The Blinding of Isaac Woodard

In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.

Cast

André Holland Narrator (voice) Leland Gantt Isaac Woodward (voice)

Kenneth Mack Self

Sherrilyn Ifill Self

Rawn James Self

Richard Gergel Self

Belinda Gergel Self

Robert Young Sr. Self

Patricia Sullivan Self

Laura Williams Self

Gilbert King Self

Kari Frederickson Self

Metadata from the source database.