Elbert Williams facts for kids

Elbert Williams (born October 15, 1908 – died June 20, 1940) was an African-American leader who worked for equal rights. He lived in Brownsville, Tennessee. Sadly, he was killed by unknown people.

Elbert Williams was one of the first five members of the NAACP group in Brownsville. The NAACP is an organization that works for the rights of African Americans. Elbert Williams was the first known NAACP member to be killed because of his work for civil rights. This happened in 1940.

At the time, no one was charged with his death. This was because there wasn't enough clear evidence. However, some people believed that police officers were involved in his arrest and then let him go to unknown people. In 2018, a new law about old civil rights cases allowed Williams's case to be reopened. This means it is being investigated again by the state.

About Elbert Williams

Elbert Williams was born in 1908 in a rural area called Haywood County, Tennessee. His family were sharecroppers, which means they farmed land owned by someone else and shared the crops they grew. His parents were Mary Green and Albert Williams. His grandfather had been a slave. Elbert went to public school until the eighth grade. At that time, there were no school buildings for black elementary students.

In 1929, Elbert Williams married his high school sweetheart, Annie Mitchell. The Great Depression made it very hard for people to find work. It was a time when many people lost their jobs and money. Because of this, Elbert and Annie could not farm. So, they moved to Brownsville in the early 1930s. They both found jobs at the Sunshine Laundry. Elbert worked as a fireman, and Annie worked pressing clothes.

On June 12, 1939, Elbert Williams and four other people from Brownsville started a local group of the NAACP. This was the fifth NAACP group in Tennessee. Both Elbert and Annie were founding members. Even though African Americans were legally allowed to vote, they were often stopped from voting in Brownsville and other parts of Tennessee. This was usually done by making it very hard to sign up to vote. The main goal of their NAACP group was to help people register and use their right to vote.

On the night of June 20, 1940, Sheriff Samuel “Tip” Hunter and police officer Charles Reed took Williams from his home. They put him in jail to ask him questions about the NAACP. Sheriff Hunter later said he had let Williams go. But Elbert Williams was never seen alive again after that night.

Three days later, on the morning of June 23, 1940, Williams's body was found in the Hatchie River. He had been killed. His wife, Annie, identified him. In August 1940, a special group called a Grand Jury looked into his death. They decided that his death was a "homicide by parties unknown," meaning he was killed by people no one knew. His death was the last recorded killing of this type in Tennessee.

Since the late 1900s, crimes related to civil rights have been looked at again. On June 20, 2015, a special historical marker was put up in Haywood County to honor Elbert Williams. Because of Tennessee's new Civil Rights Crime Cold Case Law from 2018, Williams's case has been reopened. District Attorney Garry G. Brown started looking into the case again in August 2018.

Fighting for Voting Rights

At that time, Haywood County was one of three counties in Tennessee where African Americans were not allowed to vote. On May 6, 1940, Reverend Buster Walker, who was the president of the NAACP group, along with Taylor Newburn and Elisha Davis (who were leaders), and members John Lester and John Gaines, went to the county office to sign up to vote.

These five men were told to go to Judge J.T. Pearson, who then sent them to the Electoral Commission to register. The men were told that they could not register until August.

After these five men tried to vote, some white people in the community began to threaten the NAACP members. Reverend Walker and Davis were threatened by the police chief, the mayor, and a former mayor. They were told there would be trouble if any African American registered or encouraged others to register to vote. Because of these threats, no African Americans registered to vote for the 1940 election.

Investigations into Williams's Death

The state of Tennessee held a grand jury investigation led by Judge W.W. Bond. After three days, the jury said that no evidence was found to identify who killed Elbert Williams.

Williams's death was also investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Justice Department. William McCalahan was the United States Attorney for Tennessee and led the federal investigation. Walter White, who was the secretary of the NAACP, helped McCalahan by sharing the NAACP's report about what happened in Brownsville.

The local FBI office wrote a report that questioned if any laws had been broken and if more investigation was needed. However, on July 12, 1940, Assistant Attorney General John Rogge told the NAACP that he had asked the FBI to actively investigate the case. Later, on November 28, 1940, the U.S. Attorney's office in Memphis told the FBI that no more people needed to be contacted about the case.

But on March 31, 1941, Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge sent a letter saying that federal law had been broken and the FBI should keep investigating. In September 1941, McCalahan gave an FBI report to Berge. On October 2, Berge wrote that the Justice Department decided to take the case to a grand jury.

On December 23, Victor Rotem, a leader in the Civil Rights Section at the Department of Justice, wrote that there wasn't enough evidence in Williams's case to go to a trial jury. In January 1942, about a year and a half after Elbert Williams was killed, the Justice Department decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone.