The Northeastern Law School has taken on the hard task of looking into lynching cold cases. In what the law school is calling the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, law students spend 11 weeks gathering as much information as they can about the victims of their assigned cases. The project began in 2007, the same year the Emmitt Till Act was signed, to initially help bring some form of peace and legal justice to families. Unfortunately, it is very hard to prosecute people for the lynching with limited or inaccurate information. The Department of Justice and the FBI have been able to investigate more than 100 cases, but have only successfully been able to prosecute one.
The project filed a civil suit against Franklin County, Mississippi after a former Klansman kidnapped, murdered and tortured two black boys who were hitchhiking. Students were able to gather evidence pointing towards the sheriff having knowledge of the plans to kill the two and his failure to investigate after the fact. The county settled with the family and the project was able to secure a large enough to push the project further. Now, the project is focused more on how the law operates and not so much on legal action. "We're not looking for a legal solution, but we are trying to understand something about how the law operates- what absence of law creates, what impunity looks like", said Rose Zoltek-Jick who serves as the program's associate director.
The work that the students are doing affects not only them but the family of the victims. The family of James Earl Reese, a 15-year-old boy who was dancing in a cafe when shot in the head by two angry white men who were upset about school integration, are now able to read about his story in the local library and can ride down the street now named after him. Families are able to learn more details surrounding the death of their loved ones, some of which is hard to swallow.
"It can work on you, emotionally. As we talk about what we see on the death certificate, how he must have suffered. How he was probably begging for his life, and actually saying that he didn't do it", said Carolyn Jordan Daniels, as she discussed the case of her own family member, Nelson Nash, who was lynched.
The project will continue to work to put together the pieces surrounding the innocent lives tragically taken. The work may be hard but the reward for bringing some level of peace and closure to the families is immeasurable.
