The battle of Athens, TN

MSNBC has a short story about one of the most interesting events in post-WWII America.

Where were you during the Battle of Athens?

Theodore White wrote about this for Harpers when it happened and included it in his memoirs In Search of History. His prose was better. I’ve always like this:

The potbellied civilian deputies could offer no resistance to the men who had helped destroy the Wehrmacht.

White also offered another observation about New Deal era politics that deserves repeating:

The Northern political machines in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, were corrupt but not murderous. In the South, they condoned murder.