My Kind of Vets
60 Years Ago, Vets Took Up Arms in Tenn.
ATHENS, Tenn. (AP) – Harold Powers was only 20 when he watched a frightening sight unfold here 60 years ago: Battle-hardened World War II veterans in a shootout with armed sheriff’s deputies.
The so-called “Battle of Athens” began Aug. 1, 1946, when veterans opened fire on the local jail to stop corrupt local officials from stealing an election. …
Felix Harrod, 84, was a 25-year-old poll watcher at the courthouse during the shootout and said it was common for incumbents in the county about 45 miles northeast of Chattanooga to take ballot boxes to the jail and stuff them with pre-marked ballots.
That was a practice the former soldiers hoped to stop. They offered an all-ex-GI, nonpartisan ticket that promised a fraud-free election and reform. Their rallying cry: “Why fight overseas for freedom and come home and be denied the right to have your ballot counted?”
The shooting continued until the pre-dawn of Aug. 2 when the former soldiers tossed dynamite at the jail, prompting deputies and a sheriff candidate holed up with ballot boxes to surrender. …
On the 60th anniversary of the uprising, Powers and others who can recall the 1946 violence shake their head as state election officials predict only about 35 percent of voters will cast ballots in Thursday’s primaries in Tennessee. …
If only people took voting so seriously today!