The Story Of Willie Brewster

Willie Brewster was a 38 year old African American man and a devoted family man whose life was cut short in a racially motivated shooting outside Anniston in the summer of 1965. Brewster lived with his wife, Lestine, and their two young children; his wife was also pregnant at the time. He worked long hours at the Union Foundry, often on the night shift, to support his family and was described by his employer as someone who “went beyond his duties to help” and who cared deeply for his children, sometimes taking care of them while his wife worked during the day.

On the night of July 15, 1965, after completing a shift at the foundry with two co‐workers, Brewster was driving home along Highway 202 when the atmosphere of racial hostility in the region turned deadly. Earlier that evening, members of the white supremacist National States’ Rights Party had held an inflammatory rally at the Calhoun County Courthouse. At that gathering, speakers such as the Rev. Connie Lynch stirred violent sentiments among the mostly white crowd, urging action “to get the Negroes out of the white man’s streets” and suggesting that killing might be necessary to “protect our constitutional rights.”

As Brewster’s car traveled down the highway, a vehicle carrying three white men pulled alongside. Without warning, shots rang out — one bullet blasting through the rear window and striking Brewster in the neck. Brewster’s co‑workers struggled to control the car, which veered off the road. The assailants sped away, leaving Brewster critically wounded. He was rushed to a hospital, but despite efforts to save him, Brewster succumbed to his injuries three days later on July 18.

The killing sent shockwaves through the community. In an uncommon and powerful display of collective outrage, 268 white and Black citizens of Anniston joined together in a full‑page advertisement published in The Anniston Star, offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Brewster’s killer. The ad condemned secret acts of violence and affirmed the community’s determination to confront them through the law rather than allow violence to rule. Georgia’s segregationist governor, George Wallace, also offered a smaller reward of $1,000.

Investigators eventually received a tip that pointed to three local white men with ties to the National States’ Rights Party and the Ku Klux Klan. On August 30, 1965, Hubert Damon Strange, Johnny Ira DeFries, and Clarence Lewis Blevins were indicted for Brewster’s murder. The prosecution’s case relied heavily on the testimony of a former associate, Jimmie Glenn Knight, who said he had overheard the men bragging about the shooting and later helped lead police to the site of the crime. Brewster’s murder was allegedly planned as part of an initiation into the Klan, and the men had discussed their intent to kill a Black man before the shooting.

The trial of Strange, the man identified as the shooter, took place in December 1965 before an all‑white jury. The evidence was largely circumstantial — there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting and no murder weapon was presented — but Knight’s testimony was decisive. After lengthy deliberations, the jury convicted Strange of second‑degree murder and sentenced him to ten years in prison. This conviction was widely noted at the time as an unusual outcome in the Deep South; it was described by The Harvard Crimson and other observers as the first instance in Alabama history in which an all‑white jury convicted a white man for the racially motivated killing of a Black man, though historians note that earlier convictions in other cases had occurred. Strange’s conviction was seen as a tentative step, however limited, toward accountability in racially charged crimes.

DeFries was later acquitted of murder charges in early 1966, and charges against Blevins were dropped. Although Strange was sentenced to prison, he never served his term; he was released on bond during his appeal and died in an unrelated barroom brawl months after the trial.

The murder of Willie Brewster became part of the broader narrative of resistance and violence during the Civil Rights Movement, occurring just weeks after the passage of the Voting Rights Act and amid other brutal confrontations over segregation and racial equality in the South. Brewster’s name has since been included on civil rights memorials and historical markers, reminding later generations of both the brutality of racial hatred and the complexities of seeking justice in a deeply divided society.