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Murder on the Hatchie: The NAACP's First Martyr
Not yet published
Expected 20 Oct 26The forgotten lynching that launched America's fight for Black voting rights--and the federal cover-up that followed.
Murder on the Hatchie uncovers one of the earliest and most consequential crimes in America's long struggle for Black voting the 1940 lynching of Elbert Williams in Brownsville, Tennessee. A founding member of the local NAACP, Williams was murdered for attempting to register Black voters, decades before the more famous murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers.
Through rigorous research and gripping narrative, retired trial attorney Jim Emison reconstructs the events surrounding Williams's lynching and the federal government's failure to prosecute his killers. Drawing on FBI files, Department of Justice correspondence, and eyewitness accounts, Emison reconstructs how white officials conspired to silence a community, implicating local law enforcement, federal agents, and even national NAACP leadership.
Emison repositions Brownsville as a pivotal site in civil rights history and exposes how voter suppression, racial terror, and government complicity shaped the American democracy we inherit today. With a foreword by Margaret A. Burnham, Murder on the Hatchie challenges liberal assumptions about justice and the embedded character of Jim Crow. For readers of Blood Done Sign My Name and By Hands Now Known, this is both a gripping true-crime investigation and a vital work of historical restoration.
Murder on the Hatchie uncovers one of the earliest and most consequential crimes in America's long struggle for Black voting the 1940 lynching of Elbert Williams in Brownsville, Tennessee. A founding member of the local NAACP, Williams was murdered for attempting to register Black voters, decades before the more famous murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers.
Through rigorous research and gripping narrative, retired trial attorney Jim Emison reconstructs the events surrounding Williams's lynching and the federal government's failure to prosecute his killers. Drawing on FBI files, Department of Justice correspondence, and eyewitness accounts, Emison reconstructs how white officials conspired to silence a community, implicating local law enforcement, federal agents, and even national NAACP leadership.
Emison repositions Brownsville as a pivotal site in civil rights history and exposes how voter suppression, racial terror, and government complicity shaped the American democracy we inherit today. With a foreword by Margaret A. Burnham, Murder on the Hatchie challenges liberal assumptions about justice and the embedded character of Jim Crow. For readers of Blood Done Sign My Name and By Hands Now Known, this is both a gripping true-crime investigation and a vital work of historical restoration.
275 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication October 20, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 4, 2026
3.5 stars.
This was very well researched and another example of awful things that happened in not-long-ago history that I knew nothing about. It’s always humbling to read a story like this, and I’m grateful to have my eyes opened a little wider.
Overall, the writing was good and didn’t technically lose me. However, there was something about the pacing or the narrative structure that made it difficult for me to connect with the central story. I think part of it was that there wasn’t enough breathing room between the events surrounding the murder and the political and racial circumstances that led to it. Everything was introduced alongside everything else and, while I can see how that might work for some readers, I found it difficult to follow at times. As a result, I didn’t find the central story as compelling as it could have been, and I felt like this took me longer to read than it probably should have.
What did compel me, and what I’d like to learn more about, is the broader theme of Black voter suppression. Sure, some of the more blatant mechanisms of Jim Crow have been dismantled, but racial gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws aren’t relics of the past. They’re still very much real, particularly in states like the one I live in. Educating myself is the first step toward understanding and standing against that history as it continues to evolve, and I’m grateful this book gave me another reason to do so.
Thank you to Broadleaf Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was very well researched and another example of awful things that happened in not-long-ago history that I knew nothing about. It’s always humbling to read a story like this, and I’m grateful to have my eyes opened a little wider.
Overall, the writing was good and didn’t technically lose me. However, there was something about the pacing or the narrative structure that made it difficult for me to connect with the central story. I think part of it was that there wasn’t enough breathing room between the events surrounding the murder and the political and racial circumstances that led to it. Everything was introduced alongside everything else and, while I can see how that might work for some readers, I found it difficult to follow at times. As a result, I didn’t find the central story as compelling as it could have been, and I felt like this took me longer to read than it probably should have.
What did compel me, and what I’d like to learn more about, is the broader theme of Black voter suppression. Sure, some of the more blatant mechanisms of Jim Crow have been dismantled, but racial gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws aren’t relics of the past. They’re still very much real, particularly in states like the one I live in. Educating myself is the first step toward understanding and standing against that history as it continues to evolve, and I’m grateful this book gave me another reason to do so.
Thank you to Broadleaf Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy
A very good telling of a tragic turning point in civil rights history. Short but well researched and engaging.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This heartbreaking book details the events before and after the murder of Elbert Williams, a charter member of the Brownsville, TN, NAACP chapter, when he took the lead to register Blacks to vote in June 1940. He was kidnapped, questioned, tortured, and killed to send a message to all Black people in the county: if you try to register to vote here, you may pay with your life. Williams was the first martyr of the NAACP's nationwide voter registration efforts.
There are many books about the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement; this book sheds light on the less well-known decades in between when Blacks were "free" but not truly free, particularly because they were often disenfranchised and not allowed to have a political voice. This book details a difficult chapter of U.S. history, but it is vital that unknown stories like these are brought to light and remembered.
This book was very well-written, concise and straightforward, which I appreciate. Surprisingly, some of my favorite parts were the legal explanations and actions (or lack of actions) taken by the NAACP legal team, the DOJ, federal prosecutors, the FBI, and others. The author explains the legal moves in detail, but not so much detail that it became boring for someone without a legal background.
The author accurately summarizes the aftermath of the tragic Elbert Williams case toward the end: "The [case]...invited the civil rights carnage of the 1950s and 1960s. The [case]...declared to the world: White supremacists may use violence and murder to enforce Black disenfranchisement with nothing to fear from the US Department of Justice. A bloody course for the next quarter century in the South had been charted."
Thank you to NetGalley and Broadleaf Books for providing a digital ARC.
There are many books about the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement; this book sheds light on the less well-known decades in between when Blacks were "free" but not truly free, particularly because they were often disenfranchised and not allowed to have a political voice. This book details a difficult chapter of U.S. history, but it is vital that unknown stories like these are brought to light and remembered.
This book was very well-written, concise and straightforward, which I appreciate. Surprisingly, some of my favorite parts were the legal explanations and actions (or lack of actions) taken by the NAACP legal team, the DOJ, federal prosecutors, the FBI, and others. The author explains the legal moves in detail, but not so much detail that it became boring for someone without a legal background.
The author accurately summarizes the aftermath of the tragic Elbert Williams case toward the end: "The [case]...invited the civil rights carnage of the 1950s and 1960s. The [case]...declared to the world: White supremacists may use violence and murder to enforce Black disenfranchisement with nothing to fear from the US Department of Justice. A bloody course for the next quarter century in the South had been charted."
Thank you to NetGalley and Broadleaf Books for providing a digital ARC.
Review of advance copy
This is an excellent book and wonderfully composed. It is a shame a book like this had to be written about this sad part of US history, but I am glad it finally was. Thank you for the effort and the dedication to bringing the story of Elbert Williams to life. The events described set the stage for decades of violent voter suppression and must be studied to prevent this from happening again. I must add that I was reading this book on the day I worked the polls on primary day last month. I could not understand how the polling place was virtually empty all day when such a short time ago a man would give his life to be able to vote.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews