intentionally inept FBI work and all white jury found the sheriff innocent. Par for the course and par for the times.
What it did was awaken Truman and a SC judge, and this book makes the case that their work led to the breakthrough that was Brown vs Board of Education. It doesn’t ignore Chief Justice Marshall or any of the heavy lifters, but it focuses on Truman and Waring.
It’s so nauseating what happened and it’s just amazing that we weren’t ever taught about this. It’s a great book with a determined author who helps bring some much delayed justice to occur. It is very worth the read.
What it did was awaken Truman and a SC judge, and this book makes the case that their work led to the breakthrough that was Brown vs Board of Education. It doesn’t ignore Chief Justice Marshall or any of the heavy lifters, but it focuses on Truman and Waring.
It’s so nauseating what happened and it’s just amazing that we weren’t ever taught about this. It’s a great book with a determined author who helps bring some much delayed justice to occur. It is very worth the read.
September 17, 2019
Richard Gergel’s Unexampled Courage is the incredible and well written account that takes place in 1946 when Sgt Isaac Woodard on his way home after serving World War II steps off a Greyhound bus to use the restroom. The bus driver spoke disrespectfully to Woodard and stopped the bus at Batesburg, SC where he was removed from the bus where the police were called. He was arrested for disrespectful treatment by police chief Lynwood Shull who beat him and blinded him while in custody with a blackjack.
This incident outraged President Harry Truman when he was told of the incident and it ignited him to do something. His actions led to the path towards civil rights. One act was desegregating the armed forces completely. The horrible case also animated the NAACP with a young lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, who learned about the politically charged cases in the segregated Jim Crow South. It also changed the mind of J Waties Waring the presiding judge of the case became alienated from his family, friends and most Charlestonians over the civil rights case.
Waring learned the shocking truth about the treatment of African Americans in the south and looked into things further becoming a civil rights activist. He encouraged Marshall to pursue segregation in public schools with the Briggs case which was based on Plessy v Ferguson, “separate but equal” clause. He dissented with the other judges and his dissent explicitly questioned “separate but equal”. His dissent became the bedrock with his words quoted word for word to win the Brown v Education case in 1951.
Gergel explains these events with cogence and inspiration and brought to the forefront the names Woodard and Waring who were mostly forgotten in history. In this remarkable book, Gergel describes how some courageous citizens stepped forward to challenge the racial statutes of the time. He stated that Isaac Woodard showed “unexampled courage” when he didn’t back down to the bus driver but insisted he was a man like him and didn’t just go back to his seat.
Harry Truman met with civil rights leaders and instead of leaving things alone as a safe approach to the sweeping violence, he sympathized with the cause and decided to do something. He pressed his justice department to file charges against Shull and created the first presidential committee on civil rights. With the deficiencies in justice outlined, he issued landmark executive orders ending segregation in the armed services and federal agencies. It produced open rebellion from southern legislatures. Truman would not back down but put his presidency on the line and displayed “unexampled courage”.
Waring as a presiding judge who came from a family of prominence and prestige put his life on the line by taking the side of civil rights. He was not going to be governed by White Supremacy. By standing alone he resolved to uphold the rule of law and demonstrated “unexampled courage”. He challenged the old established way of life in SC even though he had to flee the state and save his life and live the rest of his life in NY. But it was these courageous citizens and others who broke the hold of segregation.
Gergel wrote an outstanding account of an important little known part of history with pathos and clarity. I am honored to know him and very happy to see him travel the country to tell people about this very important story. I highly recommend this book for everyone and especially those interested in civil rights.
This incident outraged President Harry Truman when he was told of the incident and it ignited him to do something. His actions led to the path towards civil rights. One act was desegregating the armed forces completely. The horrible case also animated the NAACP with a young lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, who learned about the politically charged cases in the segregated Jim Crow South. It also changed the mind of J Waties Waring the presiding judge of the case became alienated from his family, friends and most Charlestonians over the civil rights case.
Waring learned the shocking truth about the treatment of African Americans in the south and looked into things further becoming a civil rights activist. He encouraged Marshall to pursue segregation in public schools with the Briggs case which was based on Plessy v Ferguson, “separate but equal” clause. He dissented with the other judges and his dissent explicitly questioned “separate but equal”. His dissent became the bedrock with his words quoted word for word to win the Brown v Education case in 1951.
