The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a
rebellion
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
led by citizens in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and
Etowah, Tennessee
Etowah is a city in McMinn County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 3,613 at the 2020 census.
History
Etowah was founded in 1906, primarily as a location for a depot on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) line as part of ...
, United States, against the local government in August 1946. The citizens, including some
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veterans, accused the local officials of predatory policing,
police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
,
political corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain.
Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, in ...
, and
voter intimidation
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
.
Background
In 1936, the
E. H. Crump
Edward Hull "Boss" Crump Jr. (October 2, 1874 – October 16, 1954) was an American politician from Memphis, Tennessee. Representing the Democratic Party, he was the dominant force in the city's politics for most of the first half of the 20t ...
political machine
In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hig ...
based in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
, which controlled much of Tennessee, extended to McMinn County with the introduction of Paul Cantrell as the
Democratic candidate for sheriff.
Cantrell, who came from a wealthy and influential family in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
*Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Roosevel ...
administration. Cantrell rode FDR's
coattails
The coattail effect or down-ballot effect is the tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election. For example, in the United States, the party of a victorious presidential cand ...
to victory over his Republican opponent in what came to be known as the "vote grab of 1936", which delivered McMinn County to Tennessee's Crump Machine.
Paul Cantrell was reelected sheriff in the 1938 and 1940 elections, and was elected to the
state senate
A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...
in 1942 and 1944, while his former deputy, Pat Mansfield, a transplanted Georgian, was elected sheriff those years.
A state law enacted in 1941 reduced local political opposition to Crump's officials by reducing the number of
voting precinct
A precinct, voting district, polling division, or polling district, is a subdivision of an electoral district, typically a contiguous area within which all electors go to a single polling place to cast their ballots.
Canada
In elections in Can ...
s from 23 to 12 and reducing the number of
justices of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
from fourteen to seven (including four "Cantrell men").
The sheriff and his deputies were paid under a fee system whereby they received money for every person they booked, incarcerated, and released.
Because of this fee system, there was extensive "fee grabbing" from tourists and travelers.
Buses passing through the county were often pulled over and the passengers were randomly ticketed for
drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main p ...
, regardless of their intoxication or lack thereof.
Between 1936 and 1946, these fees amounted to almost $300,000.
Cantrell engaged in
electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
, both by intimidating voters who voted against him, and by allowing ineligible people to vote.
The
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
had investigated allegations of electoral fraud in McMinn County in 1940, 1942, and 1944, but had not taken action.
Voter fraud and vote control perpetuated McMinn County's political problems. Manipulation of the
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
and
vote counting
Vote counting is the process of counting votes in an election. It can be done manually or by machines. In the United States, the compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that forms the basis of the official results is call ...
were the primary methods, but it was common for dead voters' votes to be counted in McMinn County elections.
The political problems were further entrenched by economic corruption of political figures, who enabled gambling,
bootlegging, and other illegal activity.
Most of McMinn County's young men were off fighting World , allowing appointment of some ex-convicts as deputies.
These deputies furthered the political machine's goals and exerted control over the citizens of the county.
While the machine controlled law enforcement, its control also extended to the newspapers and schools. When asked if the local newspaper, ''
The Daily Post Athenian'', supported the
GIs
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...
, veteran Bill White replied: "No, they didn't help us none." White elaborated: "Mansfield had complete control of everything, schools and everything else. You couldn't even get hired as a schoolteacher without their okay, or any other job."
During the war, two servicemen on leave were shot and killed by Cantrell supporters.
The servicemen of McMinn County heard of what was going on and were anxious to return home and do something about it. According to a contemporaneous article by
Theodore H. White
Theodore Harold White (, May 6, 1915 – May 15, 1986) was an American political journalist and historian, known for his reporting from China during World War II and the ''Making of the President'' series.
White started his career reporting for ...
in ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'', one veteran, Ralph Duggan, who had served in the Pacific in the navy and became a leading lawyer postwar, "thought a lot more about McMinn County than he did about the Japs. If democracy was good enough to put on the Germans and the Japs, it was good enough for McMinn County, too!"
The scene was ripe for a confrontation when McMinn County's GIs were
demobilized
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...
