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Lynwood L Shull 1905 - 1997

Lynwood L Shull of Batesburg, Lexington County, SC was born on October 23, 1905, and died at age 92 years old on December 27, 1997 in Batesburg-Leesville. Lynwood Shull was buried at Ridge Crest Memorial Park Inc 327 Summerland Ave, in Batesburg-Leesville.

Lynwood L Shull

Lynwood Lanier (Shull)

Batesburg, Lexington County, SC 29006

October 23, 1905

Lexington County, South Carolina, United States

December 27, 1997

Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County, South Carolina, United States

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Lynwood L Shull Lynwood Shull (1905 - 1997)

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Lynwood L Shull's History: 1905 - 1997

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Introduction

Lynwood Lanier Shull's father was Thaddeus Haskell Hasker Shull (1880-1974). His mother was Nettie Mattie Livingston (1882-1969). Both parents were born in South Carolina. He had siblings Seth (1908 - 1910), Lurline (born 1911), Miriam 1914 -2002), Shuford (1920 - 2001), and Cothran Shull (born 1923). Lynwood Shull married Ola S. Jordan (1913-1999) and they had a daughter, Marilyn Annette Shull (1932-2008). In the 1940 census, Lynwood, age 34, was living with Ola, age 27, and daughter Marilyn, age 7. All were born in South Carolina and living in Leesville. In 1940, Lynwood was Chief of Police in Leesville. In the 1930 census, he had been living with his parents and siblings and was a laborer in an auto garage. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Sept 27 1946, the Justice Department filed a criminal action against Police Chief Lynwood Lanier Shull of Batesburg South Carolina, alleging that he beat and tortured a "Negro war veteran" on Feb 12 of the same year. See Police Chief Faces Federal Charge. "The announcement identified the Negro as Isaac Woodard Jr of the Bronx NY and said Woodard 'is permanently blind as a result of the alleged beating'" The article goes on to say that "Shull had 'beaten and tortured' Woodard in violation of the Federal Civil Rights statute. . . . The mistreatment is said to have occurred after Shull had arrested Woodard in the South Carolina town for allegedly creating a disturbance on a bus on which he (Woodard) was returning home after his discharge from the Army earlier that day." Woodward was a veteran of World War II. On November 3, 1946, The Florence Morning News (Florence, SC) reported that US District Attorney Claud N. Sapp said that he expected to call the case of Police Chief Lynwood L. Shull of Batesburg, charged with violating the civil rights of a Negro war veteran, "about next Wednesday" in a term of federal court opening Monday. Shull, under $2,000 bond, was alleged in a justice department criminal information paper to have "beaten and tortured" Isaac Woodard Jr last February. Woodard claimed he was blinded as the result of a blackjack across the face. On November 6, 1946, the New York Times reported: "POLICE CHIEF FREED IN NEGRO BEATING; Federal Court Jury Acquits South Carolina Officer After Blind Veteran Accuses Him" It took only minutes for the jury in the case to acquit Lynwood. He lived until the age of 92, free, and his victim was blinded for life. See Steve Williams Column: ‘I Kept Trying To Hush Him’ to read an article about the historical perspective of the incident. The article was written in Feb of 2019 and shows how the actor Orson Wells made the case a celebrated cause after it was ignored for months.
10/23

1905

Birthday

October 23, 1905

Birthdate

Lexington County, South Carolina United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Lynwood was Caucasian. Both of his parents had been born in South Carolina.
Nationality & Locations

Lynwood was a United States citizen born in South Carolina, of parents who were also born in South Carolina. On both his maternal and paternal lines, his grandparents and great-grandparents were born there as well.
Professional Career

In the 1930s, Lynwood was a laborer in an auto garage. By 1940, he was the Chief of Police.
Personal Life & Family

Born one of six children from a long line of native South Carolinians (at least four generations), Lynwood married Ola Jordan and they had one daughter, Marilyn Shull (1932 - 2008).
12/27

1997

Death

December 27, 1997

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County, South Carolina United States
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Ridge Crest Memorial Park Inc 327 Summerland Ave, in Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington County, South Carolina 29006, United States
Burial location
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Lynwood L Shull lived 18 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 92.

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4 Memories, Stories & Photos about Lynwood

Leon Bronstein

8 favorites

03/04/2024

He was a demented red neck

Lynn was a good ole boy whose nickname was bugger. He was gay when it was not popular and turned his hate towards black americans.

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Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

03/30/2021

Steve Williams Column: ‘I Kept Trying To Hush Him’

Published on Feb 1, 2019 and updated on Aug 20, 2020

February is the month America celebrates the achievements of African-Americans, but I want to tell you about three white Americans who were so moved by the maiming of a black soldier that they changed America.

On the afternoon of Feb. 12, 1946, 26-year-old Sgt. Isaac Woodard had been discharged from the Army at Camp Gordon, near Augusta, Georgia. That evening he boarded a Greyhound bus for Winnsboro, South Carolina, where his wife lived.

