Today in Labor History February 12, 1946: Police in South Carolina savagely beat African American army veteran Isaac Woodard. The beating was so severe it blinded him in both eyes. The incident helped to galvanize the civil rights movement. It also provided some of the inspiration for the Orson Welles' film “Touch of Evil.” The authorities did nothing, so President Truman ordered a federal investigation. They tried Sheriff Lynwood Shull, but the all-white jury acquitted him. Later that year, calypso artist Lord Invader referred to the incident in his anti-racism song "God Made Us All," and Woody Guthrie recorded "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard."

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