. When they arrived home and the deputies targeted the returning GIs, one reported: "A lot of boys getting discharged
eregetting the mustering out pay. Well, deputies running around four or five at a time grapping
icup every GI they could find and trying to get that money off of them, they were fee grabbers, they wasn't on a salary back then."
In the August 1946 election, Paul Cantrell ran again for sheriff, while Pat Mansfield ran for the State Senate seat. Stephen Byrum, a local historian, speculates that the reason for this switch was an attempt to spread the graft.
Bill White, meanwhile, claims the reason for the swap was because they thought Cantrell stood a better chance running against the GIs.
The GIs were more hostile towards Sheriff Mansfield and his deputies rather than against Cantrell, whose period as sheriff had been relatively benign.
McMinn County had around 3,000 returning
military veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
s, constituting almost 10 percent of the county's population. Some of the returning veterans resolved to challenge Cantrell's political control by fielding their own
nonpartisan
Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party.
While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...
candidates and working for a fraud-free election. A meeting was called in May 1946; veteran ID was required for admission. A non-partisan slate of candidates was selected.
Veteran Bill White described the veterans' motivation:
The members of the GI Non-Partisan League were very careful to make their list of candidates match the electoral demographics of the county, choosing three Republicans and two Democrats.
A respected and decorated veteran of the
North African campaign, Knox Henry, stood as candidate for sheriff in opposition to Cantrell.
Large contributions made by local businessmen to the GIs' campaign ensured that it was well-funded, although many of McMinn County's citizens believed the machine would rig the election. The veterans capitalized on this belief with the slogan "Your Vote Will Be Counted As Cast".
Well aware of the methods of Sheriff Mansfield and his associates, the League organized a counterpoise. A "fightin' bunch" was organized by Bill White "to keep the thugs from beating up GIs and keep them from taking the election."
White created his organization carefully; he later recalled: "I got out and started organizing with a bunch of GIs. Well spirits—I learned that you get the poor boys out of poor families, and the ones that was frontline warriors that's done fighting and didn't care to bust a cap on you. I learned to do that. So that's what I picked. I had thirty men and ... I took what mustering out pay I got and bought pistols. And some of them had pistols. I had thirty men organized".
Sheriff Mansfield also organized for the upcoming election, hiring 200 deputies, most from neighboring counties, some from out of state, at $50 a day ().
Initial confrontations
Water Works polling place
Polls for the county election opened August 1, 1946. Normally, there were about 15 patrolmen on duty for the precincts, but about 200 armed deputies were on patrol for the election, many of them from other counties and states. In Etowah, a GI poll watcher requested a ballot box to be opened and certified as empty. Although he was allowed by law to make the request, he was arrested and taken to jail. In Athens, Walter Ellis protested irregularities in the election and was also arrested and charged with what was explained to him as a "federal offense".
Around 3:00 pm, C.M. "Windy" Wise, a patrolman, prevented an elderly African American farmer, Tom Gillespie, from casting his ballot at the Athens Water Works polling place. When Gillespie and a GI poll watcher objected, Wise struck Gillespie with brass knuckles, which caused Gillespie to drop his ballot and run from the deputy. Wise then pulled his pistol and shot Gillespie in the back.
Later, Wise was the only person to face charges from the events of August 1–2, 1946. He was sentenced to three years in prison,
but only served one before being
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
d.
Response
GIs gathered in front of L.L. Shaefer's store which was used as an office by campaign manager Jim Buttram.
Buttram had telegraphed
Governor McCord in Nashville and
U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark asking for help in ensuring a lawful election, but received no response.
When the group learned that Sheriff Mansfield had sent armed guards to all polling places, they convened at the Essankay Garage where they decided to arm themselves.
Sheriff Mansfield arrived at the Water Works and ordered the poll closed. In the commotion that followed, Wise and Karl Nell, the deputies inside the Water Works, took two poll watchers, Charles Scott and Ed Vestal, captive. By one account, Scott and Vestal jumped through a glass window and fled to the safety of the crowd while Wise followed behind.
