Plaintiff Henry Williams, a Black man who was indicted for murder by an all-white grand jury, appears before the Circuit Court of Washington County, Mississippi. He challenges the selection of his case's jury, since juries in Mississippi are selected from eligible voters and Black people are largely denied the right to vote. Williams is denied by the state and then federal courts, but he appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1898, the Supreme Court takes up the case based on the argument that the voting laws in the 1890 Mississippi Constitution violate the Fourteenth Amendment. When the court rules against Williams, they open the door to the further disenfranchisement of Black people in Southern states. Many states will begin to limit voting to only Black men who own property and can read well, to whose grandfathers were able to vote, those with “good characters" (as defined by the state), or those who can pay poll taxes.