Stephen Arterburn M Ed Popular Books

Stephen Arterburn M Ed Biography & Facts

The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a rebellion led by citizens in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, United States, against the local government in August 1946. The citizens, including some World War II veterans, accused the local officials of predatory policing, police brutality, political corruption, and voter intimidation. Background In 1936, the E. H. Crump political machine based in Memphis, which controlled much of Tennessee, extended to McMinn County with the introduction of Paul Cantrell as the Democratic candidate for sheriff.: 115  Cantrell, who came from a wealthy and influential family in nearby Etowah, tied his campaign closely to the popularity of the Roosevelt administration. Cantrell rode FDR's coattails 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.: 115  Paul Cantrell was reelected sheriff in the 1938 and 1940 elections, and was elected to the state senate in 1942 and 1944, while his former deputy, Pat Mansfield, a transplanted Georgian, was elected sheriff those years.: 115  A state law enacted in 1941 reduced local political opposition to Crump's officials by reducing the number of voting precincts from 23 to 12 and reducing the number of justices of the peace 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.: 116  Buses passing through the county were often pulled over and the passengers were randomly ticketed for drunkenness, regardless of their intoxication or lack thereof. Between 1936 and 1946, these fees amounted to almost $300,000.: 116  Cantrell engaged in electoral fraud, both by intimidating voters who voted against him, and by allowing ineligible people to vote. The U.S. Department of Justice 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 and vote counting were the primary methods, but it was common for dead voters' votes to be counted in McMinn County elections.: 116  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 War II, allowing appointment of some ex-convicts as deputies.: 116  These deputies furthered the political machine's goals and exerted control over the citizens of the county.: 116  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, 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.": 26  During the war, two servicemen on leave were shot and killed by Cantrell supporters.: 116  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 in Harper's Magazine, 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!": 116  The scene was ripe for a confrontation when McMinn County's GIs were demobilized. When they arrived home and the deputies targeted the returning GIs, one reported: "A lot of boys getting discharged [were] getting the mustering out pay. Well, deputies running around four or five at a time grapping [sic] up 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.": 18–19  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.: 116  Bill White, meanwhile, claims the reason for the swap was because they thought Cantrell stood a better chance running against the GIs.: 24  The GIs were more hostile towards Sheriff Mansfield and his deputies rather than against Cantrell, whose period as sheriff had been relatively benign.: 24  McMinn County had around 3,000 returning military veterans, 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 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.: 117  Veteran Bill White described the veterans' motivation: There were several beer joints and honky-tonks around Athens; we were pretty wild; we started having trouble with the law enforcement at that time because they started making a habit of picking up GIs and fining them heavily for most anything—they were kind of making a racket out of it. After long hard years of service—most of us were hard-core veterans of World War II—we were used to drinking our liquor and our beer without being molested. When these things happened, the GIs got madder—the more GIs they arrested, the more they beat up, the madder we got ... 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".: 117  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.": 19  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 ..... Discover the Stephen Arterburn M Ed popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Stephen Arterburn M Ed books.