The Battle of Athens

They survived Iwo Jima and the worst years of World War II, only to come home and realize their small Tennessee towns had been captured by something that looked a lot like a criminal enterprise with badges. We’re telling the true story of the Battle of Athens, a 1946 flashpoint in McMinn County where returning GIs decide they’re done living under predatory policing, voter intimidation, and a political machine that treats elections like property.

We walk through how the E. H. Crump machine tightens its grip on Tennessee politics, how deputies get paid by fees instead of salaries, and how that financial incentive turns arrests into income. Then the election fraud piles up: underage voters, missing poll tax receipts, ballot destruction, intimidation at the polls, and even “dead” voters showing up on cue. When veterans ask state and federal leaders for help and get silence back, the stakes shift from political frustration to a fight over whether votes will be counted at all.

From the veterans’ nonpartisan campaign and their slogan “Your vote will be counted as cast,” to the moment ballot boxes are hauled to the jail, the story accelerates into a siege that includes gunfire, failed Molotov cocktails, and dynamite used to breach the door. We also sit with the messy aftermath: reforms that follow, power that changes hands, and the hard-earned lesson the GI Political League later shares that political violence is not a solution, even when the system feels rigged.

If you care about voting rights, democracy, political corruption, and the ways communities break when the rule of law collapses, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: what safeguards actually stop this from happening again?

Transcript

War Returns To Europe

Carole Townsend 0:02

On September 1, 1939, a mere 21 years after World War I ended, aggression again erupted in Europe when Germany invaded Poland. France and the United Kingdom, in turn, declared war on Nazi Germany. But while other countries joined the fray as the months passed, the United States took an isolationist stance, choosing to stay out of the war despite urgings from Winston Churchill and others. The country still hadn't fully recovered from World War I, and public sentiment was overwhelmingly against the United States entering another conflict. But alliances were being formed with Britain, France, and the Soviet Union shoring up Allied forces, while Germany, Italy, and Japan comprised Axis forces.

Pearl Harbor Ends Isolation

Carole Townsend 1:20

Severely damaging the United States Pacific Fleet and shocking the entire country. The very next day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and as a result, three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Neutrality was no longer a stance America could take. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, would later write in his diary, I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. World War II became the biggest and deadliest war in history, spanning six years and involving countries in almost every part of the world. Military and civilian deaths combined are estimated to be between 55 and 80 million people. The United States alone lost nearly 420,000 to this global horror.

Monsters At Home And A Warning

Carole Townsend 3:08

And now imagine a group of battle-weary young men returning home from this bloody, cruel war. Exhausted, much wiser, and forever scarred just to find that home, too, had been invaded. Sit with me tonight and gather around as we take a look at the story of the young GIs who returned from a world war and then fought to overthrow the corruption that had consumed their hometown while they were away, fighting monsters in foreign lands. Of facts? Well, in truth, it's much more than the names, dates, and places of our past. History is people, their lives, their crimes, and their acts of heroism. It's the similarities we share with those people. And it's within the pages of our history that we find the most fascinating, the most riveting, and sometimes the most uncanny stories we've ever heard. Stories that even the most skilled fiction writer would struggle to conjure. Join me once again on this warm but welcoming front porch. Pull up a chair, and let's look back at a time when a handful of brave men returned home from a terrible war just to find that their home too had been invaded. Would they have enough fight left in them to take the battlefield one last time? To overthrow a contaminated system that had bullied and terrified entire towns, a system that defied constitutional laws, and yes, had even stolen elections. And tonight, as I do every time we meet, I'll turn on the light to keep the dark at bay, because not all monsters live in closets and under the bed. Some walk among us in plain sight. And they do mean us harm. The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

World War II Ends And GIs Return

Carole Townsend 5:59

On September 2nd, 1945, six years and one day after Germany invaded Poland, World War II ended on the deck of an American warship, where U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan's formal surrender above the U.S. battleship Missouri. The six-year bloodbath had claimed the lives of millions, approximately 3% of the entire world's population. The vast majority of those who died in history's deadliest war were civilians, including six million Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, and nearly a quarter million Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now imagine being a 26-year-old Marine. Returning home from this war after having fought bravely at Iwo Jima and in other battles. It's hard for us to imagine the horrors he and others like him had seen. So it's also hard for us to imagine the joy and gratitude he must have felt returning to his boyhood home. This man was United States Marine Major Bill White, who had enlisted in the service at just age 19. Because even then, he could feel the rumblings of war in Europe. What White and other veterans found returning to Athens and Edoa, Tennessee in McMinn County left the men angry and in disbelief. They found predatory police practices, brutality, political exploitation, and voter intimidation had overtaken their beloved hometowns. And in such a short time, these men had only been away from home for a few years. How did this happen?

