Woke
Out of context: Reply #91
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Sergeant Isaac Woodard Jr. was a decorated African American World War II veteran. He is most known for an incident that happened on February 12, 1946, shortly after his honorable discharge from the United States Army. On his way home to Winnsboro, South Carolina, while on a bus trip from Camp Gordon in Georgia, he was attacked by law enforcement officials, which led to him being permanently blinded.During the bus trip, Woodard asked the bus driver if he could stop to use a restroom. The bus driver initially refused, but eventually stopped the bus. When Woodard returned, he and the bus driver got into an argument. Despite the intervention of other passengers who sided with Woodard, the driver stopped at the next town, Batesburg (now Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina), and contacted the police. Woodard was removed from the bus and arrested by Chief of Police Linwood Shull.
While in custody, Woodard was brutally beaten by Shull with a nightstick, which resulted in Woodard losing his sight in both eyes. Despite national attention and the subsequent trial of Shull (who was defended by a future governor of South Carolina), the all-white jury quickly acquitted Shull.
The incident, and the failure of the justice system to hold anyone accountable, sparked national outrage and galvanized the civil rights movement in the United States. It prompted President Harry S. Truman to establish the President's Committee on Civil Rights, and also led to the desegregation of the armed forces via Executive Order 9981 in 1948.
Woodard's life and the horrific incident that befell him were also recognized and remembered in popular culture, including in a 2019 documentary titled "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard."
There is a monument dedicated to Sergeant Isaac Woodard in Batesburg-Leesville, unveiled in February 2021, 75 years after the incident.