Elbert Williams

Elbert Williams (October 15, 1908 – June 20, 1940) was an African-American civil rights leader from Brownsville, Tennessee who was killed by unknown persons. He was one of the five charter members of the NAACP branch in Brownsville.

No prosecution was undertaken at the time by state or federal authorities because of lack of evidence, although law enforcement officials were reportedly complicit in Williams's arrest and release to persons unknown. Under a 2018 civil rights cold case law, Williams's case was reopened in August 2018 for renewed investigation by the state.

Biography Williams was born in 1908 in rural Haywood County, Tennessee to a sharecropper family.

Since the late 20th century, civil rights crimes have received renewed attention from activists and law enforcement. On June 20, 2015, a state historical marker to honor Williams was unveiled in Haywood County. Under Tennessee's new Civil Rights Crime Cold Case Law of 2018, Williams' case has been reopened. District Attorney Garry G. Brown for the 28th Judicial District of Tennessee reopened the case in August 2018.

Brownsville NAACP and Voting Rights At the time, Haywood County was one of three counties in Tennessee in which African Americans were not permitted to vote. The secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, aided McCalahan with the NAACP's report of the events in Brownsville.

The local FBI prepared a report on the case that indicated doubts that any laws had been violated and questioned the need for further investigation. On July 12, 1940, Assistant Attorney General John Rogge told the NAACP of Brownsville that he had requested the FBI to actively investigate the case. On November 28, 1940, the United States Attorney's office in Memphis told the FBI that no more contacts in the case needed to be investigated. On March 31, 1941, Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge sent a letter to McCalahan stating that the federal law was violated and the FBI should continue its investigation.

McCalahan presented an FBI report to Berge In September 1941 and on October 2, Berge wrote that the department has decided to take the case to a grand jury. On December 23, Victor Rotem, Chief of the Civil Rights Section at the Department of Justice, released a memorandum that Williams's case did not provide enough evidence to present to a trial jury. In January 1942, a year and a half after the assault and murder of Williams, the Justice Department determined that there was not sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.