Audio Antiques - The Issac Woodard Case

This edition explores one of the worst incidents of racial hatred in U.S. history. It happened to Army Sgt. Isaac Woodard in 1946, as the African-American veteran was returning home from World War Two, where he earned a battle star, Good Conduct Medal, and the Service medal. When traveling through Batesburg, South Carolina, Woodard was removed from the Greyhound bus he was riding on, by the police chief and beaten by the chief and several officers with nightsticks, who ruptured his eyes, leaving him blind for life. At first, the incident received very little press coverage, but the news did reach President Harry Truman, who was well aware of the savage nature of the Jim Crow South. Truman demanded an investigation. The story also reached media icon Orson Wells, the famous, actor, journalist, stage and film director, who created and starred in Citizen Kane, which critics called one of the greatest movies of all time. Wells used one of his network radio shows to join with the NAACP in demanding justice for Sgt. Woodard. However, no officers were ever punished for the crime, and Wells was later blacklisted and banished from American media. He later left the country. You will hear his valiant campaign. It's estimated that thousands of black veterans were accosted, attacked, or lynched between the end of the Civil War, and the end of World War Two. More at KrobCollection.com