Unexampled Courage: The Blinding Of Sgt. Isaac Woodard And The Awakening Of President Harry S. Truman And Judge J. Waties Waring

"This is a book so packed with overlooked history that you will forgive that it has one of the most unwieldy titles of the year. Richard Gergel — a judge who presided over the trial of white supremacist Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof — introduces readers to a man they should already know but likely don’t. Isaac Woodard was an African American sergeant blinded by a beating from a police chief in South Carolina while returning home from service in World War II. Gergel writes that this case inspired President Harry Truman to establish a civil rights commission and desegregate the armed forces, which then helped in arguments for the Supreme Court case that desegregated U.S. schools. The acquittal of the police chief who blinded Woodard by an all-white jury also inspired the judge on the case, J. Waties Waring, to become more sensitive to racism and issue many civil rights decisions. Gergel recounts all this with compelling prose, revealing how a single injustice led to some of the nation’s most important civil rights victories."