This Day in History

Jan. 20, 1919: Bragg Williams Killed by White Mob

Time Periods: 1910
Themes: African American, Disability, Racism & Racial Identity
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Convicted and sentenced to death for the December 1918 killing of Annie Wells and her son Curtis Wells, Bragg Williams was imprisoned in the county jail in Hillsboro, Texas. Williams was an intellectually disabled Black laborer and he was convicted by an all-white jury. On January 20, 1919, angered by the appeal that Williams’ attorneys filed, a white mob dragged Williams from the jail and burned him at the stake. Bragg Williams was 20 years old when he was killed.

E. R. Bills writes in the Fort Worth Weekly,

Though he put up no resistance, he cried for help three times before the flames consumed him. Bragg’s body was left in the embers of the fire for hours. Photographs were taken of the atrocity (and one Hill County lawyer is said to have kept one of the images framed in his office for decades).

The Texas governor denounced the lynching and called for an investigation but a grand jury failed to indict anyone for the murder.

Refusing to Forget notes,

This lynching was the first one listed in An Appeal to the Conscience of the Civilized World, a 1920 publication by the NAACP that marked the organization’s embrace of an anti-lynching campaign. NAACP investigator John Shillady wrote to Governor Hobby requesting information about why the Rangers or other state officers were unwilling to protect Williams’ right to due process. Hobby did not reply. Rangers, historian Monica Muñoz Martínez writes, had “autonomy when they patrolled their regions. They made decisions about how and when to complete their investigations and also had the authority to extend their assignments.” They could have saved Williams.

The Williams family stand near the spot of the Bragg Williams lynching historical marker. Bragg’s family and others commemorate the atrocity he was a victim of and celebrate the strength and courage of his mother, Emma Williams. Photograph by E. R. Bills. Source: Fort Worth Weekly

As reported by E. R. Bills, “The Bragg Williams Lynching historical marker was delivered to Hill County on October 23, 2024, and it will be placed on the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn in Hillsboro. The marker is set to be dedicated on MLK Day, January 20, 2025.”

Additional Resources

Bragg’s Rights by E. R. Bills (Fort Worth Weekly)

Snowball’s Chance in Hillsboro by E. R. Bills (Fort Worth Weekly)

Dull in the Heart by E. R. Bills (Fort Worth Weekly)

Bragg Williams Lynching (Refusing to Forget)

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