Saturday, November 21, 2009
Bill Miller
More than 100 unsolved murders from the Civil Rights era are still under investigation by the FBI, although officials are encountering numerous obstacles to closing the cases. Since the FBI launched its Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative in 2007, agents in 17 different field offices, mostly in the South, have been working on 108 unsolved or “inadequately solved” racially-motivated killings.
In almost a third of all the cases, there is no known next of kin for the bureau to contact. The FBI has posted descriptions of the 33 cases in need of family connections, so that agents can interview relatives who might provide information about the victim.
The FBI admits it will be impossible to bring nearly half of the perpetrators to justice, due to the fact that 47% of the 108 cold cases have suspects who are now deceased.
One noteworthy case is the murder of William L. “Bill” Moore, a white postal worker and ex-Marine who was walking alone from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi carrying a sandwich board that said, “Equal Rights for All” and “Mississippi or Bust.” He was shot to death near Attalla, Alabama on April 23, 1963.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Victims' Kin in Civil-Rights Era Cases Sought (by Jerry Mitchell, Jackson Clarion Ledger)
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