Gergel explains these events with cogence and inspiration and brought to the forefront the names Woodard and Waring who were mostly forgotten in history. In this remarkable book, Gergel describes how some courageous citizens stepped forward to challenge the racial statutes of the time. He stated that Isaac Woodard showed “unexampled courage” when he didn’t back down to the bus driver but insisted he was a man like him and didn’t just go back to his seat.
Harry Truman met with civil rights leaders and instead of leaving things alone as a safe approach to the sweeping violence, he sympathized with the cause and decided to do something. He pressed his justice department to file charges against Shull and created the first presidential committee on civil rights. With the deficiencies in justice outlined, he issued landmark executive orders ending segregation in the armed services and federal agencies. It produced open rebellion from southern legislatures. Truman would not back down but put his presidency on the line and displayed “unexampled courage”.
Waring as a presiding judge who came from a family of prominence and prestige put his life on the line by taking the side of civil rights. He was not going to be governed by White Supremacy. By standing alone he resolved to uphold the rule of law and demonstrated “unexampled courage”. He challenged the old established way of life in SC even though he had to flee the state and save his life and live the rest of his life in NY. But it was these courageous citizens and others who broke the hold of segregation.
Gergel wrote an outstanding account of an important little known part of history with pathos and clarity. I am honored to know him and very happy to see him travel the country to tell people about this very important story. I highly recommend this book for everyone and especially those interested in civil rights.
March 29, 2019
Unexampled Courage, indeed. This is such an intense, sad, incredible part of history that is forgotten by many. And that's why this book is so important, perhaps even more so in our rocky present time. This is a well researched, well written, informative book. Definitely a must read. This is a part of history that happened in my dad's era, not exactly that far in history. Read this. Learn from this. This story is a perfect example of those who don't learn our history are doomed to repeat it. Let's not repeat history, in this case.
June 29, 2020
I received Unexampled Courage as a gift a couple of months back. I happened to be reading it when George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police and during the subsequent protests. This book has been a strong reminder of how little has changed in the US regarding the lack of accountability when it comes to police violence against civilians.
Unexampled Courage follows three, intertwining stories of Isaac Woodard, Federal Judge Waties Waring, and President Harry Truman. The first story is of Isaac Woodard who was a Sergeant in the US Army during WWII. On February 12, 1946, Woodard was on a bus traveling home to North Carolina after recently being discharged from the Army (he was actually still in uniform that night). Long story short, there was an altercation of some kind between him and the bus driver, the police were called, and Mr. Woodard was taken into custody, beaten, and essentially tortured. The next day he couldn't see and he never regained his eyesight. After a national outrage, which was partly fueled by Orson Welles raising awareness of the incident on national radio, the officer that blinded Woodward was charged, but eventually acquitted.
The other two intertwining stories are of President Truman and Judge Waties Waring, both of which were outraged, by the incident. The subtitle of the book uses the term "awakening" to describe Truman's and Waring's reactions. It is an apt word choice because both seem fairly "woke" for their time. Waties Waring, the judge who oversaw the trial of the officer (and acquittal by jury), became a Civil Rights activist after the fact. He also was the first federal judge to rule that segregation in public schools was inherently unequal (though his was a dissenting opinion in that case). Truman established the Civil Rights Commission soon after the officer's acquittal in the incident that left Woodard blind.
This is a fairly short book. It is a brief history and a good starting point for a person who wants to learn more about Civil Rights in the United States. Truman, who I have never had strong opinions about either way, came across in a very positive light. He is definitely someone I want to learn more about after reading this. I give this book four stars. It really is short and to the point.
Unexampled Courage follows three, intertwining stories of Isaac Woodard, Federal Judge Waties Waring, and President Harry Truman. The first story is of Isaac Woodard who was a Sergeant in the US Army during WWII. On February 12, 1946, Woodard was on a bus traveling home to North Carolina after recently being discharged from the Army (he was actually still in uniform that night). Long story short, there was an altercation of some kind between him and the bus driver, the police were called, and Mr. Woodard was taken into custody, beaten, and essentially tortured. The next day he couldn't see and he never regained his eyesight. After a national outrage, which was partly fueled by Orson Welles raising awareness of the incident on national radio, the officer that blinded Woodward was charged, but eventually acquitted.
