The Blinding Of Isaac Woodard

Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Online

In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a Greyhound bus, still in uniform. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. This exclusive preview of the PBS American Experience premiere The Blinding of Isaac Woodard details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jump-started the modern civil rights movement.

Special Guests include:

Michelle Norris, Washington Post columnist

Jamila Ephron, Writer/Director/Producer of The Blinding of Isaac Woodard

Kari Frederickson, Ph.D., consulting historian for American Experience

Please note: You must register for this event to receive your online program link. Registration will close for this event at 6 p.m. CST on Sunday, March 28.