Blog
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The “Third Degree” Thirties in New Orleans
To understand the 1941 death of Wilmer Smith at the hands of New Orleans police is to contend with the decade of violence that preceded his killing.
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Lynchings, abductions, and fatal shootings among eight new cases just released
The new cases, spanning 3,112 pages, bring to 52 the number of cold cases released by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board since October 2024, as Congress considers extending the Board’s tenure beyond next January.
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"Please I am asking you all for justice."
Civil rights cold cases board releases more than 600 pages of federal records, including a letter written by a 24-year-old victim’s mother to federal authorities, pleading for justice for her son, an Army technician shot dead in 1943 by a Georgia police chief.
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Latest records release includes case of Eleanor Rush, a 17-year-old North Carolina girl found dead in her cell after being bound and gagged
Official documents recorded Eleanor Rush's death at a women's prison in 1954 as an “accident" and a coroner’s inquest jury determined she had died “due to her violent efforts against necessary restraint.” No one was held criminally responsible, but her mother would win a civil suit.
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Civil rights cold cases board releases 6,510 pages of federal records in Emmett Till lynching case
The documents include hundreds of letters written by an outraged public after the acquittal of Till's killers.
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A class project that took years -- and ended up on the President's desk
The roots of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board stretch back to 2015 and a high school classroom in New Jersey.
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Cold cases review board releases four new sets of records—each concerning the death of a WWII soldier
The latest release adds 537 pages of federal records now viewable by the public
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"No justification moral or legal": Black WWII soldiers and the threats at home
Thomas Broadus’s death while off-duty in Baltimore in 1942 symbolized the plight of Black servicemen and the perils of segregation during WWII.