The other two intertwining stories are of President Truman and Judge Waties Waring, both of which were outraged, by the incident. The subtitle of the book uses the term "awakening" to describe Truman's and Waring's reactions. It is an apt word choice because both seem fairly "woke" for their time. Waties Waring, the judge who oversaw the trial of the officer (and acquittal by jury), became a Civil Rights activist after the fact. He also was the first federal judge to rule that segregation in public schools was inherently unequal (though his was a dissenting opinion in that case). Truman established the Civil Rights Commission soon after the officer's acquittal in the incident that left Woodard blind.
This is a fairly short book. It is a brief history and a good starting point for a person who wants to learn more about Civil Rights in the United States. Truman, who I have never had strong opinions about either way, came across in a very positive light. He is definitely someone I want to learn more about after reading this. I give this book four stars. It really is short and to the point.
August 18, 2021
I began to understand the deeply held attitudes and actions associated with the South by reading specifics on how racism began and was promulgated in South Carolina. I won't list the examples and court actions, but change was a long time in coming. Giving blacks respect and common rights was anathema to many people who blocked change by intimidation, violence, corrupt legal actions, etc.
Although progress has been made, there is still much change needed in "America’s most delicate and often undiscussed racial practices and customs, including black disenfranchisement, racial mob violence, failures of the justice system, racial segregation, and the fear of interracial sexual relations and marriage."
People from South Carolina have whole generations of racist actions and attitudes behind them; that makes it easier to understand where they are coming from. What we learn from our parents, they learned from their parents, etc.
Currently I'm reading This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War which goes into great detail how soldiers were treated (dead and alive) and the blacks died disproportionately from battles and way more from diseases. Confederate troops tended to view Union Black soldiers as an abomination because blacks were so inferior, and also because the Confederate soldiers often felt like the much-feared Negro slave revolt was happening right in their face.
Although progress has been made, there is still much change needed in "America’s most delicate and often undiscussed racial practices and customs, including black disenfranchisement, racial mob violence, failures of the justice system, racial segregation, and the fear of interracial sexual relations and marriage."
People from South Carolina have whole generations of racist actions and attitudes behind them; that makes it easier to understand where they are coming from. What we learn from our parents, they learned from their parents, etc.
Currently I'm reading This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War which goes into great detail how soldiers were treated (dead and alive) and the blacks died disproportionately from battles and way more from diseases. Confederate troops tended to view Union Black soldiers as an abomination because blacks were so inferior, and also because the Confederate soldiers often felt like the much-feared Negro slave revolt was happening right in their face.
January 20, 2022
Wow. Wow. Wow.
And the fact that the author is also a double Dukie has not influenced my enthusiasm for this book (well, not TOO much).
This book is a must-read for all my reader friends. Most of us are aware that Truman issued an order in 1948 that in effect integrated the segregated the U.S. military. I for one was not aware that so much of the country reviled this order, or that the controversy and hatred that it created could easily have caused Truman to lose the 1948 Presidential election (spoiler alert: Truman won).
Most significantly, for me at least, the author introduces us to the courageous legal work and life of U.S. Federal Court Judge Waring. He was a patrician South Carolinian who was the first Southern white judge who had a crucial legal role in the early legal battles of the American civil rights movement. And his wife Elizabeth was his (non-lawyer) equal partner in all his work.
I would love to read (or write!) a comprehensive biography of the Warings.
And the fact that the author is also a double Dukie has not influenced my enthusiasm for this book (well, not TOO much).
This book is a must-read for all my reader friends. Most of us are aware that Truman issued an order in 1948 that in effect integrated the segregated the U.S. military. I for one was not aware that so much of the country reviled this order, or that the controversy and hatred that it created could easily have caused Truman to lose the 1948 Presidential election (spoiler alert: Truman won).
Most significantly, for me at least, the author introduces us to the courageous legal work and life of U.S. Federal Court Judge Waring. He was a patrician South Carolinian who was the first Southern white judge who had a crucial legal role in the early legal battles of the American civil rights movement. And his wife Elizabeth was his (non-lawyer) equal partner in all his work.
I would love to read (or write!) a comprehensive biography of the Warings.
April 29, 2019
Evidently the author of this book found out about this story in June, 2018. The event occurred in February, 1946. Sgt. Woodard was on a bus in the South, heading home after having been released from the Army. Woodard, who is African-American needs to relieve himself, the bus driver takes issue with the vet, calls the police on him and one of the officers uses a billy club to beat and blind Woodard.
