Timeline of Events: The Elbert Williams Case
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October 15, 1908
Elbert Williams is born in rural Haywood County, Tennessee, to Albert Williams and Mary Green Williams.
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1929
Elbert Williams marries Annie Mitchell. The couple later relocates to Brownsville, Tennessee, where they find employment at the Sunshine Laundry.
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1939
Elbert and Annie Williams become charter members of the Brownsville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The organization begins encouraging African Americans in Haywood County to attempt to register to vote.
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May 6, 1940
Five members of the Brownsville NAACP attempt to register to vote at the Haywood County courthouse. African Americans had effectively been prevented from registering to vote in the county throughout the twentieth century. The attempt triggers threats and hostility from white officials and residents.
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June 16, 1940
Elisha Davis, one of the men who attempted to register, is abducted from his home by a white mob led by Brownsville policemen Tip Hunter and Charles Read. Davis is taken to a swamp outside of town and threatened with death unless he reveals the names of members of the NAACP. After naming several individuals, he is ordered to leave the county immediately and warned never to return.
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Mid-June 1940
Following the threats against Davis and other NAACP members, fear spreads through the African American community. Many Black families flee Haywood County for safety.
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June 20, 1940 (Late Evening)
Brownsville policemen Tip Hunter and Charles Read, accompanied by Ed Lee, manager of the local Coca-Cola bottling company, go to the home of Elbert Williams and take him into custody. He is jailed and questioned about an NAACP meeting he was suspected of organizing.
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June 21, 1940 (Early Morning)
Hunter later claims that Williams was released from jail during the night. Williams never returns home.
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June 23, 1940
The body of Elbert Williams is discovered floating in the nearby Hatchie River. Annie Williams identifies her husband’s body and observes what appear to be bullet-like holes in his chest.
The county coroner conducts an inquest on the riverbank the same morning the body is recovered. No medical examination is performed. The coroner’s jury returns a verdict of “Cause of death: unknown.” Williams is buried later that day in an unmarked grave.
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Summer 1940
A Haywood County grand jury concludes that Williams died from “foul violence at the hands of parties unknown.”
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1940–1941
Under pressure from the NAACP national office, the United States Department of Justice directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case.
NAACP Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall travels to Brownsville to gather information and monitor the investigation.
The Department of Justice initially plans to present the case before a federal grand jury but later closes the investigation citing insufficient evidence.
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Aftermath
No one is ever charged or prosecuted for the murder of Elbert Williams.