Isaac Woodard
Encyclopedia
Isaac Woodard, Jr., often written Isaac Woodward, (March 18, 1919 – September 23, 1992) was an African American
World War II
veteran whose 1946 beating and maiming, hours after being discharged from the United States Army
, sparked national outrage and galvanized the civil rights
movement in the United States
.
Still in uniform, Woodard was left completely and permanently blind after a run-in with police. The sheriff involved claimed that he had struck Woodard only once in self-defense, although Woodard claimed otherwise, and suffered a ruptured cornea
and complete blindness in both eyes. South Carolina
's reluctance to bring the sheriff to trial prompted federal involvement.
, grew up in Goldsboro
, North Carolina
. He enlisted in the United States Army on October 14, 1942 at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina
and served in the Pacific Theater
in a labor battallion as a longshoreman. He earned a battle star, for unloading ships under fire in New Guinea
, and a Good Conduct Medal
, in addition to the Service medal
and World War II Victory Medal
awarded to all American participants in the conflict. He received an honorable discharge.
Some details of the incident remain unclear, with contemporary newspaper reports conflicting on some points. Newspapers also frequently misstated Woodard's surname
as "Woodward". Woodard himself suffered partial amnesia from the trauma, in addition to his blindness.
On February 13, 1946, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard Jr. was on a Greyhound Lines
bus traveling from Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia
, where he was "mustered out" en route to his family in North Carolina
. In Winnsboro, South Carolina
, the bus came to a stop just outside of Augusta, and Woodard asked the bus driver if there was time for him to use a restroom. The driver grudgingly acceded to the request after an argument with Woodard. Once the stop was completed, Woodard returned to his seat without incident, and the bus departed.
). Though Woodard did not protest, the driver contacted the local police (including Chief of Police Linwood Shull), who forcibly removed Woodard from the bus. After demanding to see his discharge papers, a group of police officers, including Shull, took him to a nearby alleyway, where they proceeded to beat him repeatedly with nightsticks. Woodard was then taken to the town jail and arrested for disorderly conduct
, accused of drinking beer
in the back of the bus with other soldiers.
While newspaper accounts of what transpired next vary, attorney
and author Michael R. Gardner wrote, "In none of the papers is there any suggestion there was verbal or physical violence on the part of Sergeant Woodard. It’s quite unclear what really happened. What did happen with certainty is the next morning when the sun came up, Sergeant Isaac Woodard was blind for life." During the course of the night in jail, Shull blinded
Woodard. Woodard also suffered partial amnesia
as a result of the injuries.
In Woodard's own court testimony, he indicated that he was punched in the eyes several times on the way to the jail, and later repeatedly jabbed in his eyes with a Billy club. Despite newspaper accounts indicating that Woodard's eyes had been "gouged out", historical documents indicate that each bulb was ruptured irreparably in the socket.
The following morning, the police sent him before the local judge, who promptly found him guilty and fined him fifty dollars. He requested medical assistance, but it took two days for a doctor to be sent to him. Not knowing where he was and still suffering from amnesia, Woodard ended up in a hospital
in Aiken, South Carolina
, receiving substandard medical care.
Three weeks after he was reported missing by his relatives, he was discovered in the hospital. Woodard was immediately rushed to an Army hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina
. Though his memory had begun to recover by that time, doctors found both his corneas damaged beyond repair.
Woodard's story also emerged in popular culture. Via his radio show
, broadcaster
and filmmaker Orson Welles
crusaded for the punishment of Shull and his accomplices. Welles, a follower of the civil rights movement, criticized the reaction of the South Carolina government as intolerable and shameful.
The story emerged in music as well. A month after the beating, calypso
artist Lord Invader
recorded an anti-racism song for his album Calypso at Midnight entitled "God Made Us All", with the last line of the song directly referencing the incident.
