James Otis Lecture 2020 (Full Program)

The 2020 James Otis Lecture will feature Richard Gergel, United States district judge, providing an informative presentation about his book “Unexampled Courage,” which details the impact of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard on the racial awakening of President Truman and Judge Waring, and traces their influential roles in changing the course of America’s civil rights history.

About the Book

“Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodward and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring”

• On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a returning, decorated African American veteran, was removed from a Greyhound bus in Batesburg, South Carolina, after he challenged the bus driver’s disrespectful treatment of him. Woodard, in uniform, was arrested by the local police chief, Lynwood Shull, and beaten and blinded while in custody.

• President Harry Truman was outraged by the incident. He established the first presidential commission on civil rights and his Justice Department filed criminal charges against Shull. In July 1948, following his commission’s recommendation, Truman ordered an end to segregation in the U.S. armed forces. An all-white South Carolina jury acquitted Shull, but the presiding judge, J. Waties Waring, was conscience-stricken by the failure of the court system to do justice by the soldier. Waring described the trial as his “baptism of fire,” and began issuing major civil rights decisions from his Charleston courtroom, including his 1951 dissent in Briggs v. Elliott declaring public school segregation per se unconstitutional. Three years later, the Supreme Court adopted Waring’s language and reasoning in Brown v. Board of Education. 

About the Speaker

Richard Gergel is a United States district judge who presides in the same courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, where Judge Waring once served. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Judge Gergel earned undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University.

Standards

• 5.4.CC Analyze the continuities and changes of race relations in the United States and South Carolina following the Supreme Court decisions of Briggs v. Elliott and Brown v. Board of Education.
• 8.5.CX Analyze the correlation between the Modern Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina and the U.S.
• This indicator was designed to foster inquiry into the role of South Carolina in the Modern Civil Rights Movement, to include the influence of court cases such as Briggs v. Elliot and Flemming v. South Carolina Electric and Gas. This indicator was also developed to promote inquiry into the relationship between national leadership, protests, and events and South Carolina leadership, protests and events, such as the Friendship Nine and the Orangeburg Massacre.
• USHC.5.CC Evaluate continuities and changes during the Civil Rights Movement and other subsequent movements for equal rights.
• This indicator was developed to promote inquiry into thematic continuities and changes into how marginalized groups sought and won legal rights. Inquiry into the leadership, methods, and outcomes of modern equal rights movements are supported by this indicator.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how individuals become citizens in the U.S. and how the U.S. has expanded and limited citizenship over time. Further, examination promotes inquiry into the rights and responsibilities held by citizens of the U.S.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how individual rights have evolved through social movements, constitutional provisions, and landmark legislation. Further investigation prompts inquiry into how marginalized Americans have struggl
• USG.3.IN Interpret how American political beliefs are shaped by the founding principles, core values, and changing demographics of America, and how those beliefs led to the creation of ideological trends which affect public policy over time.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how state and local governments are organized and how they function under the American constitutional government. This indicator encourages further inquiry into how federalism provides for several levels of government supported by many state and local officials.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how the U.S. Constitution shapes the actions of governments and politics, draws its authority from the people, and defines the extent and limits of government power and the rights of citizens. Thi
• USG.4.IP Describe and evaluate the ways citizens can participate in the political process at the local, state, national, and global levels.

Resources