The subsequent trial and investigations involve some famous names, such as Harry Truman, Thurgood Marshall, and Judge Waring.
The book extends it's story to Brown vs. Board of Education. Generally a goo, if unknown story which once again tells of part of our untold, shameful past however, many worked together to overcome short sightedness and prejudice to promote equality for all in the U.S., not just the selected.
I think these stories are always worth telling.
The subsequent trial and investigations involve some famous names, such as Harry Truman, Thurgood Marshall, and Judge Waring.
The book extends it's story to Brown vs. Board of Education. Generally a goo, if unknown story which once again tells of part of our untold, shameful past however, many worked together to overcome short sightedness and prejudice to promote equality for all in the U.S., not just the selected.
I think these stories are always worth telling.
October 18, 2025
Excellent and exciting history of three men who brought forth the end of Jim Crow laws. Tracing a fine path between injustice and celebration, the author details a story that has been lost with clarity and well driven plot and character.
July 4, 2020
Sometimes history really is shaped by a single man. Or, in this case, two men. Two very different men. They both hailed from South Carolina, although they lived in different worlds. But eventually it was because of them that the Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools are unconstitutional—and neither of them had anything to do with the 1954 case of Brown vs. the Board of Education.
Written by Richard Gergel, a South Carolina attorney and U.S. District Court judge, this book is an imminently readable slice of history you probably never knew.
What happened first: In February 1946, just three hours after Sgt. Isaac Woodard was discharged from the Army following heroic service in World War II, he was traveling home in uniform on a Greyhound bus to Winnsboro, South Carolina when he had a minor dispute with the driver. The driver kicked him off the bus and into the arms of a Batesburg, South Carolina cop, who proceeded to beat Woodard with his blackjack, blinding him in both eyes. There were many violent acts against Blacks occurring all over the South at that time, but Woodard was unusual in that he lived through it. His case made the national news, thanks to Orson Welles's radio show. Public opinion demanded that the police officer, Lynwood Shull, be tried.
What happened next: President Harry S Truman was appalled by what happened, and his actions—based almost solely on hearing about Isaac Woodard—changed the course of American history by beginning the civil rights movement.
What happened after that: Enter Judge J. Waties Waring, a Charleston blueblood, who was asked to serve as the judge for Shull's trial. Not surprisingly, the all-white jury found Shull not guilty. Quite surprisingly, Judge Waring was deeply affected by Woodard's story, and it dramatically changed his views on race. And then the good judge proceeded to influence equally dramatic changes in the laws of our land. The personal attacks and violence he endured were horrifying, but the support he received from unexpected sources was truly gratifying.
If you ever think that one person cannot make that much of a difference, then read this book to find out how Judge Waring daringly risked everything he held dear in his life to make life better for Black Americans. It's quite a story!
Caution: The description of the beating of Isaac Woodard is quite graphic, as it had to be to fully explain what happened.
Written by Richard Gergel, a South Carolina attorney and U.S. District Court judge, this book is an imminently readable slice of history you probably never knew.
What happened first: In February 1946, just three hours after Sgt. Isaac Woodard was discharged from the Army following heroic service in World War II, he was traveling home in uniform on a Greyhound bus to Winnsboro, South Carolina when he had a minor dispute with the driver. The driver kicked him off the bus and into the arms of a Batesburg, South Carolina cop, who proceeded to beat Woodard with his blackjack, blinding him in both eyes. There were many violent acts against Blacks occurring all over the South at that time, but Woodard was unusual in that he lived through it. His case made the national news, thanks to Orson Welles's radio show. Public opinion demanded that the police officer, Lynwood Shull, be tried.
What happened next: President Harry S Truman was appalled by what happened, and his actions—based almost solely on hearing about Isaac Woodard—changed the course of American history by beginning the civil rights movement.
What happened after that: Enter Judge J. Waties Waring, a Charleston blueblood, who was asked to serve as the judge for Shull's trial. Not surprisingly, the all-white jury found Shull not guilty. Quite surprisingly, Judge Waring was deeply affected by Woodard's story, and it dramatically changed his views on race. And then the good judge proceeded to influence equally dramatic changes in the laws of our land. The personal attacks and violence he endured were horrifying, but the support he received from unexpected sources was truly gratifying.