Later that year, folk
artist Woody Guthrie
would record a song for his album The Great Dust Storm entitled "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
", saying he wrote the song "...so's you wouldn't be forgetting what happened to this famous Negro soldier less than three hours after he got his Honorable Discharge down in Atlanta...."
met with President Harry S Truman (who incidentally would later desegregate the military) in the Oval Office to discuss the Woodard case. Gardner writes that when Truman "heard this story in the context of the state authorities of South Carolina doing nothing for seven months, he exploded." The following day, Truman wrote a letter to Attorney General
Tom C. Clark
demanding that action be taken to address South Carolina's apparent reluctance to try the case. Six days later, on September 26, Truman directed the United States Department of Justice
to open an investigation on the case.
A short investigation ensued, and on October 2, Shull and several of his officers were indicted
in U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina
. The case was brought to the federal level on the grounds that the beating had occurred at a bus stop on federal property, and that at the time of the assault, Woodard was in uniform. The case was presided over by Judge Julius Waties Waring
.
By all accounts, the trial was a travesty. The local U.S. Attorney
charged with handling the case failed to interview anyone except the bus driver, a decision that Waring, a civil rights proponent, believed was a gross dereliction of duty
. Waring would later write of his disgust of the way the case was handled at the local level, commenting, "I was shocked by the hypocrisy of my government...in submitting that disgraceful case...."
The behavior of the defense was no better. When the defense attorney began to shout racial epithets at Woodard, Waring had it stopped immediately. During the trial, the defense attorney also stated to the jury that "if you rule against Shull, then let this South Carolina secede again." After Woodard gave his account of the events, Shull firmly denied it, claiming that Woodard had threatened him with a gun, and that Shull had used his nightclub to defend himself. During this testimony, Shull admitted that he repeatedly struck Woodard in the eyes.
On November 5, after thirty minutes of deliberation, Shull was found not guilty on all charges despite his admission that he had blinded Woodard. The courtroom broke into applause upon hearing the verdict. The failure to convict Shull was perceived as a political failure on the part of the Truman administration. Shull died in Batesburg, South Carolina on December 27, 1997 at the age of 95.
Isaac Woodard moved North after the incident and lived in the greater New York City metropolitan area for the rest of his life. He died in the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx
on September 23, 1992 at the age of 73, and was buried with military honors at the Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, New York (Section 15, Site 2180).
, banning racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces. This was done as a response to a number of incidents against black veterans, most notably the Woodard case.
Perhaps owing to his involvement in the Woodard case and his civil rights activism, Truman lost some support in his 1948 reelection bid against Thomas Dewey
. Though he narrowly won, his continued championing of civil rights, a cause contrary to public opinion of the time, cost him greatly. Due to low approval ratings and a bad showing in early primaries, Truman quit a re-election bid in 1952, even though he was exempt from limitations under the 22nd amendment
.
, in an ABC Radio broadcast, fulminated against the treatment of Woodard. Welles referred to the then-unnamed lawman who blinded Woodard as "Officer X":
On the May 7, 1955 broadcast of the BBC
television series The Orson Welles Sketchbook, Welles gave an account of the Woodard case and commented, "I am willing to admit that the policeman has a difficult job, a very hard job. But it's the essence of our society that a policeman's job should be hard. He's there to protect the free citizen, not to chase criminals — that's an incidental part of his job."
The events and outcome of the case also partially inspired Welles' 1958 film Touch of Evil
.
Woody Guthrie later recalled, "I sung 'The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
' in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I've ever got in my whole life."
Isaac Woodward gravesite
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran whose 1946 beating and maiming, hours after being discharged from the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, sparked national outrage and galvanized the civil rights
American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans...
movement in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Still in uniform, Woodard was left completely and permanently blind after a run-in with police. The sheriff involved claimed that he had struck Woodard only once in self-defense, although Woodard claimed otherwise, and suffered a ruptured cornea
Cornea
The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Together with the lens, the cornea refracts light, with the cornea accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power. In humans, the refractive power of the cornea is...
and complete blindness in both eyes. South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
's reluctance to bring the sheriff to trial prompted federal involvement.