The Crump Machine Tightens Control

Carole Townsend 7:57

Well, we have to go back nearly ten years before the war ended in 1945. In 1936, the E. H. Crump political machine, which was based in Memphis, controlled much of Tennessee, including McMinn County. Edward Hall Boss Crump Jr., born in 1874, was a powerful Southern Democrat based in Memphis. He was the dominant force in the city's politics for the first half of the 20th century, but his reach extended far beyond Memphis and across the state of Tennessee from the 1920s through the 40s. In fact, almost every Tennessee mayor elected during that period was part of that powerful crump political machine. A man named Paul Cantrell, who came from a wealthy Etawa family, was running for sheriff of McMinn County in 1936. He tied his campaign tightly to the Roosevelt administration, writing FDR's coattails to victory against his Republican opponent. Cantrell was then elected to two more terms as sheriff before being elected to the state senate in 1942 and 1944. Cantrell's former deputy, Pat Mansfield, was then elected sheriff when Cantrell moved up to state politics. And in 1941, a Tennessee law reduced the number of voting precincts from 23 to just 12, reducing the number of justices of the peace from 14 to 7.

Fee Policing And Stolen Votes

Carole Townsend 9:51

But why did all this matter? These changes all but eliminated any opposition to the ethically bankrupt E. H. Crump and his cronies, who had devised a system that paid deputies with fees, not with salaries. Every person arrested, booked, incarcerated, and then released generated a fee paid to a sheriff and his deputies. Tourists and travelers were especially targeted with deputies stopping buses and randomly testing passengers for drunkenness and other violations. The fees these unethical practices generated topped $300,000, and nearly a hundred years ago, that was a lot of money. Sheriff Cantrell also engaged in election fraud, both by intimidating voters and by allowing ineligible people to vote. And yes, even as far back as the 1930s, dead people had somehow figured out how to cast their votes from beyond the grave. The United States Department of Justice had investigated claims of election fraud more than once, but failed to take action. With so many of the young men from McMinn County fighting in the war overseas, ex-convicts were sworn in as deputies. These men helped dirty politicians further the abuse by enabling gambling, bootlegging, and other illegal activity. The graft, manipulation, and lies extended to the media. Remember, newspaper was king then. And yes, it even extended to the schools. While rumors of the shady operation and control of their towns had reached across oceans, G.I.s returning from the war saw firsthand the rampant lawlessness. They had received their muster pay when they were discharged from the armed services, and the dishonest deputies back home knew it, so they targeted those GIs. They'd charge innocent men dishonestly and then get paid fees based on pay the men had earned by serving their country. These GIs had already seen battle once, and they had lived to fight another day.

The Fighting Bunch Forms

Carole Townsend 12:13

In McMahon County alone, about 3,000 GIs had returned from World War II, about 10% of the county's population, and they did not like what they were seeing in their hometowns. They decided to field their own nonpartisan candidates in the next election, and those campaigns were well funded by local businesses. The veterans' candidates ran on the slogan, Your vote will be counted as cast. The unethical faction that had consumed McMinn County was well known for its underhanded tactics. So the group of veteran leaders, headed up by our man Bill White, used some of their own mustard pay to buy guns and ammunition to defend the election. It was this preparedness and willingness to defend their town that gave this group the name the Fighting Bunch. White was quoted as saying that he was tired of veteran GIs being dragged out of stores and bars, getting beat up by deputies and other lackeys for their pay. He was tired of seeing armed criminals at polling places intimidating voters. And he was tired of vote counters destroying opponents' ballots and counting votes cast illegally. If these men could win overseas, surely they could win this battle at home.

Election Day Turns Violent

Carole Townsend 13:51

Now, normally there would be about 15 patrolmen on precinct duty, but on that day, there were about 200 armed deputies guarding entrances, election booths, and ballot boxes. Some had been bust in to beef up the presence of the corrupt and the powerful. The E.H. Crump political machine would leave nothing to chance. Powers that be were determined to keep a tight grip on Tennessee political dominance. In the town of Etowah, a GI poll watcher requested that a ballot box be opened so that he could certify that it was empty when the polls opened. Legally, he was within his rights to make that request, but instead he was arrested and taken to jail. In Athens, another man protested blatant irregularities in the election, and he too was arrested. Later that afternoon, a crooked patrolman named C.M. Wendy Wise prevented an African-American voter named Gillespie from casting his ballot. When Gillespie and a GI patrolman objected, Wise struck Gillespie in the face with brass knuckles. Gillespie ran, and Wise shot him in the back. When GIs throughout the county heard of the criminal acts controlling the polling places, they gathered in front of a nearby store.