If you ever think that one person cannot make that much of a difference, then read this book to find out how Judge Waring daringly risked everything he held dear in his life to make life better for Black Americans. It's quite a story!
Caution: The description of the beating of Isaac Woodard is quite graphic, as it had to be to fully explain what happened.
February 18, 2019
Be prepared to be outraged. An informative legal and social history of civil rights by a Southern judge.
Unexampled courage is an unusual title. Initially I thought it only described Sergeant Isaac Woodard, the recipient of a police beating which left him blinded. Woodard had served in combat with the Army in the South Pacific in a segregated stevedore unit and had just been released from active duty and was on his way home via bus. He had words with the bus driver about showing him some respect and the police took him off the bus and beat him in view of the passengers. Police maintained they only struck him once. The driver said he had been drinking-like that’s the most egregious offense.
This was just one of many incidents involving returning African American veterans being subjected to violence in the South. However, it was this incident that moved President Truman to desegregate the Armed Forces and become a champion of civil rights. So Truman too showed unexampled courage by going against all his advisors and doing what was right and needed to be done.
Unexampled courage also describes Judge Waties Waring in whose court Woodard’s assaulter was acquitted by an all white jury in 1946 South Carolina. This travesty energized him to advocate for the end of American apartheid and by doing so became a social pariah in his hometown of Charleston. His clever strategy coordinated with the NAACP led to the successful ending of separate but equal in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. However, it started with Waring’s embrace of the South Carolina plaintiffs in Briggs v. Elliott, another education case. These plaintiffs also showed unexampled courage. Subject to physical violence and economic coercion by a vengeful white populace many lost their jobs, businesses, and some had to move to the North. So it was a victory with casualties. It was easier for Waring as he had a lifetime appointment and US Marshal protection.
So when Americans think current events are bad they should read this book to see some really bad moments from our past. I can think of nothing worse than a veteran returning home and being blinded or lynched just for asserting his rights as an American.
Unexampled courage is an unusual title. Initially I thought it only described Sergeant Isaac Woodard, the recipient of a police beating which left him blinded. Woodard had served in combat with the Army in the South Pacific in a segregated stevedore unit and had just been released from active duty and was on his way home via bus. He had words with the bus driver about showing him some respect and the police took him off the bus and beat him in view of the passengers. Police maintained they only struck him once. The driver said he had been drinking-like that’s the most egregious offense.
This was just one of many incidents involving returning African American veterans being subjected to violence in the South. However, it was this incident that moved President Truman to desegregate the Armed Forces and become a champion of civil rights. So Truman too showed unexampled courage by going against all his advisors and doing what was right and needed to be done.
Unexampled courage also describes Judge Waties Waring in whose court Woodard’s assaulter was acquitted by an all white jury in 1946 South Carolina. This travesty energized him to advocate for the end of American apartheid and by doing so became a social pariah in his hometown of Charleston. His clever strategy coordinated with the NAACP led to the successful ending of separate but equal in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. However, it started with Waring’s embrace of the South Carolina plaintiffs in Briggs v. Elliott, another education case. These plaintiffs also showed unexampled courage. Subject to physical violence and economic coercion by a vengeful white populace many lost their jobs, businesses, and some had to move to the North. So it was a victory with casualties. It was easier for Waring as he had a lifetime appointment and US Marshal protection.
So when Americans think current events are bad they should read this book to see some really bad moments from our past. I can think of nothing worse than a veteran returning home and being blinded or lynched just for asserting his rights as an American.
September 15, 2019
This is a must read about a mostly unknown civil rights battle. It's sad, incredibly horrible, and very intense piece of history. It's about a WWII veteran who stands up for his rights and dignity, after returning home from war. He is brutally beaten blind, and when the story makes it to President Truman, he is mortified and made it his personal challenge to address the contentious civil rights issue in SC. There is also a Federal judge who is fighting for the cause, and faces horrible hatred from those in his state who don't want to see change and progress.
July 1, 2019
Book begins with the brutal blinding of Sergeant Isaac Woodard and morphs into the evolution of the civil rights evolution after World War 2. A great read, heavy on legal history and full of unsung heroes of the movement.
December 30, 2019
So much important context and back story to Brown v. Board of Education that I hadn't previously learned. Very informative!