Background
Woodard, born in Fairfield County, South CarolinaSouth Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, grew up in Goldsboro
Goldsboro
-Places:In the United States:*Goldsboro, Maryland*Goldsboro, North Carolina*Goldsboro, Pennsylvania*Goldsboro, Texas...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. He enlisted in the United States Army on October 14, 1942 at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
and served in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
in a labor battallion as a longshoreman. He earned a battle star, for unloading ships under fire in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, and a Good Conduct Medal
Good Conduct Medal
The Good Conduct Medal is one of the oldest military awards of the United States military. The Navy Good Conduct Medal was first issued in 1869, followed by a Marine version in 1896. The Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal was issued in 1923 and the Army Good Conduct Medal in 1941. The Air Force was...
, in addition to the Service medal
Service medal
A service medal is a military award generally of the lowest degree. A service medal is awarded to a member of the military who joins the military, or is already serving, during a designated time period...
and World War II Victory Medal
World War II Victory Medal
The World War II Victory Medal is a decoration of the United States military which was created by an act of Congress in July 1945. The decoration commemorates military service during World War II and is awarded to any member of the United States military, including members of the armed forces of...
awarded to all American participants in the conflict. He received an honorable discharge.
Some details of the incident remain unclear, with contemporary newspaper reports conflicting on some points. Newspapers also frequently misstated Woodard's surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
as "Woodward". Woodard himself suffered partial amnesia from the trauma, in addition to his blindness.
On February 13, 1946, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard Jr. was on a Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
bus traveling from Camp Gordon in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
, where he was "mustered out" en route to his family in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. In Winnsboro, South Carolina
Winnsboro, South Carolina
Winnsboro is a town in Fairfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,599 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Fairfield County. Winnsboro is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, the bus came to a stop just outside of Augusta, and Woodard asked the bus driver if there was time for him to use a restroom. The driver grudgingly acceded to the request after an argument with Woodard. Once the stop was completed, Woodard returned to his seat without incident, and the bus departed.
Maiming
The bus then stopped in Batesburg (now Batesburg-Leesville, South CarolinaBatesburg-Leesville, South Carolina
Batesburg-Leesville is a town in Lexington and Saluda counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 5,517 at the 2000 census...
). Though Woodard did not protest, the driver contacted the local police (including Chief of Police Linwood Shull), who forcibly removed Woodard from the bus. After demanding to see his discharge papers, a group of police officers, including Shull, took him to a nearby alleyway, where they proceeded to beat him repeatedly with nightsticks. Woodard was then taken to the town jail and arrested for disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct is a criminal charge in most jurisdictions in the United States. Typically, disorderly conduct makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to "disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such...
, accused of drinking beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
in the back of the bus with other soldiers.
While newspaper accounts of what transpired next vary, attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and author Michael R. Gardner wrote, "In none of the papers is there any suggestion there was verbal or physical violence on the part of Sergeant Woodard. It’s quite unclear what really happened. What did happen with certainty is the next morning when the sun came up, Sergeant Isaac Woodard was blind for life." During the course of the night in jail, Shull blinded
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
Woodard. Woodard also suffered partial amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
as a result of the injuries.
In Woodard's own court testimony, he indicated that he was punched in the eyes several times on the way to the jail, and later repeatedly jabbed in his eyes with a Billy club. Despite newspaper accounts indicating that Woodard's eyes had been "gouged out", historical documents indicate that each bulb was ruptured irreparably in the socket.
The following morning, the police sent him before the local judge, who promptly found him guilty and fined him fifty dollars. He requested medical assistance, but it took two days for a doctor to be sent to him. Not knowing where he was and still suffering from amnesia, Woodard ended up in a hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken is a city in and the county seat of Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. With Augusta, Georgia, it is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. It is part of the Augusta-Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area. Aiken is home to the University of South...
