Battle of Athens
The Battle of Athens ("Battle of Athens") was a rebellion of the citizens of Athens and Etowah (both in McMinn County, US state Tennessee ) against their local government in August 1946. The citizens of both places, including returning soldiers from the World War II , the authorities accused of corruption and intimidation of voters.
This event has been taken up again and again in the United States by proponents of gun ownership to highlight the value of the Second Amendment .
background
There have been allegations of corruption and electoral fraud in the McMinn District for a long time. At the request of citizens, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated the allegations in 1940, 1942, and 1944, but did not take any action. The wealthy Cantrell family dominated local politics.
Paul Cantrell had been elected Sheriff - McMinn District Police Commissioner - in 1936, 1938 and 1940 . Subsequently (1942 and 1944) he was elected to the Tennessee Senate, while his then Vice Sheriff ("Deputy Sheriff"), Pat Mansfield, took over the office of sheriff.
A state law in 1941 reduced political competition by reducing the number of constituencies from 23 to 12. The number of Justices of the Peace - judges responsible for transgressions and minor offenses - has also been reduced from 14 to 7. The sheriff and his deputies introduced a fee system with a "profit-sharing" per defendant: the more arrests, the more earnings. Buses that drove through the district were not infrequently stopped by the sheriffs and the passengers were fined at will for drunkenness, for example, regardless of whether they were drunk or not.
In August 1946, Paul Cantrell ran again for the office of sheriff, while Pat Mansfield ran for the Senate. When around three thousand GIs returned to the McMinn district after the end of the Second World War - around 10% of the district's population - they challenged Cantrell's political supremacy and put forward their own, non-party candidates. Veteran Bill White described their motivation as follows:
“We had a few bars and pubs here in Athens. And soon we got into trouble with the law enforcement officials because they stopped ex-soldiers and handed out fines for practically everything - it was a rip-off. After hard years of service - most of us were war veterans - we were used to drinking our own alcoholic beverages without being molested. The more the sheriffs disturbed us, the angrier we GIs got. The more GIs they arrested, the more they beat up, the more angry we got. "
War veteran Knox Henry ran for the office of sheriff, challenging Cantrell. In advertisements and speeches, the GI promised an honest vote count and reform of the local government.
The battle
The primary election was carried out on August 1, 1946. To intimidate voters, Mansfield deployed around two hundred armed sheriff's "deputies". Almost all election observers from the ranks of the GIs were beaten up by these auxiliary sheriffs. At three o'clock in the afternoon one of the deputies told Tom Gillespie, an African American, that he could not vote. Although he was beaten up by the latter, Gillespie insisted on his right to vote. The deputy shot him, causing a riot. Other deputies arrested election observers on the pretext that their activity would make the counting of votes “public” (see election secrecy ). As a result, numerous citizens gathered at the polling station. Mansfield ordered his deputies to break up this meeting. The election observers managed to escape, but the citizens were driven from the polling station. Armed deputies lined up in a semicircle in front of the entrance and threatened to use firearms if they approached.
Sheriff Mansfield took the ballot boxes over to the county jail to count the votes. The deputy sheriffs feared an attack on the prison by the former soldiers. While the GIs lacked firearms and ammunition, they managed to borrow keys to the National Guard and State Guard stores and to equip themselves with three M1 Garand rifles, five M1911 pistols, and 24 M1917 rifles . At eight o'clock in the evening, GIs and their supporters besieged the prison. They left the back exit unguarded to give Pat Mansfield and his men a way out.
Two soldiers were wounded in the thirty-minute exchange of fire that followed. The advantage lay with the prisoners because the GIs had little ammunition, because it was getting dark, and because the walls of the prison provided excellent cover. The GIs also had no radios to coordinate their action. Various people who dared to take to the streets in front of the prison were wounded. One man in prison was seriously injured. Most of Mansfield's people wanted to hold out and wait for help as Governor McCord mobilized the Tennessee State Guard. The State Guard troops were not used, however; it is believed that McCord feared the State Guard soldiers, most of whom were former Army and National Guard soldiers, would never shoot other GIs.
At two in the morning, the GIs forced a resolution to the conflict. Meigs County men threw sticks of dynamite and demolished the prison porch. The deputies surrendered. Paul Cantrell was able to escape. However, a GI recognized him and tried to shoot him, but his pistol blocked. The borrowed weapons were cleaned and returned to the arsenals before sunrise.
The consequences
In five constituencies, GIs candidate Knox Henry received 1,168 votes while Cantrell received 789. Other GI candidates won with similar voting proportions.
On August 2nd, a three-person committee was set up in a town hall meeting to govern Athens. The regular police had fled and six men were selected to maintain law and order in the neighboring town of Etowah.
The elections on November 5, 1946 passed without incident. Paul Cantrell moved to Etowah and was in the auto trade.
filming
- The television film An American Story, produced in 1992, was based on the Battle of Athens but was set in a Texas city and in 1945. It won an Emmy Award in 1993.
literature
- Theodore H. White: The battle of Athens, Tennessee . In: Harper's Magazine , January 1946, pp. 54-61.
- C. Stephen Byrum: The Battle of Athens . Paidia Productions, Chattanooga 1987.
- C. Stephen Byrum: Aug. 1, 1946. The battle of Athens, Tennessee . Tapestry Press, Acton 1996. ISBN 978-1-56888-167-6 .
Footnotes
- ↑ The State Guard, like the National Guard, is a force available to the governor. However, it cannot be called up by the federal government, and service in the State Guard does not exempt from any compulsory service in the federal troops.