Arkansas State press., 1946-07-19
NEGRO VET
BLINDED BY
Dixie COP

/
ed the eyes out of a Negro vet
eran, three hours after his dis
charge from the army, the Ma
tional Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People re-
vealed last week. The War De-
partment has failed to act in the
case it was also disclosed.
The veteran is Isaac Woodward
Jr., q, of 100 Franklin Avenue,
Bronx, New York City, wearer of
battle star for service in the
New Guinea, and Philippine
campaigns.
Still in uniform, he was taken
from Greyhound bus in Aikens,
S. c., beaten unconscious and
had his eyes punched out by the
end of policeman's billy, Wood
ward related.
Woodward tells a story in
sworn affidavits matching tales
of horror from Nazi torture cham
bers. He served his country four
years. Fifteen months of this in
the sweltering South Pacific CAM
paigns with the 429th Port Bat
talon.
Dicharged honorably at Camp
Gordon, Ca, about $50 p. m.
February Is, Woodward boarded
bus in Atlanta, Ca, bound for
Winnsboro, S. c. There he
planned to meet his wife and
come to New York to see his faith
er and mother.
About an hour out of Atlanta
the bus stopped at a small drug
store. Woodward asked the Grey
hound driver if he could go to
the rest room.
"He cursed me and said, No. !"
Woodward said in describing the
incident. when he cursed me,
l cursed him back. After I
cursed him, Go ahead and get off
and hurry back So got off,
hurrying back as he said"
The bus rolled along without
further incident, Woodward sit
ting in, the Jimcrow section in
the back. A half hour later It
came to a stop in Aiken Is. CO.
The driver got out, called the
police, ordered the veteran out
and charged him with creating .
disturbance.
when he said that" Wood
ward said, Il started explaining
to the police that was not rails
ing a disturbance on the bus, but
they didn't give me a chance to
explain. The policeman struck
me with billy across my head
and told me to shut up. ="
after that he grabbed me by
my right arm and twisted it be-
hind my back, and walked me
down, the street, continually
twisting my wrist, ! figured hs
was trying to make me resist. ]
did not resist against him."
The cop, according to Wood
ward, asked If he was discharged.
when I said Yes" Woodward
continued, that is when he start
ed beating me with the billy, hit
ting me across the top Of my head.
After that / grabbed his billy and
wrung it out of his hand. He
ran behind by back and grabbed
my arm again. I had him by his
right shoulder.
after that another policeman
came up and drew his gun on me
and told me to drop the billy or
he would drop me. So I dropped
the billy
With one policeman holding q
gun on Woodward the other
policeman marched him off to
police headquarters beating him
with the billy. Woodward was
knocked unconscious at the jail
door.
after l commenced to come to
myself, he (the cop) hollered,
Get up When | started to get
up, he started punching me in
my eyes with the end of his billy"
The next morning Woodward
awoke on his Jail cot. He was
blind. Hailed into court, he was
fined $50 Then followed
stretch in the Veterans Hospital,
Columbia, S. c. He left the hos
pital April 10 and came to New
York. Government physicians
only advice was that he join q
blind school.
Walter White, secretary Of the
NAACP, denounced the binding
J of Isaac Woodward as sheer
brutality and fascist terror" .
; terrible story without parallel
in all my experience"
| NJ 4.