October 16, 2020
A very interesting and inspiring account of the ripple effects of a hate crime committed against a returning black vet from WWII. This book, written by a lawyer (and it really shows in the way he guides the reader through the minutia of the cases), shows how in history stunning events and large force often come together to produce change. The catalyzing event of the story was the beating and blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard by a South Carolina sheriff, ostensibly for attacking him after being thrown off a bus for misbehavior (eyewitnesses differed, but the majority said Woodard was behaving normally). This became a national cause celebre for the NAACP, promoted by Orson Wells, among others, because it highlighted the broader trend of black soldiers being disrespected if not violently attacked or even killed upon return to the United States.
The Woodard story intersected with the desire of many Americans to move the country forward on race after the ordeal of WWII and to live up to foundational American values as the US took a position of global leadership. One of these AMericans was president Truman, a man with not much of a record on civil rights, who nonetheless was outraged by the Woodard story (apparently he brought it up a lot) and moved to set up a civil rights commission that recommended sweeping reforms. Truman took on the southern wing of his own party and the recalcitrant military brass by speaking out firmly on civil rights and desegregating the military, among other things. He went so far as to split the party, with Strom Thurmond leading a Dixiecrat rebellion on the 1948 ticket. One remarkable theme in this story is the willingness of southerners to burn it all to the ground, from trying to hand elections to the opposition to shutting down their own public schools, to stop segregation.
The other ripple effect of the Woodard incident and the broader post-WWII context came with a judge named J. Waties Waring, a pretty normal southern judge in SC. Waring was part of what might be called the "liberal" wing of the southern Democrats: he believed in separate but equal for most of his life but eschewed the hostile racial demagoguery of a Bilbo and thought that AAs should be given more opportunities and, gradually, more equal rights. He presided over the trial of the sheriff who had blinded Woodard, and he was stirred and outraged by the utter laxity of the prosecution (which didn't even call witnesses who attested to Woodard's side of the story) and the fact that no one was punished for ruining Woodard's life. He and his wife committed to a deep study of race and racism in America, including Gunnar Myrdal's American Dilemma, and their views gradually shifted. In the next few years Waring ruled that teacher pay for black and white schools must be equalized, that the all-white primary was illegal, and finally, he developed the "per se" doctrine on the Plessey standard, which meant that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites were per se, or inherently, unequal and unconstitutional. He then pushed the NAACP to make a direct challenge to Plessey, and in the Brown decision his per se argument was referenced. This was a remarkable moral and intellectual evolution for a southern judge who showed little inclination to rock the boat for most of his life.
This book is interesting for 2 main reasons. The first is that it illuminates the early post-WWII civil rights movement, which is often portrayed as if it started from scratch in Montgomery in 1955. It shows that many in the country, including those at the highest levels of gov't, believed that the post-WWII context created a moral and political imperative to make progress on race. Of course, not all of these people were racial progressives; Truman, for instance, supported equal civil rights but not necessarily social integration, at least not for a while. To me, this really helped explain who MLK was talking about when he criticized the white moderate in the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Second, this book shows the importance of people in positions of power using those perches to push the ball in the right direction. Waiting is a perfect example of that; he made a difference for millions of people through his decisions and activism from a position that was permanent and virtually unassailable.
The Woodard story intersected with the desire of many Americans to move the country forward on race after the ordeal of WWII and to live up to foundational American values as the US took a position of global leadership. One of these AMericans was president Truman, a man with not much of a record on civil rights, who nonetheless was outraged by the Woodard story (apparently he brought it up a lot) and moved to set up a civil rights commission that recommended sweeping reforms. Truman took on the southern wing of his own party and the recalcitrant military brass by speaking out firmly on civil rights and desegregating the military, among other things. He went so far as to split the party, with Strom Thurmond leading a Dixiecrat rebellion on the 1948 ticket. One remarkable theme in this story is the willingness of southerners to burn it all to the ground, from trying to hand elections to the opposition to shutting down their own public schools, to stop segregation.
