TENNESSEE — Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the NAACP's Tennessee State Conference, will honor lynching victim Elbert Williams during Martyrs' Day activities on July 5, 2026. Sweet-Love is also urging Tennesseans to verify their voter registration status before the state's Aug. 6 primary elections.

Tennessee is one of a dozen states participating in Martyrs' Day activities, which will include a virtual panel discussion from the NAACP. "Martyrs' Day recognizes the sacrifices moving America closer to its ideal of 'liberty and justice for all,'" Sweet-Love said.

Elbert Williams was lynched in 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee, for his efforts to establish a local NAACP chapter. "All he was trying to do is sign up NAACP members, but most of all, get people registered to vote," she said. Martyrs' Day was founded by Gloria Browne-Marshall, a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College. The observance coincides with the anniversary of Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" delivered on July 5, 1852.

The deadline to register to vote in the primary is July 7, and early voting is scheduled from July 17 to Aug. 1. Voters may become inactive or be removed from rolls due to an address or name change, or because they did not respond to election-related mail. Tennessee currently has more than 4.3 million registered voters.