In route, the bus stopped in Aiken, South Carolina. Woodard asked the driver if there was enough time for him to use the restroom. Woodard said the bus driver cursed him and told him to go sit down. He persisted, asking to use the restroom until the driver grudgingly acceded to the request.

Afterward, Woodard returned to his seat, and the bus departed. Neither man said anything until the bus stopped again in Batesburg, a sleepy village 30 miles from Columbia. There, the driver summoned the local police who ordered Woodard off the bus.

After demanding to see Woodard’s discharge papers, police took him to a nearby alleyway, where they proceeded to beat him repeatedly with their nightsticks before taking him to jail and arresting him for disorderly conduct.

During the beatings, Woodard lost consciousness -- even developing amnesia. He later testified that police punched him multiple times in his eyes with their billy clubs while in custody. By the time the sun came up, Woodard was blinded for life.

Later that day, he was taken to court where a local judge promptly found him guilty and fined him $50. Woodard had only $44 in cash, but in his wallet, he had a government discharge check worth $649 for his service in the army. The judge wanted to confiscate the check in lieu of payment but reconsidered after realizing Woodard was unable to sign the check because he could no longer see it.

The maiming of Isaac Woodard languished in obscurity for months before Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP, brought it to the attention of Orson Welles (yes, that Orson Welles, the creator of “Citizen Kane” and the “War of the Worlds”). Welles used his popular radio show to advocate for justice. He delivered a series of radio commentaries on Woodard’s behalf vowing to fight for Woodard because Woodard had fought for America.

“The blind soldier fought for me in this war,” said Welles, “the least I can do is fight for him. I have eyes. He hasn’t. I have a voice on the radio. He hasn’t. I was born a white man, and until a colored man is a full citizen, like me, I haven’t the leisure to enjoy the freedom that a colored man risked his life to maintain for me. Until somebody beats me, and blinds me, I am in his debt.”

Amazingly, five months after the beating, the name of the perpetrator who blinded Woodard remained unknown. Woodard believed he was still in Aiken when the incident occurred, but that was not the case. Subsequently, the NAACP and Welles sent investigators to South Carolina to uncover the truth, even offering a $1,000 reward.

Welles took to the airwaves to condemn the city of Aiken for covering up this dastardly act. City officials, including the mayor, took offense to his accusations and demanded an apology. Later, when it turned out not to be in Aiken, but in Batesburg where the battering occurred, Welles did indeed apologize to the city of Aiken, although the county of which Aiken was the seat boasted a sign on its borders that stated: N----r, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On You In Aiken County.

Finally, after months of searching, all clues led to Sheriff Lynwood Shull of Batesburg, who did the beating. In September, Walter White met with President Harry Truman to discuss the Woodard case. When Truman discovered authorities in South Carolina were doing nothing for seven months, he exploded. He wrote a letter to his Atty. Gen. demanding that action be taken to address the injustice.

On Oct. 2, Shull and several of his officers were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Columbia. Woodard’s case was within federal jurisdiction because the beating had occurred at a bus stop on federal property and at the time Woodard was in uniform of the armed services.

During the trial, Shull admitted that he repeatedly struck Woodard in the eyes, but claimed it was in self-defense. “I’m sorry I hit him in the eyes and blinded him,” he said, “but I didn’t have time to pick a spot. He became unruly, and I kept trying to hush him.”

Perhaps “unruly” was Shull’s synonym for not conforming to well-established Southern norms. In his testimony, Woodard said Shull asked him if he was honorably discharged. When he replied “yes,” immediately, Shull struck him with his billy club and said, “Don’t say yes to me, say yes, sir.”

During World War ll, black soldiers had hoped that they would receive the same respect as other soldiers. That did not happen. Southern segregationists clung to the idea of “separate but equal.” In practice, that meant keeping blacks in their place. Black soldiers returning from active duty were viewed by many whites as “uppity.”

Meanwhile, Woodard’s pursuit of justice against Shull turned into a sham of a trial. An all-white jury quickly acquitted Shull on all charges. The verdict was widely considered a defeat for President Truman.

Nevertheless, the Woodard maiming “made an everlasting impression on Truman,” said David McCullough, a Truman biographer. ”It moved him in a way no statistics ever would have.” Truman would soon establish the President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR) and desegregate the U.S. armed forces.

Yet another person profoundly affected by the maiming of Isaac Woodard was Judge Julius Waites Waring, who presided over the trial. Waring was disappointed with the verdict, but he could do nothing to change it. Instead, he decided to re-examine his own views on race.

Waring broke from his fellow Southern segregationists allowing blacks to sit anywhere they wanted in his courtroom, hired a black bailiff to his court, penalized whites who violated the Constitutional rights of blacks and ruled in favor of black schoolteachers who had sued the state over unequal pay.

For his social activism, he was ostracized by whites, receiving numerous death threats, cross burnings on his home, and threats of impeachment from lawmakers. But he was just beginning. When the South Carolina Democratic Party barred blacks from voting in the primaries -- stating it was a private club -- Judge Warring ruled their actions were unconstitutional.

