Cold cases
Below are capsule summaries of cases that have been authorized for release by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board. Clicking on a case will bring you to a more extensive synopsis of that incident, as well as to a link that will take you to the National Archives’ Civil Rights Cold Case Records Portal, where the case file may be viewed.
The Board takes into account many factors in determining which cases it wants to examine for potential release. Given its statutory time constraints, the Board is focused on prioritizing cases that are representative of the diverse nature of civil rights cold cases. Currently, the Board is required to terminate its work no later than January, 2027.
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Flam Belle was born in Glennville, Georgia in 1919. Convicted of murder in Tattnall County, Georgia in 1940, he began serving a life sentence on April 24 of that year.
Della McDuffie was a 66-year-old resident of Wilcox County, Alabama. She and her husband, Will McDuffie, owned and operated Della’s Place, a cafe in Alberta, Alabama. They had one son.
Atmos Shaw was a 42-year-old miner who lived in Shelby, Alabama. He and his wife, Cleosie Grisby, had three children.
James David Broaddus Jr. was a 22-year-old veteran of the Korean War and a steelworker. He lived in Baltimore with his father, James Broaddus Sr. and his stepmother, Frances Wallace.
Henry Thompson was born in 1874 in Monticello, Florida. He worked as a woodcutter and handyman in Lakeland, Florida. A widower, he was the father of one son.
Tom Patterson Jr. was born around 1923 in Birmingham, Alabama. A World War II veteran, Patterson worked as a plasterer for a construction company and was a student at Parker Veterans Institute in Birmingham. Patterson lived with his common-law wife, Marie Davis Patterson.