, receiving substandard medical care.
Three weeks after he was reported missing by his relatives, he was discovered in the hospital. Woodard was immediately rushed to an Army hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg, South Carolina
thgSpartanburg is the largest city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest city of the three primary cities in the Upstate region of South Carolina, and is located northwest of Columbia, west of Charlotte, and about northeast of...
. Though his memory had begun to recover by that time, doctors found both his corneas damaged beyond repair.
National outcry
Though the case was not widely reported in the immediate aftermath of the attack, it was soon reported extensively in major newspapers around the nation. The NAACP worked to publicize Woodard's plight, campaigning for the state government of South Carolina to address the issue, which it frequently dismissed.Woodard's story also emerged in popular culture. Via his radio show
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
, broadcaster
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
and filmmaker Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
crusaded for the punishment of Shull and his accomplices. Welles, a follower of the civil rights movement, criticized the reaction of the South Carolina government as intolerable and shameful.
The story emerged in music as well. A month after the beating, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
artist Lord Invader
Lord Invader
Lord Invader was a prominent calypsonian with a very distinctive, gravelly voice....
recorded an anti-racism song for his album Calypso at Midnight entitled "God Made Us All", with the last line of the song directly referencing the incident.
Later that year, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
artist Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
would record a song for his album The Great Dust Storm entitled "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
"The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" is a song written by folk performer Woody Guthrie for his 1946 album The Great Dust Storm . The lyrics were inspired by the 1946 aggravated assault and blinding of World War II veteran Isaac Woodard in a county jail in South Carolina...
", saying he wrote the song "...so's you wouldn't be forgetting what happened to this famous Negro soldier less than three hours after he got his Honorable Discharge down in Atlanta...."
Federal involvement
On September 19, 1946, seven months after the incident, NAACP Executive Secretary Walter Francis WhiteWalter Francis White
Walter Francis White was a civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for almost a quarter of a century and directed a broad program of legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist...
met with President Harry S Truman (who incidentally would later desegregate the military) in the Oval Office to discuss the Woodard case. Gardner writes that when Truman "heard this story in the context of the state authorities of South Carolina doing nothing for seven months, he exploded." The following day, Truman wrote a letter to Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Tom C. Clark
Tom C. Clark
Thomas Campbell Clark was United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States .- Early life and career :...
demanding that action be taken to address South Carolina's apparent reluctance to try the case. Six days later, on September 26, Truman directed the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
to open an investigation on the case.
A short investigation ensued, and on October 2, Shull and several of his officers were indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
in U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. The case was brought to the federal level on the grounds that the beating had occurred at a bus stop on federal property, and that at the time of the assault, Woodard was in uniform. The case was presided over by Judge Julius Waties Waring
Julius Waties Waring
Julius Waties Waring was a United States federal judge. Waring was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to Edward Perry Waring and Anna Thomasine Waties. He graduated second in his class with an A.B. from College of Charleston in 1900. He married his first wife, Annie Waring, in 1913...
.
By all accounts, the trial was a travesty. The local U.S. Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
charged with handling the case failed to interview anyone except the bus driver, a decision that Waring, a civil rights proponent, believed was a gross dereliction of duty
Malpractice
In law, malpractice is a type of negligence in, which the professional under a duty to act, fails to follow generally accepted professional standards, and that breach of duty is the proximate cause of injury to a plaintiff who suffers harm...
. Waring would later write of his disgust of the way the case was handled at the local level, commenting, "I was shocked by the hypocrisy of my government...in submitting that disgraceful case...."
The behavior of the defense was no better. When the defense attorney began to shout racial epithets at Woodard, Waring had it stopped immediately. During the trial, the defense attorney also stated to the jury that "if you rule against Shull, then let this South Carolina secede again." After Woodard gave his account of the events, Shull firmly denied it, claiming that Woodard had threatened him with a gun, and that Shull had used his nightclub to defend himself. During this testimony, Shull admitted that he repeatedly struck Woodard in the eyes.
