Closing civil rights era cold cases could haunt black America

8:29 AM on 11/28/2011

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In this Oct. 31, 2011 photo, Juanita Evangeline Moore reads a letter from the FBI in her living room Bowie, Md., stating that they closed an investigation into the murder of her father, Harry A. Moore, the NAACP's first statewide executive secretary in Florida, and mother Harriette, who died after a bomb went off beneath their bedroom floor on Christmas Day 1951. No one was charged for the crime. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In some cases, the suspects are long gone, six feet under in the grave. Or the killers confessed to the murder after they were acquitted years ago, unable to be retried under double jeopardy.

And we know what those acquittals were like in the 1950s and 1960s, in the deep Jim Crow South. It probably went something like this: A white man, a racist and die hard segregationist, filled with hate, murdered a black person, whether by shooting, burning, hanging, castration or some other violent means. There is a mountain of evidence against the defendant, and the police may have even participated.

He stands trial before a jury of his peers -- an all-white jury, maybe even all-white male -- and a judge who has known the defendant and his family for years. The jury deliberates for a half hour or so, and comes back with a verdict of not guilty. The defendant kisses his wife or girlfriend to celebrate, drinks a soda pop, and goes home. End of story. Welcome to Jim Crow.

In 2006 the U.S. Justice Department launched the Cold Case Initiative, in which it reviewed 124 civil rights era deaths involving 111 incidents. "In addition to seeking justice for victims, we were also seeking closure for victims' families, many of whom had no idea what had really happened to their loved ones," the FBI says on its website.

The following year, Congress passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which allocated millions of dollars "to ensure timely and thorough investigations in the cases involved." The law was named after Till, the 14-year old boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a white woman.

His murder was a flashpoint in the struggle for civil rights, as the open casket with his mutilated body galvanized black people in the fight for equality. The confessed killers died long ago, and after a grand jury failed to indict others who may have played a role, the case was closed in 2007.

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Sometimes, justice delayed is justice denied. And this certainly applies to many of the racially motivated murders -- lynchings actually -- committed against during the civil rights era that have remained unsolved and unprosecuted, with the perpetrators never brought to justice. In some cases, the suspects are long gone, six feet under in the grave. Or the killers confessed to the murder after they were acquitted years ago, unable to be retried under double jeopardy. And we know what those acquittals were like in the 1950s and 1960s, in the deep Jim Crow South. It probably went something like this: A white man, a racist and die hard segregationist, filled with hate, murdered a black person, whether by shooting, burning, hanging, castration or some other violent means. There is a mountain of evidence against the defendant, and the police may have even participated. He stands trial before a jury of his peers -- an all-white jury, maybe even all-white male -- and a judge who has known the defendant and his family for years. The jury deliberates for a half hour or so, and comes back with a verdict of not guilty. The defendant kisses his wife or girlfriend to celebrate, drinks a soda pop, and goes home. End of story. Welcome to Jim Crow. In 2006 the U.S. Justice Department launched the "Cold Case Initiative":http://www.thegrio.com/black-history/fbi-says-end-near-in-civil-rights-era-prosecutions.php, in which it reviewed "124 civil rights era deaths":http://www.thegrio.com/black-history/1965-shooting-shows-pitfalls-of-closing-old-cases.php involving 111 incidents. "In addition to seeking justice for victims, we were also seeking closure for victims' families, many of whom had no idea what had really happened to their loved ones," "the FBI":http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/march/coldcase_030210 says on its website. The following year, Congress passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which allocated millions of dollars "to ensure timely and thorough investigations in the cases involved." The law was named after Till, the 14-year old boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a white woman. His murder was a flashpoint in the struggle for civil rights, as the open casket with his mutilated body galvanized black people in the fight for equality. The confessed killers died long ago, and after a grand jury failed to indict others who may have played a role, the case was closed in 2007.