By another account there was a guns-drawn confrontation between Jim Buttram, who was accompanied by Scott's father, and Sheriff Mansfield. A third account argues that when Neal Esminger from the ''Daily Post-Athenian'' showed up to get a vote count, his arrival was a distraction that allowed Scott and Vestal to break through a door to escape. In any case, the escape was followed by gunfire which sent the crowd diving for cover.
Someone in the crowd yelled, "Let's go get our guns," causing the crowd to head for the Essankay Garage. Deputy Chief Boe Dunn took the two deputies and the ballot box to the jail.
Two other deputies were dispatched to arrest Scott and Vestal. These deputies were disarmed and detained by the GIs, as were a set of reinforcements. GI advisor, Republican Election Commissioner and Republican Party Chairman, Otto Kennedy, asked Bill White what he was going to do. White said, "I don't know Otto; we might just kill them." According to White, Kennedy grew alarmed and announced "Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord! No! I'm not having nothing else to do with this. Me and my brother and son-in-law is leaving here."
Lones Selber in ''
American Heritage American Heritage may refer to:
* ''American Heritage'' (magazine)
* ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language''
* American Heritage Rivers
* American Heritage School (disambiguation)
See also
*National Register of Historic Place ...
'' magazine says Kennedy "left, vowing to have no part in murder."
The crowd and most GIs left. The remaining GIs took the seven deputies-turned-hostages to a woods ten miles from Athens, stripped them, tied them to a tree and beat them.
Twelfth Precinct Polling Place
At the twelfth precinct the GI poll watchers were Bob Hairrell and Leslie Doolie, a one-armed veteran of the North African theater. The polling place was commanded by Mansfield man Minus Wilburn. Wilburn tried to let a young woman, who Hairrell believed was underage, vote. She had no poll tax receipt and was not listed in the voter registration.
Hairrell grabbed Wilburn's wrist when he tried to deposit the ballot in the box. Wilburn struck Hairrell on the head with a blackjack and kicked him in the face. Wilburn closed the precinct and took the GIs and ballot box across the street to the jail.
Hairrell was brutally beaten and was taken to the hospital.
In response to cussing and taunts from the deputies, and the actions so far that day, Bill White, leader of the "fighting bunch", told his lieutenant Edsel Underwood to take five or six men and break into the National Guard Armory to steal weapons. The GIs took the front door keys from the caretaker and entered the building. They then armed themselves with sixty .30-06 Enfield rifles, two Thompson sub-machine guns, and ammo. Lones Selber says White went for the guns himself.
Bill White then distributed the rifles and a bandoleer of ammo to each of the 60 GIs.
Polls closing
As the polls closed, and counting began (minus the three boxes taken to the jail), the GI-backed candidates had a three-to-one lead.
When the GIs heard the deputies had taken the ballot boxes to the jail, Bill White exclaimed, "Boy, they doing something. I'm glad they done that. Now all we got to do is whip on the jail."
The GIs recognized that they had broken the law, and that Cantrell would likely receive reinforcements in the morning, so the GIs felt the need to resolve the situation quickly.
The deputies knew little of battle tactics, but the GIs knew them well. By taking up the second floor of a bank across the street from the jail, the GIs were able to return fire from the jail with a barrage from above.
By 9:00 pm, Paul Cantrell, Pat Mansfield, George Woods (Speaker of the State House of Representatives and Secretary of the McMinn County Election Commission), and about 50 deputies were in the jail, allegedly rummaging through the ballot boxes. Woods and Mansfield constituted a majority of the election commission and could therefore certify and validate the count from within the jail.
Battle
Estimates of the number of veterans besieging the jail vary from several hundred
to as high as 2,000.
Bill White had at least 60 under his command. White split his group with Buck Landers taking up position at the bank overlooking the jail while White took the rest to the post office.
Just as estimates of people involved vary widely, accounts of how the Battle of Athens began and its course of events diverge.
Egerton and Williams recall that when the men reached the jail, it was barricaded and manned by 55 deputies. The veterans demanded the ballot boxes but were refused. They then opened fire on the jail, initiating a battle that lasted several hours by some accounts,
considerably less by others.
