Elbert Williams
Age 31
A Black founder of a local NAACP chapter
Brownsville, Tennessee
June 20, 1940
“He had so much more courage than any of us. To me he is the best of our family.”
Leslie McGraw & Crystal Ginyard
Great-grandnieces of Williams
START
LM: The first time I heard Elbert Williams’ name was when I was about nine years old. My grandmother, you know, she’s from the South, so I learned a lot just from being around her. We were actually watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie. That was our show. And this is around the time when the black woman, Hester Sue, was on the show.
CG: Mm-hm.
LM: And so, whatever it was…evoked some sort of emotion with Grandma.
And she said her Uncle, Elbert…he would take her for ice cream. And I said, “Elbert?” She said, “Yeah. That was Momma’s brother.” And then she got kind of quiet. And uh…she said, “They killed him.”
Elbert Williams, my great grand-uncle, joined the NAACP in 1939. June 20th, 1940, the sheriff came to the house around 10 o’clock at night. He took my great grand uncle. And three days later, he was found floating in the river by a couple of fishermen.
LG: His wife was given word that she should leave town immediately …
CG: Mm-hm.
LM: … so she had to leave by the next morning. There was never a funeral. So, our family was made into refugees.
CG: I can only imagine how they felt to know who did it, and you can’t do anything about it.
LM: It didn’t just affect our family. You know, the NAACP was scared to form again, for a long time.
CG: It did what they wanted it to do. So when you found out, how did that make you feel?
LM: I was sad because I thought about how much pain…
CG: Yeah.
LM: …you know? His mom…on her deathbed, she was screaming his name. She would have to have tranquilizers throughout her life after his death, because she would be so overcome with grief.
CG: What would you like for future generations to know about Elbert Williams?
LM: To have people in our family be proud, and not see him as simply a victim. He had so much more courage…
CG: Mm-hm.
LM: …than any of us.
CG: Yes.
LM: To me, he is kind of is the best of our family.
END
Photo by Bradley Piri Photography
In 1939, Elbert Williams and other residents of Brownsville, Tennessee, created a local chapter of the NAACP, with hopes of helping Black community members register to vote. The following spring, after visiting the Brownsville County Registrar’s office, the NAACP members were warned by white community leaders that there would be “trouble” if they continued their voter registration efforts.
According to a Department of Justice memo, on June 20, 1940, Brownsville Sheriff Samuel “Tip” Hunter abducted Williams and Thomas Davis, both NAACP members, and took them to the local jail, where they were questioned about the organization’s work. Davis was released, only to face a waiting mob of white community members. Williams, however, was not seen again for three days, at which time his body was found in the Hatchie River.
Williams was buried in Taylor Cemetery, in Haywood County, Tennessee, although the exact location of his grave is unknown.
In the days preceding Williams’ death, two other Black men, also NAACP members, were abducted, questioned about their NAACP activities and threatened with violence.
Initial Investigation
Both state and federal investigations began immediately following Williams’ death.
Tennessee authorities convened a grand jury but failed to return any indictments. The Department of Justice memo quotes the grand jury judge as saying that, over the course of three days, the grand jury interviewed “everyone, colored or white, who had been involved in the rumors of the alleged lynching.” The grand jury foreman said the jurors “could not establish the identity of the persons responsible for the outbreaks” of violence among the Black and white communities in Brownsville.
In its simultaneous investigation, the FBI interviewed the sheriff who had abducted Williams and Davis. While the sheriff admitted to bringing the men to the jail, he said he released them both and denied seeing Williams again until his body was discovered in the Hatchie River. The FBI interviewed another police officer who was present when the men were abducted and brought to the jail, but he, too, denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. The FBI conducted additional interviews with civilians identified as having participated in a spate of NAACP abductions, but all denied involvement or any knowledge of voter intimidation.
While there is no record of an autopsy having been performed on Williams, both the funeral home operator and the coroner said Williams’ body was so badly swollen, it could not be determined whether he had been the victim of a violent assault. Williams’ wife, however, signed an affidavit stating that when she saw her husband’s body, it appeared he had been “beaten and bruised and there were holes in the chest.”
NAACP Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall further investigated Williams’ death. In December 1941, he traveled to Brownsville and interviewed two witnesses the FBI had been unable to locate. Marshall reported his findings to the FBI Criminal Division’s Civil Rights Section but was told on January 23, 1942, the DOJ would close its investigation into the matter because “there did not appear to be sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.”
Till Act Status
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee reexamined the case in February 2016 and concluded too much time had passed to warrant a prosecution, given that the statutes of limitations on the crimes had expired. At the referral of attorney Jim Emison, who had spent years researching this case, the FBI’s Civil Rights Division reopened the case in 2017. According to the DOJ memo, investigators reviewed the original FBI file, as well as media coverage from the time, other government files on the case and materials Emison had uncovered in his research.
On September 4, 2018, the DOJ closed the case without prosecution or referral. The closing memo stated: “The statute of limitations has long run on any federal civil rights crime and there is no basis for federal prosecution of any other crime.” They further cited the death of all known subjects in their decision to close the case.
Case Status closed
Closed 11/04/2018
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed Cases
- Men
- Storycorps Stories
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)