On November 5, after thirty minutes of deliberation, Shull was found not guilty on all charges despite his admission that he had blinded Woodard. The courtroom broke into applause upon hearing the verdict. The failure to convict Shull was perceived as a political failure on the part of the Truman administration. Shull died in Batesburg, South Carolina on December 27, 1997 at the age of 95.
Isaac Woodard moved North after the incident and lived in the greater New York City metropolitan area for the rest of his life. He died in the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
on September 23, 1992 at the age of 73, and was buried with military honors at the Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton, New York (Section 15, Site 2180).
Impact on American politics
In July 1948, over the objection of senior military officers, Truman promulgated Executive Order 9981Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. It expanded on Executive Order 8802 by establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all races, religions, or national origins."In 1947, Randolph, along...
, banning racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces. This was done as a response to a number of incidents against black veterans, most notably the Woodard case.
Perhaps owing to his involvement in the Woodard case and his civil rights activism, Truman lost some support in his 1948 reelection bid against Thomas Dewey
Thomas Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey was the 47th Governor of New York . In 1944 and 1948, he was the Republican candidate for President, but lost both times. He led the liberal faction of the Republican Party, in which he fought conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft...
. Though he narrowly won, his continued championing of civil rights, a cause contrary to public opinion of the time, cost him greatly. Due to low approval ratings and a bad showing in early primaries, Truman quit a re-election bid in 1952, even though he was exempt from limitations under the 22nd amendment
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States. The Congress passed the amendment on March 21, 1947...
.
Impact on pop culture
On September 28, 1946, Orson WellesOrson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, in an ABC Radio broadcast, fulminated against the treatment of Woodard. Welles referred to the then-unnamed lawman who blinded Woodard as "Officer X":
What does it cost to be a Negro? In Aiken, South Carolina it cost a man his eyes. What does it cost to wear over your skeleton the pinkish tint officially described as white? In Aiken, South Carolina it cost a man his soul...
Your eyes, Officer X, your eyes, remember, were not gouged away, only the lids are closed. You might raise the lids, you might just try the wild adventure of looking, you might see something. It might be a simple truth, one of those truths held to be self-evident by our founding fathers and by most of us. If we should ever find you bravely blinking at the sun, we will know then that the world is young after all, that chaos is behind us and not ahead. Then there will be shouting of trumpets to rouse the dead at Gettysburg, a thunder of cannon will declare the tidings of peace, and all the bells of liberty will laugh out loud in the streets to celebrate goodwill towards all men.
On the May 7, 1955 broadcast of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television series The Orson Welles Sketchbook, Welles gave an account of the Woodard case and commented, "I am willing to admit that the policeman has a difficult job, a very hard job. But it's the essence of our society that a policeman's job should be hard. He's there to protect the free citizen, not to chase criminals — that's an incidental part of his job."
The events and outcome of the case also partially inspired Welles' 1958 film Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...
.
Woody Guthrie later recalled, "I sung 'The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
"The Blinding of Isaac Woodard" is a song written by folk performer Woody Guthrie for his 1946 album The Great Dust Storm . The lyrics were inspired by the 1946 aggravated assault and blinding of World War II veteran Isaac Woodard in a county jail in South Carolina...
' in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I've ever got in my whole life."
External references
- Isaac Woodard court transcripts, military documentation, and assorted primary documents
- The Blinding of Isaac Woodward (sic)
- Practical Moral Philosophy for Lawyers - discusses Woodard case in some detail
- UVA NewsMakers: Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks - discusses Woodard case in some detail
- Philleo Nash History Interview - from the Truman Library website
- "The Blinding of Isaac Woodward" (sic) - from the History in Song website
Isaac Woodward gravesite