Elbert Williams

Williams did not leave when he was told to. A few days before his killing, NAACP leader Elisha Davis was abducted from his home by the same group of white men and ordered to leave Brownsville; he survived. Williams refused to leave town or stop the voting rights work. On June 20, 1940, a group led by the sheriff and the night marshal took him. Black residents made up three-quarters of the town, yet violence had kept them from voting since 1884. A jury of six white men indicted no one; the case reopened under a 2018 cold-case law.

What the plaque says

Elbert Williams 1908-1940 Elbert Williams, an African American Haywood County native, was one of the early members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) killed in the United States for his civil rights work. He and his wife Annie became charter members of the NAACP Brownsville Branch in 1939. On May 6, 1940, five African Americans tried to register to vote. A white terror campaign followed and destroyed the NAACP Branch. More than 20 African American families fled the area. Williams disappeared on the night of June 20, 1940, after the police took him from his home and questioned him about planning an NAACP meeting. After three days, Williams' mutilated body was found in the Hatchie River. His death was ruled a homicide by unknown parties, and he was buried in the Taylor Cemetery. Annie Williams quickly moved to New York. After interviewing witnesses in Brownsville, Thurgood Marshall, NAACP Special Counsel, criticized the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation and failure to prosecute. The NAACP Brownsville Branch re-organized in 1961.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 3.7 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.
• Alex Haley House Museum — 19 mi
  The 1919 bungalow in Henning where Alex Haley heard the family stories behind Roots, now a state historic site and museum with his grave in the front yard.

More markers nearby

• John Murrell — 18 mi
• Hands Across America Mid-Point — 20 mi
• Coxville Church and Cemetery Winfield Scott (Scotty) Moore — 21 mi
• Frances Boyd Calhoun — 22 mi