As Lones Selber, author of a 1985 ''American Heritage'' magazine article, wrote: "Opinion differs on exactly how the challenge was issued." White says he was the one to call it out: "Would you damn bastards bring those damn ballot boxes out here or we are going to set siege against the jail and blow it down!" Automatic weapons fire erupted, punctuated by shotgun blasts. "I fired the first shot," White claimed, "then everybody started shooting from our side." A deputy ran for the jail. "I shot him; he wheeled and fell inside of the jail."
In 2000 Bill White claimed he said "Boys, ... I'm going to tell them to bring the ballot box out of there, and if they don't we're gonna open up on them.' I hollered in there, I said, 'You damn thieve grabbers, bring them damn ballot boxes out of there.' 'That's just what I said. He didn't make a move down there and finally one of them said, 'By God I heard a bolt click.' Down there—one of them grabbers did, you know—they started scattering around. And I had a pistol in my belt with a shotgun. I had a shotgun and a rifle. And I pulled the pistol out and started firing down there at them. Well, when I did that, all that whole line up there started firing down there in there. A lot of them got in the jail, some of them didn't, some of them got shot laying outside. And the battle started."
Byrum wrote in 1984 that there was a volley of fire that lasted for "several hours," although gives no exact time for the end of hostilities or an account of the course of the battle. He noted that the deputies surrendered at 3:30 am.
The day after the battle, the ''New York Times'' front page reported a sheriff had been killed, and that the shooting had started with a shot through a jail window and with the demand the hostages be released. Then the ''Times'' reported the deputies refused and the siege ensued. The account followed, revealing the ''Times'' source as Lowell F. Arterburn, publisher of ''The Athens Post Athenian''. Arterburn reported shots being fired, 2,000 persons milling around, and "at least a score of fist fights were in progress."
An attempt by deputies outside the jail to reinforce (or take refuge in) the jail was thwarted by Bill White's "fighting band". Some people in the jail managed to escape out the back door.
One of the escapees was George Woods who had telephoned Birch Biggs, the boss of next door
Polk County Polk County is the name of twelve counties in the United States, all except two named after president of the United States James Knox Polk:
* Polk County, Arkansas
* Polk County, Florida
* Polk County, Georgia
* Polk County, Iowa
* Polk Count ...
, requesting that Biggs send reinforcements to break the siege. Biggs replied "Do you think I'm crazy?"
For the veterans it was either win before morning or face a long time in jail for violating local, state, and federal laws.
Rumors spread that the
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
or state troopers were coming.
White made hourly demands for surrender. The GIs attempted to bombard the jail with
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
s but were not able to throw them far enough to reach the jail.
The GIs decided to resort to dynamite. At about that time an ambulance pulled up to the jail. The GIs assumed it was called to remove the wounded and held their fire. Two men jumped in, and it sped off carrying Paul Cantrell and Sheriff Mansfield to safety out of town.
Then the dynamite was deployed. Bill White said, "We'd put two or three sticks of dynamite together and tape it together and put a cap in there and a fuse. And we'd rear back and throw them. Well, we couldn't get them all the way to the jail, but we got them out to them cars. They'd blow them cars up in the air and turn them over and land them back on the top. Several cars down there were blowing up."
That first bomb landed under Bob Dunn's cruiser, flipping it on its back.
Bill White, commander of the "fighting bunch" knew the GIs had to do better: "I ... said, 'We're going to have to get some charges up there on that jail.' I said, 'Make a couple charges there.... We'll go down there and we'll place some charges.' So I made up a couple charges and I crawled up and put a charge on the jailhouse porch."
In fact three bombs went off almost simultaneously. One destroyed Mansfield's car, one landed on the jail porch roof, and one went off against the jail wall. The bombs caused some damage to the jail and scattered debris.
As with the beginning of the battle, accounts of the end differ: ''American Heritage'' states, "In the end, the door of the jail was dynamited and breached. The barricaded deputies—some with injuries—surrendered, and the ballot boxes were recovered."
The ''New York Times'' observed in an article the night was "bloody" and that it ended after the GIs detonated three "home-made demolition charges."
