Hero of Athens

J. Neal Ensminger, editor of The Daily Post-Athenian, stood before the Chattanooga Civitan Club in 1974 and said, "Let me tell you about the historic Battle of Athens and its hero, Bernie Hampton, the pastor of Keith Memorial Methodist Church." He went on to say that the battle of Athens, Tennessee stands as the most violent manifestation of a regional phenomenon of the post-World War II era. Seasoned veterans of the European and Pacific theaters returned in 1945 and 1946 to southern communities riddled with vice, economic stagnation, and deteriorating schools. Undemocratic, corrupt, and mossback rings and machines kept an iron grip on local policy and power. Moreover, their commitment to the status quo threatened the economic opportunities touched off by the war. Across the South, veterans launched insurgent campaigns to oust local political machines they regarded as impediments to economic "progress." See http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=A043

The editor of The Daily Post-Atheian told us that officially, the "Battle of Athens" in McMinn County began and ended on August 1, 1946. Following a heated competition for local offices, veterans in the insurgent GI Non-Partisan League took up arms to prevent a local courthouse ring headed by state senator Paul Cantrell and linked to Memphis political boss Ed Crump from stealing the election. When Sheriff Pat Mansfield's deputies absconded to the jail with key ballot boxes, suspicious veterans took action. A small group of veterans broke into the local National Guard Armory, seized weapons and ammunition, and proceeded to the jail to demand the return of the ballot boxes. The Cantrell-Mansfield deputies refused, and the veterans, now numbering several hundred, opened fire. As the battle continued through the night a mob started turning over police cars and burning them. The ensuing battle lasted all night and ended only after the dynamiting of the front of the jail. As dawn came to the battle scene, out of the smoke and fog stepped a small man, the Reverend Bernie Hampton. He had a Bible in his left hand, and his right hand was lifted as he bravely stepped out between the veterians and the deputies. No one else dared to move out into the open. All eyes were upon the Bernie, knowned as "the quiet man", the pastor of Keith Methodist Church. He lifted his right hand and said, "Boys, the war is over. The victory is won. Let us end this destruction and begin now to work together to rebuild our town." As the hero of Athens stood there the deputies came out and surrendered. Within days the local election commission swore in the veteran candidates as duly elected. The McMinn County veterans had won the day in a hail of gunfire, dynamite, and with the faith and courage of a pastor.

The late J. Neal Ensminger, former editor of The Daily Post-Athenian and the popular teacher of a weekly radio broadcast from a Keith Memorial Sunday school class, was inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame at a banquet ceremony Nov. 6, 2009. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville.