Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard

William G. McGowan Theater
Washington, DC

On February 12, 1946, Sgt. Isaac Woodard, a returning, decorated African American veteran, was removed from a bus in Batesburg, SC, after challenging the bus driver’s disrespectful treatment of him. Woodard, in uniform, was arrested and beaten and blinded while in custody. In Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring, Richard Gergel details the impact of Woodard’s blinding as the racial awakening of President Truman and the changing course of America’s civil rights history. A book signing follows the program.