02/14/2024
https://www.facebook.com/share/iJ2PN2HZGu2XZJmr/?mibextid=WC7FNe
On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard boarded a Greyhound Bus in Augusta, GA bound for Columbia, SC. As the bus departed from Augusta, Woodard, and several other recently discharged soldiers from nearby Camp Gordon, knew they were one bus ride from home.
It was an incredible sight in the Jim Crow Era South as soldiers, black and white, socialized. They had survived the war, and beyond the uniform they recognized, in each other, a man. The driver, Allen Blackwell, was unaccustomed to such a spectacle. When Woodard asked the driver to stop so that he may relieve himself, Blackwell shouted, “Hell no...go back and sit down.” The two exchanged words, but Blackwell eventually ceded to Woodard’s request, and the bus was stopped briefly. Once all the passengers were back on board, they travelled on.
In Batesburg, SC, the Greyhound approached the bus stop and lurched to a stop. The doors opened, and out came Blackwell searching for a policeman. The driver was intent to have an allegedly drunken Woodard, and another white soldier, removed from the bus. Chief Lynwood Shull of the two-man Batesburg Police Department followed Blackwell back to the bus. He drew a blackjack from his pocket and advanced toward Woodard demanding he exit the bus. When Woodard attempted to explain the situation, Shull cracked him over the head. Woodard was removed from the bus, and he and Shull walked from the bus stop to the police station. After a line of questioning about his service, Shull struck Woodard again. The army veteran pulled the blackjack from Shull, but before he could strike back, Officer Elliott Long raised his gun and ordered him to drop the weapon. Woodard relinquished the blackjack, and in an instant Shull took it up and started to hit Woodard in the face and head. One blow was so powerful it broke the weapon. Limp and with his face covered in blood, Woodard lay unconscious in the street. Shull brought him to the jailhouse and poured water over his face repeatedly inquiring if Woodard could see. Lynwood Shull had blinded Isaac Woodard.
Woodard’s story garnered attention across the country as photographs bearing the blinded, uniformed soldier appeared in papers. A radio program by Orson Welles demanded the identity of his attacker, and the NAACP rallied around him. Woodard lived in New York City later in life and died in the Bronx on September 23, 1992. He was buried with full military honors at the Calverton National Cemetery.
His story along with stories of other black servicemen facing abuse and, in some instances, death, prompted President Harry Truman to authorize Executive Order #9981 desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces. It was the first step of many more to come in dismantling Jim Crow.
To read more about Isaac Woodard’s story, order a copy of Richard Gergel’s Unexampled Courage from the BOFT Bookstore:
https://store.boft.org/books-and-dvds/unexampled-courage-the-blinding-of-sgt-isaac-woodard-and-the-awakening-of-america
