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Thread: August, 1946: The citizens of Athens, Tennessee stage an armed revolt against corrupt government.

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    Default August, 1946: The citizens of Athens, Tennessee stage an armed revolt against corrupt government.

    It is like an old Western Movie..

    It is Time !

    My favorite Russian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quote:

    "...they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush.. "

    “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you’d be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur — what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!”

    US History

    August, 1946: The citizens of Athens, Tennessee stage an armed revolt against their corrupt local government. People had long been outraged by the local Democratic machine, headed by Boss E.H. Crump, which maintained power through graft and electoral fraud, and used the local sheriff's department as a tool of oppression and brutality. The machine also kept tight control over the region's newspapers and its grasp extended to every part of local government: said one veteran returning from WWII, "You couldn't even get hired as a schoolteacher without their okay, or any other job." The sheriff's department routinely rousted returning G.I.s and hit them with trumped up fees and fines to steal as much of their pay as possible.

    Receiving no help from the federal government - The Department of Justice had investigated election fraud in 1940, 1942, and 1944, but had failed to take any effective action - tensions grew until the August 1946 election, when a group of G.I.s put forward their own slate of candidates in an attempt to overthrow the Crump machine once and for all. They were met on Election day by false arrests, vote fraud, and voter intimidation. Things finally came to a head when an elderly black farmer was turned away from the polls, and subsequently beaten by a policeman with brass knuckles when he and the veteran assigned as a poll watcher objected. The farmer tried to escape, but was shot in the back and killed.

    The people had had enough. A group of veterans and other citizens gathered together and, still desperate for a government solution, telegraphed the Governor of Tennessee and the US Attorney General pleading for help. But when no response came, and they learned that the sheriff had sent armed deputies to the polling places, the citizens decided that a show of force was necessary. A small group of men broke into the National Guard Armory and stole 60 rifles and a couple of tommyguns, armed the crowd, and went on the march.

    By then, word had spread that the sheriff's deputies had seized the ballot boxes and taken them to the local jail. Using the military tactics that they had learned in WWII, the vets quickly developed a battle plan and laid siege to the jail. They knew that they had to take control of the ballots before the Crump machine could arrange for reinforcements, and before they could complete any plans for vote manipulation. Several hundred armed citizens surrounded the jail and traded gunfire with the sheriff and his deputies. The fighting continued through the night, with small arms fire and even dynamite, but by 3:30 AM the deputies were beaten and finally surrendered.

    With their surrender, the ballot boxes were recovered; the G.I. candidates had defeated the Crump machine candidates by a 3:1 margin.
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    Default Re: August, 1946: The citizens of Athens, Tennessee stage an armed revolt against corrupt government.

    That Is what Itis comming to these days..



    Yet Again,Here in michigan we are being ordered to close many public places such as restaurants, bars,Sports,Except collage and pro and on and on forever.

    Everything is so messed up these days.

    What will you put up with? How long?

    Just say no.

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    Default Re: August, 1946: The citizens of Athens, Tennessee stage an armed revolt against corrupt government.

    I suspect we could find a lot of stories like this all over the world. We have gotten so used to thinking that someone else is going to solve our problems. We have lost sight of the fact that we can take control anytime. Yes there are inherent risk and at times they may be grave but if we don't take these risks then we must live within the confines of the world that the controllers establish for us. Sometimes these controllers are local and sometimes global but they are all the same, weak men or women that have mastered the art of manipulation and intimidation.

    I am not advocating armed revolt but silence to injustice implies agreement with injustice.
    Last edited by rgray222; 16th November 2020 at 17:35.

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