Chapter Review: The Battle of Athens: Repeated Petitions, Repeated Injuries

Taken from Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America, by Glenn Beck with Kevin Balfe and Hannah Beck, Theshold Editions, New York, 2013.

This is a story that you find hard to believe could happen in the United States, however it is a story of conditions right after WWII that faced some of the returning GI's.  Many areas of the country have political bosses, and such was the case here.  Athens, Tennessee was a rural town.  It had the same Sheriff, Paul Cantrell, for many years.  They insisted on counting the ballots in private, and turned out he always won.  This only changed when he took higher office, but then he placed puppets in his place, using the same routine.  Sheri was paid for how many stayed in jail, so the trumped up the numbers by arresting people for nothing, and beating them if they didn't cooperate.  Some of the local citizens, lead by the retuning GI's who had been the victims of these assaults, decided enough was enough.  The easily had triple the votes of the corrupt Sheriff, who had returned to run again because many were displeased with his replacement.  Only through some shenanigans could the Sheriff win.
They brought in men to intimidate the polls, and even shot a Black man.  However the key as to sneak enough ballots away and count them out of sight.  They did this in the jail.
Bill White had warned to state government and the FBI of the situation in Athens before the election.  However there was no response.  When the Sheriff had taken ballots to count in secret,  action was needed.  They confronted the men in the jail, asking for the ballots.  They were greeted with a couple shot gun blasts.  The battle and siege was on.  The people could rearm themselves, and did so by visiting the local stores.  They men in the jail had no such opportunity.  People were wounded on both sides, but no one died.  However eventually the governor or the National Guard would come to rescue the Sheriff.  Something had to be done.  Bill White had brought dynamite.  It wasn't until the third throw that he got one close enough to take the front off the jail.  The ballots would be counted fairly.  The only person tried as a result of this day was the police man who shot another man keeping him from the ballot box.

Documentary Review: Crossing the Bridge: Selma, Alabama

This documentary tells the story of the Selma to Montgomery March which lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The story starts with Black citizens going to the court house to petition for the right to vote.  In Dallas County, of 15,000 Blacks, only 130 were registered to vote.  Intimidation, literacy tests and other tactics were used to not register people to vote.  The local sheriff did not allow them to register.  They decided to cross the bridge in Selma, and march to Montgomery, the State Capitol, to address their grievances to Governor George Wallace.  The marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas and forced to turn around.  One marcher escaped to a diner, and while protecting his mother was shot dead by a police officer. 
Martin Luther King joined the effort, and encouraged them to maintain a non violent attitude.  They tried again, and this time there was no violence, but they were turned back.  However that night, three white ministers of the Unitarian Church were attacked by the Klu Klux Klan with clubs, and one of them was killed. 
President Lyndon Johnson entered the conflict.  Governor Wallace even came to Washington.  However in the end Wallace made it clear that the State of Alabama would not pay for the protection of the marchers.  President Johnson took control of the State National Guard and ordered them to defend the marchers.  The March finally took place March 17, 1965, ten days after the first march. 
President Johnson made sure that it was the actions in Alabama that lead him to call for legislation for voting rights.  President Johnson spoke before congress on Mrch 15, introducing the bill: 

Open your polling places to all your people.

Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin.

Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land.

There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain.

There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.

There is no issue of States rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.