Richard Gergel (2)

Richard Gergel's book "Unexampled Courage", begins by telling the story of the brutal beating of a young black soldier in the mid-1940s by a small town South Carolina policeman. Almost 75 years ago, just after the Second World War, Sgt. Isaac Woodard was returning home after receiving his military discharge. Before arriving home, he was removed from his Greyhound bus in a small town in South Carolina when the driver became annoyed because Woodard spoke back to him. After being taken off the bus, he was beaten and ended up being blinded by the local police chief. That beating and blinding of Sgt. Woodard at the hands of a police officer was troubling in its time, 75 years ago. But as the social protests over the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, or Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia in 2020 remind us, this story still has relevance today.

As news about Sgt. Woodard's abuse began to spread, a small handful of people eventually decided that something had to be done to stop mistreatment of blacks in the jim crow south. Among those people was President Harry Truman, NCAA lawyer Thurgood Marshall, and District Judge Julius Waties Waring of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina. Each of these men, and of course Sgt. Woodard, exemplified "Unexampled Courage", leading to a significant movement toward civil rights for blacks in the U.S.

The Woodard blinding became the spark that led to significant progress in court cases which led to the ending racial discrimination and jim crow laws. Especially interesting in the book were the descriptions of how each of the individuals (Stg. Woodard, President Truman, Judge Waring, and Thurgood Marshall) stepped up and stood out in their bravery and fights for civil rights.

The book is a worthwhile read. While President Trump has claimed he's done more for the blacks in the Country since Abraham Lincoln, Gergel's book reminds us that other Presidents played a more significant role in advancing civil rights for blacks. Included in this list are President Lyndon B. Johnson in fighting for the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960's, and Harry Truman's insistence on ending segregation in the armed forces and federal workplace 70 years ago. Until that time, passing civil rights legislation was little more than a dream. The book points out the strength of character demonstrated by President Truman to go against the social norms of the time. And reading of Judge Waring's determination to see civil rights enforced in his courtroom, and how his civil rights case verdicts were later cited in U.S. Supreme Court cases such as Brown vs. the Board of Education was enlightening.… (más)