The other ripple effect of the Woodard incident and the broader post-WWII context came with a judge named J. Waties Waring, a pretty normal southern judge in SC. Waring was part of what might be called the "liberal" wing of the southern Democrats: he believed in separate but equal for most of his life but eschewed the hostile racial demagoguery of a Bilbo and thought that AAs should be given more opportunities and, gradually, more equal rights. He presided over the trial of the sheriff who had blinded Woodard, and he was stirred and outraged by the utter laxity of the prosecution (which didn't even call witnesses who attested to Woodard's side of the story) and the fact that no one was punished for ruining Woodard's life. He and his wife committed to a deep study of race and racism in America, including Gunnar Myrdal's American Dilemma, and their views gradually shifted. In the next few years Waring ruled that teacher pay for black and white schools must be equalized, that the all-white primary was illegal, and finally, he developed the "per se" doctrine on the Plessey standard, which meant that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites were per se, or inherently, unequal and unconstitutional. He then pushed the NAACP to make a direct challenge to Plessey, and in the Brown decision his per se argument was referenced. This was a remarkable moral and intellectual evolution for a southern judge who showed little inclination to rock the boat for most of his life.
This book is interesting for 2 main reasons. The first is that it illuminates the early post-WWII civil rights movement, which is often portrayed as if it started from scratch in Montgomery in 1955. It shows that many in the country, including those at the highest levels of gov't, believed that the post-WWII context created a moral and political imperative to make progress on race. Of course, not all of these people were racial progressives; Truman, for instance, supported equal civil rights but not necessarily social integration, at least not for a while. To me, this really helped explain who MLK was talking about when he criticized the white moderate in the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Second, this book shows the importance of people in positions of power using those perches to push the ball in the right direction. Waiting is a perfect example of that; he made a difference for millions of people through his decisions and activism from a position that was permanent and virtually unassailable.
February 27, 2023
There are plenty of books that get 5 ***** from me that I'd never recommend to other people. This is a book I think everyone (and most definitely every American) needs to read. It's part nausea inducing nightmare fuel and the inspiring tale of heroes... and honestly, we need both.
This book starts with a racist attack on a WWII veteran in 1946. SGT Isaac Woodard was on a bus returning in uniform to his family home in South Carolina hours after an honorable discharge from the US Army. His eyes were gouged out by a white sheriff named Lynwood Shull after a brief interaction. Yes... gouged out as in intentionally blinded on purpose. He suffered memory loss, facial factures, and his eyeballs were ruptured. The sheriff claimed that he hit Woodard once with a billy club in self defense, an explanation that clearly did not fit the injuries.
I'm not ready to declare Harry Truman an across the board good guy...I still want to do deeper reading about him, but what I do know I like. Judge Waring, a federal judge from Charleston, South Carolina presiding over a southern court, is the kind of person I want every kid to aspire to be like. Among other things' this book deals with both Truman and Waring reacting to the blinding of SGT Woodard. I found it fascinating that Woodard likely never knew how much influence his story had.
It's not an easy book to read but it's a story that needs to be told and remembered.
This book starts with a racist attack on a WWII veteran in 1946. SGT Isaac Woodard was on a bus returning in uniform to his family home in South Carolina hours after an honorable discharge from the US Army. His eyes were gouged out by a white sheriff named Lynwood Shull after a brief interaction. Yes... gouged out as in intentionally blinded on purpose. He suffered memory loss, facial factures, and his eyeballs were ruptured. The sheriff claimed that he hit Woodard once with a billy club in self defense, an explanation that clearly did not fit the injuries.
I'm not ready to declare Harry Truman an across the board good guy...I still want to do deeper reading about him, but what I do know I like. Judge Waring, a federal judge from Charleston, South Carolina presiding over a southern court, is the kind of person I want every kid to aspire to be like. Among other things' this book deals with both Truman and Waring reacting to the blinding of SGT Woodard. I found it fascinating that Woodard likely never knew how much influence his story had.
It's not an easy book to read but it's a story that needs to be told and remembered.
July 10, 2020
Gergel sets a compassionate but even tone in this essential account of American history. He knits an astonishing amount of legal fact into a smooth and often gripping narrative of events that brought about the desegregation of the southern states.
There couldn’t be a better time to read about a case of sadistic police brutality against a Black veteran literally on his way home from the second world war: Sgt Isaac Woodward’s “I am a man just like you” is being shouted in the streets today. Gergel tells how two white men with power, President Truman and South Carolina Federal Judge Waties Waring, were personally affected by Woodard’s case and took up the cause of civil rights in the face of intense political and personal opposition, eventually bringing down the “separate but equal” mask of structural racism.
Clearly this is but a fragment of slavery’s legacy, and this book is not about creating flawless heroes. Gergel brings the facts and presents the actions, legal ones in particular, that brought about profound change. It is essential reading for understanding the history of racism and justice in our country.
