The Blinding of Isaac Woodard is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in March 2021.
It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience (season 33 episode 03).
The topic is the beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Producer and director: Jamila Ephron
** Writers: Mark Zwonitzer and Jamila Ephron
** Based on the book Unexampled Courage by Richard Gergel (2019)
** Narrator: André Holland
** Run time: 112 minutes
During World War II, some 900,000 African Americans served in the armed forces of the US. They served in Europe and in the Pacific.
At that time, the armed forces of the US were still segregated. Black soldiers fought in separate regiments. But the commanding officer was usually a white man.
In 1945 and 1946, they returned to the US where they were discharged. The war was over. It was time for them to return to civilian life.
One of them was Isaac Woodard who had fought in the Pacific. In New Guinea and in the Philippines. He was a decorated soldier. He was no longer an ordinary soldier. He had been promoted to sergeant.
In 1946 he returned to the US where he was discharged. He was going home to his family in the deep south. He had not seen his wife for several years. He travelled by bus. Still wearing his uniform.
At that time, inter-state buses were still segregated. Coloured passengers had to sit in the back of the bus. The front rows were reserved for white passengers.
On 12 February 1946, Isaac was on his way to his home. There was no toilet on the bus. He needed to use a toilet. He walked up to the driver and asked him how far it was to the next bus stop. He said he wanted to use a toilet while the bus was stopping. The driver did not like the idea of a coloured person coming to the front of the bus. He told Isaac to return to his seat in the back of the bus. He called him “boy.”
Isaac replied that he was a man, just like the driver. He said the driver should not call him “boy.” Now the driver was getting really angry. A coloured person was not supposed to talk back to a white man. They had some words and then Isaac returned to his seat.
When the bus stopped in Batesburg, South Carolina, the driver jumped out and found a police officer who entered the bus. The driver pointed to Isaac. The police officer dragged Isaac out of the bus. Once they were outside, Isaac was beaten up by the police officer. He was beaten up with a baton. First, the police officer hit him on the head. Next, he hit one eye and then the other eye.
After this, Isaac was dragged to the local police station where he was placed in the arrest, even though he should have been taken to a hospital. The next morning, the police officer placed some papers in front of Isaac which they wanted him to sign, but he could not see anything.
When he was finally allowed to see a doctor, he was told that both his eyes had been seriously damaged. The doctor could not help him. He was blinded for life!
In 1945 and 1946 there were many stories about black veterans who returned to the US and who ran into trouble. These men were often from the South. They knew the rules. They knew how to play the game of master and slave. But they had been in the army. They had fought in a war. When they returned to the US, they had confidence. They refused to play the game of master and slave.
The soldiers had been overseas where they had fought a war for freedom, a war against racism. But when they returned to their own country, they found that nothing had changed. When soldiers demanded to be treated as equals, they often ran into trouble.
In the deep south, they were still not regarded as equals. They were expected to be humble and to say “Yes, Sir.” Some were beaten up, some were killed. There were several cases, but no case compared to what happened to Isaac Woodard.
He fought for his country. He survived the war. But when he returned to the US, he was attacked by the police and blinded on both eyes! What was his crime? He asked if he could use the toilet!
When the NAACP heard about his experience, they wanted to help him and his family. They also wanted to use his experience to promote the fight for justice and equality in the US.
In this film, we learn the details of this case which began in South Carolina on 12 February 1946. As we follow the case, we discover that it had wide-ranging and important consequences for society and culture in the US over the following years.
Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names (listed in alphabetical order):
** Nathaniel Briggs – son of Harry Briggs (plaintiff in Briggs v. Elliott)
** J. A. DeLaine, Jr. – son of Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine (1898-1974) (involved in Briggs v. Elliott)
** Kari A. Frederickson – historian – University of Alabama
** Richard Gergel (born 1954) – US District Judge for the District of South Carolina – author – the film is based on his book Unexampled Courage (2019)
** Belinda Gergel – historian – wife of Richard Gergel
** Sherrilyn Ifill (born 1962) – lawyer – NAACP, legal fund
** Rawn James – writer – author of The Double V (2013)
** Gilbert A. King (born 1962) - writer
** Kenneth W. Mack (born 1964) – historian – Harvard Law School
** Patricia Sullivan – historian – University of South Carolina – author of Lift Every Voice (2009)
** Laura Williams – great-niece of Isaac Woodard
** Robert Young Senior – nephew of Isaac Woodard
Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Old photos and old clips. Archive footage is used to illustrate the life and times of Isaac Woodard and the surprising ramifications of his case from 1946 to 1954.
Archive footage allows us to meet Isaac Woodard himself and several persons who play a significant role in this story:
** Isaac Woodard (1919-1992) (interviewed in 1982)
** Orson Welles (1915-1985) – actor, director and producer
** Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) – lawyer – NAACP, legal fund – member of the US Supreme Court 1967-1991
** Julius Waties Waring (1880-1968) – a federal judge in South Carolina
** Elizabeth Avery Waring (1895-1968) – wife of judge Waring
** Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) – US president 1945-1953
From the blinding of Isaac Woodard in Batesburg in February 1946 there is a direct line – a direct connection – to several milestones in the history of the civil rights movement in the United States:
** Orson Welles covers the case in three episodes of his weekly radio program (1946)
** Federal Judge Julius Waring presides over three cases about civil rights (1946, 1947 and 1951-1952)
** President Truman establishes a national commission on civil rights (on 5 December 1946)
** President Truman addresses an open-air meeting arranged by the NAACP and held at the Lincoln Memorial (on 29 June 1947)
** President Truman desegregates the federal government and the armed forces of the US (1948)
** The US Supreme Court issues a ruling in Brown v.
Board of Education (on 17 May 1954). This ruling ends segregation in all schools in the US
[This case is in fact a compilation of five similar cases. One of the five cases is Briggs v. Elliott, in which Judge Waring is one of three judges. He is overruled 2-1, but he issues a substantial dissent which is reflected in the final ruling of the Supreme Court in 1954.]
If you are interested in the history of the United States – in particular the question of civil rights – this film is definitely something for you.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.
PS. What about the police officer who beat up Isaac Woodard in Batesburg in February 1946? Who was he and what happened to him?
The police officer was identified as Sheriff Lynwood Shull. At first, nothing happened to him, because the local authorities in South Carolina did not want to prosecute him.
But when President Truman heard about the blinding of Isaac Woodard, he was so angry that he ordered the federal prosecutor in South Carolina to charge the police officer in federal court.
The presiding judge Julius Waring was shocked to discover that the federal prosecutor was very ineffective. It seemed as if he did not really want to do his job.
The jury had only white members. There were no black jurors in South Carolina in 1946. The jurors deliberated for less than 30 minutes. The verdict: the sheriff was not guilty.
Lynwood Shull did not lose his job. He did not have to pay a fine. He did not have to spend time in jail. He was found not guilty.
Isaac Woodard was blinded for life. He lived until 1992.
REFERENCES
** A Passion for Justice: J. Waties Waring and Civil Rights by Tinsley Yarborough (1987)
** Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks by Michael Gardner (2002)
** Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement by Patricia Sullivan (2009)
** The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America’s Military by Rawn James (2013)
** In Darkest South Carolina: J. Waties Waring and the Secret Plan that Sparked a Civil Rights Movement by Brian Hicks (2018)
** Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of America by Richard Gergel (2019)
*****
In 2019, a historical marker for Isaac Woodard
was erected in Batesburg, South Carolina
*****
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