#batesburg

On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a Black World War II veteran, boarded a Greyhound bus in Georgia heading home to his wife in North Carolina. He had been honorably discharged from service just hours earlier.

When the bus stopped outside of Augusta, South Carolina, Sgt. Woodard, who was still in uniform, asked the driver if there was time to use the restroom. The driver cursed at him and resumed driving. “Talk to me like I am talking to you,” Sgt. Woodard told him in response, adding: “I am a man just like you.”

After a brief argument, Sgt. Woodard returned to his seat. At the next stop in Batesburg, South Carolina, the bus driver exited and called Lynwood Shull, the local police chief, who arrived soon after. Officer Shull removed Sgt. Woodard from the bus and began brutally beating him with a blackjack. Sgt. Woodard, who was unconscious and badly injured, was then left in the Batesburg jail overnight. The next morning the city court fined him for disorderly conduct.

When Sgt. Woodard was finally transferred to a VA hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, doctors determined that the beating and delay in medical treatment had permanently blinded him.

In October 1946, President Harry S. Truman ordered his attorney general to bring federal charges against Chief Shull. The trial began a month later and was presided over by Judge J. Waties Waring, whose father was a Confederate soldier. After deliberating for less than 20 minutes, the all-white jury in the trial acquitted Officer Shull.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Trey Leviticus Sullivan, (age 33) of Batesburg, S.C., Brandon Dwayne Bailey, (age 35) of Pelion, S.C., and Rashaud Mandrell Price, (age 25) of Lexington, S.C. on six total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff’s…

An anonymous community tip led Lexington County deputies to a home in Leesville on Wednesday morning, where they encountered a man they had been seeking since Tuesday afternoon. Cordell Wyman Clark, 26, is charged with resisting arrest and failure to stop for a blue light, according to booking documents at the Lexington County Detention Center. “The search for Clark, who was already a wanted…

Tropical Storm Watch Issued By The National Weather Service Affecting Lexington

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tropical storm watch for Lexington starting on 9/13/2018 8:01:00 PM. NSW thinks it is ‘possible’ the event will happen and the event is categorized as ‘severe.’ (more…)