{"id":949,"date":"2015-05-06T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/?p=949"},"modified":"2015-05-06T17:08:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T00:08:05","slug":"orson-welles-and-race-in-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/orson-welles-and-race-in-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Orson Welles and race in USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post commemorates the centenary of Orson Welles<\/a> as well as the 1946 blinding of US WWII veteran Isaac Woodard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1946, Isaac Woodard<\/a> was discharged from the US military, after serving in WWII. Hours later, while still in uniform, police asked him if he was still active military or\u00a0discharged. When he\u00a0replied he was discharged and going home he was beaten severely and blinded in both eyes. He was then thrown in a jail cell and denied medical treatment. He was brought before a judge and fined $50. They took all the cash he had in his wallet and were disappointed that he could not sign over his discharge paycheck to the court. He was dumped at a hospital the next town over and days later found by his family, before being taken to a veterans hospital.<\/p>\n

Orson Welles made an issue of the case in a powerful presentation on his radio program Orson Welles Commentaries<\/a><\/em>, following up on it for weeks until the policeman was found and named. Soon after, Orson Welles Commentaries<\/em> was cancelled by ABC radio. Welles revisited Woodard in 1955 for a television program produced by the BBC.<\/p>\n

Woody Guthrie wrote a song titled “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard.” \u00a0Guthrie said, “I sung ‘The Blinding of Isaac Woodard’ in the Lewisohn Stadium one night for more than 36,000 people, and I got the loudest applause I’ve ever got in my whole life.”<\/p>\n

The first coverage by Orson Welles:<\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/ia700407.us.archive.org\/29\/items\/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries\/460728_Affidavit_of_Isaac_Woodward.MP3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Above episode and others at Internet archive.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chronology of coverage on Orson Welles Commentaries<\/em> (Wikipedia<\/a>):<\/strong><\/p>\n

July 28, 1946<\/strong> Orson Welles reads an affidavit sent to him by the NAACP signed by Isaac Woodard, a black veteran who was beaten and blinded by South Carolina police hours after he had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army\u00a0Welles promises to root out the officer responsible and makes the case a major focus of his weekly show.
\n“Welles took up the cause, having always been outspoken on issues of racism and turned the event into a scathing attack on postwar racism and ingratitude.” (Bret Wood)
\n47 August 4, 1946<\/strong> Second program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
\nWelles remarks on world peace negotiations and Congress.
\n48 August 11, 1946<\/strong> Third program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
\nWelles reads from his July 1944 editorial, “Race Hate Must Be Outlawed.”
\n49 August 18, 1946<\/strong> Fourth program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
\nWelles reads and responds to a letter from a white supremicist, and reads from his December 1943 editorial, “The Unknown Soldier.”
\n50 August 25, 1946<\/strong> Fifth and last program related to the Isaac Woodard case.
\n“The NAACP felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case” (Museum of Broadcasting)
\n51 September 1, 1946<\/strong>\u00a0Welles is told in September that ABC is unable to continue his sustained program after the October 6 show.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This incident caused US president Harry Truman to give a speech about civil rights to the NAACP in 1947, introduce a comprehensive civil rights bill in 1948, and desegregate the military.<\/p>\n

This incident puts the 2015 murder of Freddy Gray, at the hands of the police<\/a> 69 years later, in historical perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post commemorates the centenary of Orson Welles as well as the 1946 blinding of US WWII veteran Isaac Woodard. In 1946, Isaac Woodard was discharged from the US military, after serving in WWII. Hours later, while still in uniform, police asked him if he was still active military or\u00a0discharged. When he\u00a0replied he was discharged and going home he was beaten severely and blinded in both eyes. He was then thrown in a jail cell and denied medical treatment. He was brought before a judge and fined $50. They took all the cash he had in his wallet and were...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-info","category-links"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u13S-fj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":751,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/orson-welles-the-begatting-of-the-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":949,"position":0},"title":"Orson Welles, The Begatting of the President","author":"David Raffin","date":"September 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XycnNH7y938 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=psi6sdAUNMA https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e397ueNLqpw https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V75dFT_LpFo https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f65Pgt7eWNA https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mwquooc8xBw https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xkoqPee9lmU https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q3XLvBrhfwI https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RPZ6zXROYQk","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/XycnNH7y938\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4183,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/the-apple-of-buddhas-eye\/","url_meta":{"origin":949,"position":1},"title":"The apple of Buddha’s eye","author":"David Raffin","date":"October 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Buddha sat under a tree. 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