Ignored Calls For Help

Carole Townsend 15:19

Their candidate had called Tennessee Governor McCord in Nashville and the U.S. Attorney General asking for their help in ensuring a lawful election. They received no response. When the GIs learned that the sheriff had sent armed guards to every polling place, they decided to arm themselves. When the GIs and other civilians ran to arm themselves, deputies at one polling place took the ballot boxes and two poll watchers captive at the local jail. Other GIs disarmed and detained more crooked deputies. As the story goes, when they asked Bill White what they should do with the outlaws, he answered, well, we just might kill them. Now, those were strong words for many of the men, even those on the side of Wright, who had no intention of taking part in murder. The veterans who remained took the seven hostages they had captured out to the woods, tied them to trees, and beat them. At a separate polling place, crooked poll workers were caught letting an underage woman vote. She had no poll tax receipt and was not listed on the voter registration. A GI grabbed the poll worker's wrist before he could place the ballot in the box, and that worker struck the GI in the head with a blackjack and kicked him in the face. The poll worker, a man named Wilburne, then closed the precinct and took the ballot box to the jail. At other polling places, intimidations and illegalities continued, with taunts and threats keeping voters away, despite the GI's efforts to ensure a fair election. Seeing that the situation had spiraled out of control and that no help was coming from Nashville, White and about 60 GIs stormed the National Guard Armory, took the keys from the caretaker, and armed themselves heavily. They returned to the poles where doors had been locked and counting had begun. In spite of the unlawful intimidations, the GI-backed candidates were leading the Crump machine candidates three to one. It was then that White declared he was glad the criminal deputies had taken the ballot boxes to the jail. Now, he said, all we have to do is whip up on the jail.

The Jail Siege Begins

Carole Townsend 17:58

Anywhere between 200 and 2,000 GIs besieged the jail, the ballot boxes and deputies inside cowering. Fifty-five deputies and barricades surrounded the jail, the last stand between the GIs and those ballots. The veterans shouted, demanding that the locked ballot boxes be returned, but their demands were ignored. Three times they told the deputies to hand over the boxes, and still nothing.

Gunfire Then Dynamite

Carole Townsend 18:29

It was then that the G.I.s opened fire, Bill White firing the first shot. Deputies returned fire and the battle had begun. The volley of fire lasted a few hours. G.I.s and deputies fought with their bare hands when their guns ran out of ammunition. One of the crooked deputies managed to escape the jail out the back door. He called the boss of nearby Polk County, named Boss Biggs, another Cog and E. H. Crump's political machine, to send reinforcements. Biggs famously replied, Do you think I'm crazy? Now, the G.I.s knew that the National Guard was headed their way to put down the uprising in McMahon County. They had to act fast or they'd be going to jail. They still had the deputies backed into a corner, but they weren't giving up. White and the GIs then tried throwing Molotov cocktails into the jail, but they couldn't get them inside the building. So they resorted to using dynamite. After a few tries and near misses, the door of the jail was finally breached. The deputies who had been barricading the jail surrendered, and the ballot boxes were recovered. During the fight at the jail, skirmishes had broken out all across the county.

Aftermath And Uncomfortable Ironies

Carole Townsend 19:57

People had had enough of the iron grip of crump Democrats and their blatant misuse of power, and the success of White and his men emboldened them. By the next day, though, fighting had all but died down, and election results were certified. G.I. backed Sheriff Knox Henry took his rightful position as sheriff. But in other precincts, ballot boxers were stolen and burned, and men on both sides lost their lives defending both the Constitution of the United States and corruption. The aftermath of this revolution, mind you, the only successful armed rebellion since the American Revolution, included changed laws, laws that paid deputies salaries without using a fee scale. Offices of the Cantrell regime were raided and their operations demolished. Other bad actor deputies simply resigned and were replaced. After all was said and done, Bill White was made a sheriff's deputy. Laughing, he said they made him a deputy to keep the GIs in line. It seems that they learned that they did still hold great power even on home soil. But White said that when he did need to do something about a GI getting out of line, he always preferred to fight with his fists, not with brass knuckles or blackjacks. He said that such conflicts actually built respect between men. This battle, historically known as the Battle of Athens, actually backfired somewhat, as one political machine was briefly replaced with another, more powerful one, that of the G.I.s. But the GI government in Athens eventually collapsed on its own, and state politics returned to normal. In fact, the nonpartisan GI Political League replied to inquiries from veterans elsewhere throughout the United States, with the advice that political violence was not the appropriate method for resolving political differences. Still, heroes are heroes, aren't they?

Modern Parallels And Farewell

Carole Townsend 22:16

Full disclosure, I was not aware of the story or even of the Battle of Athens until my team uncovered it and told me about it. I'm not sure what that says about my knowledge of U.S. history, and I thought my knowledge was pretty solid. At any rate, I know about it now, and now so do you. I imagine I'd be remiss in not pointing out the shocking similarities between this story and the one we're living out today here in this country. For this reason and so many more, I once again say that to be ignorant of our history is a guarantee of someday repeating it. I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at Carol Townsend.com. As always, thanks for listening. And if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, Apple Play, iHeart, and anywhere you listen. My partner Gene and I found the following sources for our information about the Battle of Athens. The book The Fighting Bunch, The Battle of Athens by Chris DeRose. And the website Task and Purpose, the true story of the World War II vets who fought one last battle in their own hometown for the right to vote.