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A West Virginia Town Applied For Soviet Foreign Aid, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan February 21, 2020 33 min

Vulcan - McDowell County — Vulcan miners in 1919. The Sangha Kommune

30. The Road to Revolt

Headquarters of the GI Nonpartisan Party. Tennessee Overhill

As the returning veterans saw it, violence was the only way to vindicate their rights in McMinn County. Complaints went nowhere, as local officials and the local judge were corrupt. The entire government machinery was on the take, getting a cut from various illicit activities, from moonshine stills to misappropriation of public funds. And presiding over it all was Sheriff Cantrell, who turned a blind eye to official corruptions, and acted as enforcers to intimidate dissenters.

Things had gotten worse during WWII: with nearly the entire fit male population in uniform and away, the Sheriff’s deputies had a free run of the females. As they endured the depredations, “wait ’til the boys get back!” became a mantra amongst the locals. As the vets drifted back home, they determined to change things. So they formed “The GI Nonpartisan Party” to contest the elections scheduled for August 2^nd, 1946.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.