During 1940, five Americans, four colored and one white, were lynched by American mobs. In ten other cases under investigation persons had been put to death under circumstances which strongly savored of lynching.
Most publicized of the 1940 lynchings was that of Elbert Williams on June 20 at Brownsville, Tenn. Williams, a respected and law-abiding Negro homeowner, had served on a delegation which included a minister, a farmer and a business man to seek information at the Haywood County, Tenn., Court House on the requirements to be met in qualifying to vote in the 1940 presidential election. Shortly after the delegation had visited the Court House, mobs appeared at the homes of the members of the delegation. Rev. Buster Walker, a minister, warned of the approach of the mob, fled in time. At the end of the year he was still a refugee from his church, home and other property. Elisha Davis, Negro proprietor of a filling station, was also forced to flee with his wife and seven children, his property being later confiscated by local white people. Elbert Williams' body was found in a nearby river several days after he had been abducted from his home by a mob, the two leaders of which, it was discovered, were local officials of the law. Investigation also revealed the names of ten members of the mob, but the grand jury returned a verdict that Willams had come to his death at the hands of parties unknown. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was still looking into the case as 1940 ended.
On Jan. 10, 1940, the House of Representatives passed the Gavagan-Fish Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Senate, fearing a filibuster, led by Senators from states with the worst lynching records, failed to take up the bill and vote on it although seventy or more of the ninety-six Senators were pledged to vote for it.
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