End of the battle and vote counting
Byrum reported the end of the battle thusly: "By 3:30 am, the men holding the jail had been dynamited into submission, and by early morning George Woods was calling Ralph Duggan to ask if he could come to Athens and certify the election of the GI slate. Bill White reported that "when the GIs broke into the jail, they found some of the tally sheets marked by the machine had been scored fifteen to one for the Cantrell forces." When the final tally was completed, Knox Henry was elected.
During the fight at the jail, rioting had broken out in Athens, mainly targeting police cars.
This continued after the ballot boxes were recovered, but subsided by morning.
The mob also destroyed automobiles of the deputies, many bearing out-of-state plates.
During the disorder the Mayor of Athens was on vacation and the city policemen were "nowhere to be found."
The morning of August 2 found the town quiet. Some minor acts of revenge happened, but the public mood was one of "euphoria that had not been experienced in McMinn County in a long time."
Governor McCord initially moved to activate the National Guard, but quickly rescinded the order.
The morning saw the GIs call a meeting. GI Non-Partisan League Treasurer Harry Johnson opened the meeting observing it was necessary because "for some reason or other, the Sheriff's force is not around."
The approximately 400 persons in the court room elected a special committee headed by Methodist minister Bernie Hampton, joined by C.A. Anderson and Gobo Cartwright, both members of the Business Men's Evangelical Committee, to preserve law and order. George Woods, the escaped Secretary of the County Election Commission, sent a written missive saying: "Next Monday at 10 am I will sign an election certificate certifying that the GI ticket was elected." Later the veterans turned responsibility for maintaining order in Athens to Police Chief Herbert Walker. The GIs said they were still "holding control" of McMinn County until September 1 when Knox Henry was to be installed as sheriff.
August 2 also saw the return to McMinn County of Sheriff-elect Knox Henry, who had spent the night of August 1–2 in
safe keeping in the
Sweetwater jail. Sheriff Henry, a 33-year-old former Army Air Force sergeant, observed "They were going to kill me yesterday, and I had to leave town."
Nearby conflicts
In adjacent
Meigs County, another use of weapons to effect electoral change occurred. On August 5 the Meigs County Election Commission certified Republican Oscar Womac as sheriff. Womac admitted to a reporter that he had ordered some associates to burn "a bunch of ballots." The ballots, he claimed, were found in the Meigs County Courthouse the previous day. It was reported in ''
The Chattanooga Times
The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is o ...
'' that Sheriff J.T. Pettit claimed the Peakland ballot box was taken at gun-point by Womac and companions from the County Clerk's office the day before the ballot burning. "There was little we could do to stop him, he was armed, and the four men with him were armed," Sheriff Pettit said.
In
Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe:
* Monroe County, Alabama
*Monroe County, Arkansas
* Monroe County, Florida
* Monroe County, Georgia
*Monroe County, Illinois
*Monroe County, Indian ...
, east of McMinn County and north of Polk County, 65 year old county sheriff Jake Tipton was shot and killed during a dispute at the Vale precinct.
Aftermath
The recovered ballots certified the election of the five GI Non-Partisan League candidates.
Among the reforms instituted was a change in the method of payment and a $5,000 salary cap for officials. In the initial momentum of victory, gambling houses in collusion with the Cantrell regime were raided and their operations demolished. Deputies of the prior administration resigned and were replaced.
The ballots, when tallied, proved a landslide for the GI Non-Partisan League. Scores of veterans were present when Speaker of the state House of Representatives and secretary of the McMinn County election commissioners George Woods was marched into the County Courthouse under the guard of ex-GIs. Speaker Woods had fled after the gun battle.
League member Knox Henry received 2,175 votes against 1,270 for Sheriff Cantrell. The League also won the other races: 2,194 to 1,270 for Frank Carmichael as trustee; George Painter won the county clerk race 2,175 to 1,198; the circuit court clerk broke 2,165 to 1,197 for Charles Picket.