There couldn’t be a better time to read about a case of sadistic police brutality against a Black veteran literally on his way home from the second world war: Sgt Isaac Woodward’s “I am a man just like you” is being shouted in the streets today. Gergel tells how two white men with power, President Truman and South Carolina Federal Judge Waties Waring, were personally affected by Woodard’s case and took up the cause of civil rights in the face of intense political and personal opposition, eventually bringing down the “separate but equal” mask of structural racism.
Clearly this is but a fragment of slavery’s legacy, and this book is not about creating flawless heroes. Gergel brings the facts and presents the actions, legal ones in particular, that brought about profound change. It is essential reading for understanding the history of racism and justice in our country.
August 4, 2022
While this was a very compelling story, in the hands of a more gifted author, it could have been amazing. As it is, it's a very interesting story, and part of a very under-studied portion of the Civil Rights Movement in America. But beyond telling the story of the incident involving Isaac Woodard (and his trial, which was predictably appalling), the author draws a clear line of events to show how that incident had ripples which went far beyond Woodard's trial and eventually ended up bringing Plessy vs. Ferguson's "separate but equal" doctrine to and end in the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954. In addition, the author focuses on the contributions of President Truman (about whose presidency, I admit, I knew precious little) and Federal Judge Waties Waring in that process. Truman, Waring, Thurgood Marshall, Isaac Woodard, and many others have important roles to play in one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th Century. It's worth your time to learn more about it and them.
November 13, 2020
I expected this book to be a dry historical recounting of a dreadful racial incident and its effects. Instead, I found a well written and very interesting recital of the events of the blinding of Sgt. Woodard, the history of Judge Waring as a southern judge trying to protect the civil rights of the African Americans, and President Truman's efforts to expand civil rights in the United States. The highlight of the case, with the background of Judge Waring's intervention and Thurgood Marshall's leadership of the legal arm of the NAACP, was the story of the Brown vs. Board of Education case. The story is thrilling. Hats off to the author, Judge Gergel.
February 16, 2021
Simply Outstanding !
Facebook should be required reading for all high school and college students. This delineates the case of Issac Woodard who was discharged from the army and subsequent injured on his way home in fact suffered blindness. It also details the evolution of the civil rights actions from 1945 through until the late 1950s. The roles of Harry Truman and Waits Watting as well as Thurgood Marshall and a number of very courageous people. The legal efforts that were required to introduce the beginnings of integration in the United States are documented. This is an excellent read
Facebook should be required reading for all high school and college students. This delineates the case of Issac Woodard who was discharged from the army and subsequent injured on his way home in fact suffered blindness. It also details the evolution of the civil rights actions from 1945 through until the late 1950s. The roles of Harry Truman and Waits Watting as well as Thurgood Marshall and a number of very courageous people. The legal efforts that were required to introduce the beginnings of integration in the United States are documented. This is an excellent read
August 11, 2020
This book was an incredible record of three revolutionary individuals post WWII. I was blown away by the amount of work these guys did to make even a small positive dent in civil rights for African Americans. While a lot of the courtroom terminology went over my head, and maybe others who read it, the point is clear and it still provides a profound effect.
I'd definitely recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about the struggle of Black Americans and the people that devoted their lives to create change.
I'd definitely recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about the struggle of Black Americans and the people that devoted their lives to create change.
July 27, 2019
Truman showed what a President needs to do : uphold the Consitution . The judge showed what a judge needs to do : uphold the law . But so tragic and sad that the beating of Isaac Woodard took them to do so .
May 3, 2022
I read this book in anticipation of teaching about the incident and race during WW2. The sections on the Blinding of Woodard were tragic, sickening, but very helpful. The section on Judge Waring was somewhat interesting. It’s good to know that at least one Southern Judge had a change of heat and tried to do good. But I didn’t find the details all that interesting. It’s an important incident little known (I was thrilled to hear Orson Welles covered the incident and his recordings are online) and I found most of very interesting.
February 26, 2019
I rated Devil In The Grove 5 stars. I think this is a better book. If you care about the civil rights battle in our country, you will want to read this excellent account.
June 12, 2020
Accounts of systemic racism and police brutality in the past such as the kind Sgt. Woodard endured, should not be forgotten. They are just as important to know about today as they were known back then.
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