Perhaps his most significant decision came in his dissent in the Briggs versus Elliott case when he called school segregation unconstitutional. Briggs versus Elliott was combined with four other cases which led to the landmark Brown versus Board of Education decision.

A friend of Thurgood Marshall, Waring convinced Marshall to see the big picture. Marshall, who had enjoyed a modicum of success overturning decade’s old Jim Crow laws, wanted to continue the NAACP’s incremental approach to gaining better accommodation for blacks in schools and other public places, but Waring would have none of it.

“I don’t want to hear another separate but equal case,” he said. “Bring me a frontal attack on segregation because segregation is per se inequality.” Waring’s words form the legal basis for the court’s unanimous decision that overturned school segregation in America.

Isaac Woodard’s brutal beating at the hands of authorities in an obscure South Carolina town moved Welles, Truman, and Waring to take action.

Ironically, two years earlier, what happened to Woodard nearly happened to another fellow soldier born the same year as Woodard. After a bus incident where he was accused of behaving “uppity,” police were called, and an arrest was imminent. But this time, the victim was a gifted athlete who was destined for greatness.

In 1944, had it not been for the intercession of boxer Joe Louis and the advocacy of Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the world would have never known the greatness of the late great Jackie Robinson.

Steve Williams is an award-winning journalist who lives in Georgetown. His columns are published regularly in the Georgetown Times and South Strand News.

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Leon Bronstein

8 favorites

03/04/2024

Hope he rots and suffers eternal damnation in Hell.

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Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

03/03/2023

Lynwood L Shull

The 1946 newspaper article in the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, New Mexico) about a returning World War II veteran, a Black man, who was tortured and beaten by a South Carolina Police Chief, who was Caucasian.

Date & Place: September 27, 1946 in South Carolina United States

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Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

03/03/2023

Police Chief Faces Federal Charge

The following article appeared in the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, New Mexico) on September 17, 1946:

S. Carolinian Accused Of Torturing Negro Vet

Washington, Sept. 26 (AP) - The Justice Department today announced the filing of a criminal information against Police Chief Lynwood Lanier Shull of Batesburg, S.C., alleging that he beat and tortured a Negro war veteran last Feb. 12.

The announcement identified the Negro as Isaac Woodard Jr., of the Bronx, N.Y. and said Woodard "is permanently blind as a result of the alleged beating." The information, said the department, was filed in Federal District Court at Columbia , S.C. by U.S. Attorney Claude M. Sapp, and charged Shull had "beaten and tortured" Woodard in violation of the Federal Civil Rights statute. Of the February incident, the department said:

"The mistreatment is said to have occurred after Shull had arrested Woodard in the South Carolina town for allegedly creating a disturbance on a bus on which he (Woodard) was returning home after his discharge from the Army earlier that day."
"

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Lynwood Shull's Family Tree & Friends

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Lynwood L Shull Oct 23, 1905 - Dec 27, 1997

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Other Biographies

Other Shull Family Biographies

Shull, Frances (Apr 20, 1903 - Aug 1991) Shull, Chester (Feb 19, 1910 - Mar 12, 1988) Shull, Althea (Oct 10, 1926 - Jul 2, 2011) Shull, William (Jun 26, 1922 - Feb 20, 1989) Shull, Stevan (Mar 17, 1947 - Jan 30, 2006) Shull, Barbara (Jul 23, 1934 - Feb 16, 2000) Shull, Annabelle (Mar 30, 1922 - Feb 18, 2011) Shull, M Fae (Oct 24, 1927 - Oct 30, 2004) Shull, Minnie (Feb 14, 1918 - Mar 31, 2000) Shull, Norris (Jan 15, 1907 - Jun 1983)

Shull, Josephine (Sep 20, 1885 - Mar 1977) Shull, Florence (Jul 16, 1903 - Aug 1984) Shull, Robert (Feb 7, 1922 - Aug 2, 1994) Shull, John (Sep 21, 1911 - Jan 20, 2006) Shull, Frederick (Jan 12, 1884 - Feb 1980) Shull, Lardner (Dec 1, 1904 - Mar 1967) Shull, Lillian (May 23, 1905 - Jun 25, 1998) Shull, Peter (Jun 26, 1941 - Mar 4, 2002) Shull, Alberta (Oct 1, 1912 - Dec 13, 1989) Shull, Lorna (Nov 22, 1931 - Apr 7, 2011)

About the AncientFaces Community

Lynwood L Shull 1905 - 1997

Lynwood L Shull's History: 1905 - 1997

Introduction

Birthday

Ethnicity & Family History

Nationality & Locations

Professional Career

Personal Life & Family

Death

Gravesite & Burial

4 Memories, Stories & Photos about Lynwood

Lynwood Shull's Family Tree & Friends

Lynwood Shull's Family Tree

Lynwood's Friends

Other Shull Family Biographies