Every once in awhile I see this story reposted. RATS have been stealing elections for quite some time.
And the schools...I had never heard of this until I was in my late 30’s..
The ironic part....it was posted by a libtard thinking it was evil conservatives that were tossed out...
When in fact it wasnt.....I had to dig around to piece together that the corrupt county machine was a bunch of democrats....they were tossed out by GI’s and Repubicans.
Thanks for posting this excellent story. I’ve been reading about the unbelievable level of corruption, cronyism and patronage directed by FDR, particularly in the ‘36 election. The Democrat machine in Athens is consistent with what I’ve been reading about national politics at the time and how FDR engineered the ‘36 election to win 98% of the electoral vote on 61% of the popular vote.
BTW..if you look at the wiki page for it....there is no mention of political party of the corrupt at all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_(1946)
Like when the press doesnt list the corrupt offenders party in the first paragraph or at all...you may assume that person is a democrat...
Yes, it was the Democrats who ran the corrupt political machines in the South. And it was the Democrats who would shoot a black man for trying to vote.
And it was the New York Times that would weigh in on the side of the Democrats, never mind that the politicians they supported were the ones who enforced all the Jim Crow laws.
It’s not surprising that the Times would immediately misrepresent what happened that night. I doubt if it was a mistake. It was their deliberate policy to support Stalin abroad and Roosevelt, Truman, and the Democrats at home, no matter what they did.
Here’s another good recount of the Battle of Athens by Don Hamrick.
http://www.constitution.org/mil/tn/batathen_press.htm
A great read.
Thanks for posting.
Is NOTHING sacred to the hate-filled Republicans? They've even gone into the history books to promote hate-filled, vitriolic speech towards the government!!!
See how the Republicans paint using guns against the government as a GOOD means of solving problems! Woe is us!!!
If any bloodshed comes from misguided individuals reading this supposed "history", and acting on it, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck will be to blame!
Post TVA. Electricity would have been ubiquitous by then.
I think a joyful mistake that the new militarized police forces are making is training their new recruits to gun down people's dogs if the dogs look at them the wrong way.
Americans can tolerate a LOT of injustice to people, but they're kind of funny about brutality towards dogs and cats. Just read any of the FR animal cruelty threads - you'll see people flipping out over it.
I'm not sure why the newer police are being trained this way, but it's a good thing for us as dissenters.
I live in Athens and it is a wonderful town - old time manners, great TEA Party group, a local radio station that starts its Trading Post program with a scripture reading, no bars or prostitution anymore that I can see :)
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“During the Civil War, deep from within secessionist territory, McMinn County had sided with the Union;”
Many men from McMinn County mustered in the Confederate army..they linked up with men from Monroe County to form part of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (Lillards) and (Vaughns).
Thanks for the post. Lived in Middle TN in the 60’s where I had Tennessee history in the 5th grade. First I ever heard of this. Very interesting. No wonder the lefties are suspicious of the military. Leftists need to understand that this can, and will, happen again if they do not keep their corruption under control.
The media should take note of a lesson here: People do not need the media to tell them when corruption is rampant in government. The people know it and eventually get fed up.
It would be interesting to see how the state and federal government would respond if something like this were to happen today.
We never learn.
McMinn county was no pro desegregation powerhouse and east TN though Republican off and on is not the least bit socially "progressive" except around colleges.
This was a fight about being heard and having your slate elected to boards that mattered.
For instance back then often the sheriff in the south was the tax collector too.
The place is less than 5% black and never was exactly a cauldron of race heroics or misdeeds.
It is a mountainous/hilly area of small farms.
Btw...I've known this story all my life. Maybe academia is not interested and kids who post Wiki don't care but I'm not sure it's a conspiracy.
Like it or not, blacks in the south..even the few in McMinn county were ultimately given their vote (and all that BS pandering that sadly came too) from local white mostly Democrat at the time voting citizens who had had enough...bolstered by liberal GOP in DC and most Democrats in DC voting for all those acts etc.
I was there ..I saw it. Decent folks while not desiring their daughters to marry blacks (still don't mostly) did in fact want the turmoil to end, blacks be allowed to vote and thought the Klan was low class.
This McMinn thing was just about cronyism...little to do with much beyond that and is no milestone in black Civil Rights.
it's this thinking that leads folks here to crow that all those civil rights acts were so great and MLK was a conservative
pure fantasy from conservatives for whom the truth is too complicated and messy
In the Deep South by the time of Reagan, most of those former White Southern Democrats were running as fast as they could into the new more socially conservative GOP of the silent-moral-majority...a Great Trek that had been in the making since Barry....even some southerners like my dad were Eisenhower men.
/rant
Here is a living history interview done in the year 2000 where Bill White talks about his days in WWII and the Battle of Athens.
This is very much worth reading.
http://web.utk.edu/~csws/interviews/white.pdf
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