Episode 241: Jim Emison: Murder on the Hatchie, The NAACP’s First Martyr

Reelfoot Forward · Oct 14, 2026 · 39m

Retired West Tennessee trial lawyer and author Jim Emison returns to “Reelfoot Forward” to discuss his new book, "Murder on the Hatchie: The NAACP’s First Martyr." The book tells the largely forgotten story of Elbert Williams, a Black civil rights activist who helped organize the Brownsville-Haywood County branch of the NAACP and challenged the exclusion of Black citizens from the ballot box. In June 1940, Williams was taken from his home, questioned about the organization’s voter registration efforts and killed. His body was later recovered from the Hatchie River. No one was ever prosecuted…