The Battle of Athens was a rebellion led by citizens in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, 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. The political problems were further entrenched by economic corruption of political figures enabled by the gambling and bootlegging they permitted.
About Battle of Athens (1946) in brief
The Battle of Athens was a rebellion led by citizens in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, 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. 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. 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 Country to Tennessee’s Crump Machine. 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. The sheriff and his deputies were paid under a fee system whereby they received money for every person they booked, incarcerated, and released. Between 1936 and 1946, these fees amounted to almost USD 300,000. The political problems were further entrenched by economic corruption of political figures enabled by the gambling and bootlegging they permitted. 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 getting the mustering out pay. Well, deputies running around four or five at a time grapping up GI they could find and find and get that money off of them, they were fee grabbers, back then.
\”: 18–19In the August 1946 election, Cantrell ran again for sheriff while Pat Mansfield ran for the State Senate seat. Some speculate that the reason for this switch was an attempt to spread graft, rather than against Cantrell, whose period as sheriff had been relatively benign. Some 10 percent of the county’s population constituting almost 3,000 returning military veterans were more hostile towards Cantrell than against Mansfield. The GIs thought they thought Cantrell stood a better chance running against the Sheriff because they thought they were better off with Cantrell rather than Mansfield as sheriff. The U.S. Department of Justice had investigated allegations of electoral fraud in 1940, 1942, and 1944, but had not taken action. It was common for dead voters’ votes to be counted in McMinn counties elections. The Sheriff’s office appointed some ex-convicts as deputies. These deputies furthered the political machine’s goals and exerted control over the citizens of Mcinn County. One veteran, Ralph Duggan, who had served in the Pacific in the navy and became a leading lawyer postwar, said: If democracy was good enough to put on the Germans and the Japs, it wasGood enough for McMinn County, too! : 116 The sheriff’s deputies were randomly ticketed for drunkenness, regardless of their intoxication or lack thereof. : 116 While the machine controlled law enforcement, its control also extended to the newspapers and schools. You couldn’t even get hired without their okay, or any other job.
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