Bill White, leader of the "fighting bunch", was made a sheriff's deputy. "They put me in as a deputy. Because, one of the reasons they put me in as deputies was to scare them GIs. (Laughs) They wanted me to control the GIs. Which they did—they fired into them people's houses and everything else. And that was my job to get out there and keep the GIs straight. And I did. I had sixteen fights in one weekend. Fighting GIs, keeping them from shooting them people's houses and beating up people. My fists got so sore I couldn't stick them in my pocket ... If you fight them with your fists, they had respect for you. But you didn't use blackjacks or guns on them. If you did they'd gang up on you and kill you."
According to deputy Bill White the fee basis for deputy pay continued for four more years. It was only the last four years he served that he was paid a salary.
In early-September the fall of the county political machine was followed by the resignation of Athens' Mayor, Paul Walker, and the town's four aldermen. The resignations met with popular approval. The resignations came after a night time shotgun blast through the front of Alderman Hugh Riggs's home.
Mayor Walker had previously refused a demand to resign made immediately after the gunfight by the McMinn County American Legion and VFW posts.
The "Battle of Athens" was followed by movements of veterans in other Tennessee counties promoting a statewide coalition against corrupt political machines in the upcoming November elections. Governor McCord countered an attempt to form a "Non-Partisan GI Political League" by directing the Young Democrats Clubs of Tennessee to recruit ex-GIs. There were strenuous efforts by the "Crump Organization", based in
Shelby County, to counter the nascent GI organization. A convention was held in
Alamo, Tennessee
Alamo is a town in Crockett County, Tennessee. Its population was 2,461 at the time of the 2010 U.S. Census. Alamo, located in the central part of West Tennessee, is the county seat of Crockett County.
History
Alamo was first founded as a tradin ...
, with the intention of establishing a new national party. The convention was discouraged by General
Evans Carlson
Evans Fordyce Carlson (February 26, 1896 – May 27, 1947) was a decorated and retired United States Marine Corps general officer who was the legendary leader of "Carlson's Raiders" during World War II. Many credit Carlson with developing the tac ...
, USMC, who argued that the GIs should work through the existing political parties.
The new GI government of Athens quickly encountered challenges including the re-emergence of old party loyalties. On January 4, 1947, four of the five leaders of the GI Non-Partisan League declared in an open letter: "We abolished one machine only to replace it with another and more powerful one in the making."
The GI government in Athens eventually collapsed. Tennessee's GI political movement quickly faded and politics in the state returned to normal.
The Non-Partisan GI Political League replied to enquiries by veterans elsewhere in the United States with the advice that shooting it out was not the most desirable solution to political problems.
Legacy
Joseph C. Goulden, in his history of immediate post-war America, ''The Best Years 1945-1950'', discussed the Battle of Athens, how it sparked political ex-GI movements in three other
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
counties, as well as other boss-ruled Southern states, led to a convention with representatives from several Southern states, and how it raised fears that veterans would resort to further violence.
The Battle of Athens came in the mid-1940s, when there was much concern that returning GIs would be dangerously violent. Those concerns were addressed in an opinion piece by Warden Lawes, the author of ''Twenty Thousand Years at Sing Sing'', in a ''New York Times'' opinion piece. In a newspaper column,
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
had expressed a somewhat popular opinion that GIs should be checked for violent tendencies before they were demobilized. Bill White, the leader of Athens' "fighting band", came to see her point.
One of the reasons the GI League collapsed was the continuing GI-related violence in McMinn County.
The Battle of Athens initially received criticism in the press. Coverage however quickly faded, and after Alan J. Gould, an executive with the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, told the Conference of State Directors of the
Veterans Administration
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...
that the AP would try to suppress the use of the word "veteran" in conjunction with crime stories, the story of GI violence began to disappear.
References
Further reading
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External links
Photo: Knox Henry becomes sheriff after battle. Archived Copy.The Battle of Athens, American Heritage Magazine, February/March 1985, Archived CopyTennessee County History Series: McMinn County
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athens (1946), Battle of
20th-century rebellions
Political machines in the United States
1940s in the United States
1946 in Tennessee
Aftermath of World War II in the United States
Battles and conflicts without fatalities
Athens 1946, Battle of
Riots and civil disorder in Tennessee
History of Tennessee
History of voting rights in the United States
McMinn County, Tennessee
Gun politics in the United States
Rebellions in the United States
August 1946 events in the United States