President's Article

Kirby Mitchell

1946 was a proud and happy time for the Greenville Bar.  Dozens of accomplished Greenville attorneys served in military or government service during World War II, and many of their names are still familiar to practicing attorneys today, 70+ years later: Victor Pyle, Walter Wilkins, Clement Haynsworth, Richard Foster, Bill Traxler, Ted Riley, Wesley Walker, John Bolt Culbertson, David Freeman, Johnnie Mac Walters, Donald Sampson, Sol Abrams, Julius Aiken, Frank Eppes, and Rex Carter. After the 1945 Allied victories in Europe and the Pacific, Greenville welcomed these lawyers back home to their families and law practices (J. Bainbridge, Attorneys & Law in Greenville County: A History, pp. 113-114).

The returning attorney veterans enjoyed a period of steady economic development in downtown Greenville. But two shocking and historic events were to come: in the late afternoon of November 19, 1946, a massive explosion, felt as far as 60 miles away, completely destroyed the Ideal Laundry and Cleaners (corner of Buncombe and Echols streets) when the laundry’s new propane system leaked gas and ignited. Many residents thought it was an earthquake. Six people were killed; 120 injured; several nearby businesses and 10 surrounding houses were leveled.  The accident remains one of the most catastrophic occurrences in South Carolina, certainly within the memory of the World War II generation (see Allison v. Ideal Laundry, 55 S.E.2nd 281 (S.C. 1949) for an interesting S.C. Supreme Court case dealing with the explosion’s aftermath).

The second stunning event began three months later on February 15, 1947, when a young black man named Willie Earle hired a white taxi cab driver, Thomas Brown, to drive from Greenville to his mother’s house in Pickens County. The subsequent stabbing and death of Mr. Brown, vicious lynching of Mr. Earle, trial and “not guilty” verdicts for the defendants by an all-white jury at the Greenville County Courthouse – Greenville’s “trial of the century” – all brought intense national uproar and international scrutiny to Greenville. When President Harry S. Truman set up the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1948, he referred to the Willie Earle lynching as one of the outrages that had to stop (Bainbridge, p. 117). Truman’s Commission recommended society-changing reforms, including the end of segregation in the military, a reform often cited as the beginning of the end of the Jim Crow era.  

 

President Truman’s evolving mindset was also affected by an event that occurred 97 miles from downtown Greenville, in Batesburg, South Carolina, in this same post-war timeframe – on February 12, 1946, a decorated veteran, much like the many distinguished Greenville Bar members listed above, boarded a Greyhound bus in Augusta, Georgia, headed home after his three years of military service. The tragic story of what then happened to Sergeant Isaac Woodard and the transforming impact it had on President Truman and U.S. District Judge J. Waties Waring is outlined in Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring, a new book by The Honorable Richard Gergel. The Greenville Bar is proud and honored to co-sponsor an extraordinary event on Wednesday, March 6th at 6:00 p.m. at the One Building Auditorium featuring the author, Judge Richard Gergel, and a distinguished panel of federal court judges – Judge Bruce Hendricks, Judge Michelle Childs, and Judge Marvin Quattlebaum. The panel will be moderated by our own G-Bar member and past president, Brent Clinkscale. The event is free and open to the public and 1 hour of CLE credit is offered. There will be a book-signing and reception following the judicial panel and Q & A session.  Please come join your fellow Greenville Bar members on Wed., Mar. 6th and hear how these events in and around Greenville 70+ years ago deeply affected a U.S. president and federal judge many years ago, and consider how these local events influence our judiciary today.  

Law Week Luncheon

Save the Date- May 2

Speaker Judge Aphrodite Konduros

Verdicts

2017-CP-23-2266

Darla K. Lindgren vs. Tommy Lee Culpepper

Attorney for Plaintiff: Dana Mitchell

Attorney for Defendant: David Moore

Type of Case: Motor Vehicle Accident

Verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $23,316.65

2017-CP-23-312

Diversified Systems Inc vs. Aerospace Technologies Group Inc.

Attorney for Plaintiff: Greg English, Jim Cox

Attorney for Defendant: Keith Munson, Thomas Cull, Mario G. Ceste

Type of Case: Breach of Contract

Verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $293,596.68 actual damages and the jury awarded the defendant the property

2015-CP-23-973

O'Neal Constructors LLC vs. GE Betz, Inc. d/b/a GE Water & Process Technologies

Attorney for Plaintiff: Ward Lambert, Wesley Lambertl

Attorney for Defendant: Gary Thomas Culbreath, Ashley Berry Stratton

Type of Case: Construction

Verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $648,698.32 Negligent Misrepresentation Claim

They Stole Him Out Jail

If you like local history, you might be interested in hearing author William Gravely discuss his book They Stole Him Out of Jail on Thursday, March 14 at 7 pm. It's the true story of twenty-four-year-old Willie Earle, an African American man arrested for the murder of a Greenville, South Carolina, taxi driver named T. W. Brown. Learn More Here