June 19, 2013

Crime History: Police beating of black veteran leads to integration of military

BY: SCOTT MCCABE FEBRUARY 12, 2013 | 8:00 PM
Leave a comment

On this day, Feb. 13, in 1946, black U.S. Army veteran Isaac Woodard Jr. was permanently blinded by a police beating in Aiken, S.C., sparking national outrage that ultimately led to the integration of the military.

Woodard, a decorated sergeant in World War II, had been honorably discharged just 10 hours earlier.

Woodard was still in uniform on his way home when he got into a verbal dispute with a bus driver. In jail, Woodard was beaten so severely that he lost sight in both eyes.

The sheriff was tried but acquitted by an all-white jury in 28 minutes.

The incident prompted President Harry Truman to name the first commission on civil rights and issue an executive order that integrated the military.

- Scott McCabe

View article comments Leave a comment

More from washingtonexaminer.com

From the Weekly Standard

  • Frack to the Future

    Williston, N.D.

    Read More...
  • Downsize Ike

    The beleaguered Eisenhower Memorial Commission holds its next public gathering later this month, and before its members duck-walk into the hearing room, huddled in a hoplite phalanx against a...

    Read More...
  • The Lesson of Kermit Gosnell

    What was the lesson of the Kermit Gosnell trial? Since the Philadelphia doctor was convicted last month of murdering three born-alive infants, two competing viewpoints have emerged.

    Read More...