On this day eighty years ago the Reverend M. D. Garrett, of Athens, Georgia, drove to the town of Franklin, North Carolina. There he set up an amplified speaker in front of the Macon County Courthouse and, using that speaker, began to preach beginning at 3 p.m., loud enough that the entire town could hear him.
The town of Franklin had recently passed an ordinance forbidding the use of loudspeakers on the streets of the town as a public nuisance, but Rev. Garrett was determined to defy that ordinance to get the word of God out to the public.
As you might have guessed, Garrett was arrested and taken to the county jail to be locked up.
Here, though, is where it gets interesting.
A crowd soon gathered at the jail, estimated to be between 500 and 1000 people. These folks were not happy.
They began to threaten the police officers on duty there, demanding that Rev. M. D. Garrett be released immediately or they’d go in and let him out themselves. Deputy John Dills, brandishing his service revolver, ordered the crowd to remain outside, saying he would not release a prisoner under threat of violence. In order to disperse the angry crowd without the use of force, the sheriff decided to call the fire department to send a truck that could spray the crowd with water.
The truck and the firemen quickly arrived to provide support. By the time the firehose was set up, though, it was discovered that somebody had slashed it in several places, making it useless. At the same time Gerald Ashe, the fire chief, was jerked from the truck by an unknown person, who broke the chief’s right leg below the knee.
After that the crowd slowly dispersed and Rev. Garrett was released after a local man posted his bond.
Immediately after leaving the jail Garrett began to preach again, this time without his loudspeaker, causing another crowd to gather. The group all cheered and sang old time gospel songs, including “That Old-Time Religion” there on the streets of Franklin while another preacher, Rev. Joe Bishop, of Macon County, waved an American flag to loud cheers from the crowd.
