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“We are actively investigating candidates for the appointment of this board,” a White House official told POLITICO on Monday after asking last week why the presidential corps, which has also been supported by an appropriation of Congress, has languished for so long.
The official declined to say when appointments can be made or account for the unusual delay. Candidates for the board have been nominated, as recommended by law, by the American Bar Association and various historical associations since July 2019.
But despite the holdup and fleeting possibility of locating new facts after so many years, there is still hope that the effort may generate new clues and shed new light on a dark chapter in America’s racial history at a time when there is a national judgment on race and equality.
“They could find something that I didn’t find, or the FBI in 1960 didn’t find, or the Alabama State Police didn’t find,” said Cynthia Deitle, who previously headed the civil rights unit at the FBI.
And even if the perpetrators can no longer be brought to justice, the meeting is considered a crucial tool to provide victims’ families with more answers.
“The family is owed the truth about what we did or did not do,” said Deitle, who is now director of civil rights reform at the Matthew Shepard Foundation. “Especially in cases where he was a law enforcement officer responsible for the cover-up or the murder itself.”
The five-member board, designated as “an independent agency of impartial private citizens,” will be housed in the National Archives and Records Administration.
It was proposed by a bipartisan block of lawmakers, including Senators Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
Jones in particular has expressed frustration that “no board members have been appointed and no work has been done to fulfill the purposes of the law,” as he wrote in a letter to Trump last month.
“I am concerned that those funds will not be used if the board is not established soon,” added Jones, who successfully prosecuted two members of the Klans police for the Birmingham church bombing that killed four black girls in 1963, almost 40 years later.
Jones, in an interview on Monday, said he believes “time is of the essence.”
“The Senate passed with unanimous consent. The president made a very nice statement when he signed it. And I don’t understand not doing it now. This must be done. I just don’t understand it.”
“It is as important as ever,” he added. “We are talking about a justice system that has disappointed people in the past. And I think these communities need to see and understand all the details of what was happening in those days. Because if we are not careful, they will commit some of the same mistakes. And I think some of those mistakes are being made even now. I think if we can open these files, as Congress intended, I think it will help the overall healing process. “
Cruz’s office, in a statement to POLITICO on Monday, also promised the senator’s continued support for the effort.
“The Cold Civil Rights Record Collection Act is intended to shed light on unsolved crimes committed against Americans seeking their rightful place in the American dream during the civil rights movement,” the statement said. – so that there is revelation, justice and closure where they have been missing for a long time.
The board drew inspiration from the Assassination Records Review Board, established by Congress in 1992 to collect and declassify all records held by intelligence and law enforcement agencies that could offer new information about the President’s assassination. John F. Kennedy.
Under the law, the board can access records of cold civil rights cases that have been identified by government agencies and also direct them to “investigate the facts” and seek “additional information, records or testimonies from individuals.”
Some documents may be retained or deleted before they are revealed to the public, as to protect the identity of informants who may still be alive.
It also has the power to “summon private persons to compel the production of documents and other relevant records.”
Effort is, by any measure, a daunting task, experts say.
“We don’t know how many cases will be affected,” said Deitle. “There has never been a complete cataloging of every racially motivated murder. There is no master list.”
However, at the Justice Department, he said there are more than 100 cases that are deemed worthy of ongoing investigation.
“There is a good story behind the success of the journalists, journalists, and teachers who really move these cases forward,” Deitle explained.
The push for the legislation started from an unlikely source: high school students in New Jersey.
The effort was part of a civic project under the tutelage of Stuart Wexler, a government teacher. His students began lobbying for such a bill in 2015 and subsequently helped secure funding to finance the meeting.
Wexler is eager to see the board get to work, but he’s also concerned with who Trump might name.
“I have two opinions on this news that the board will be named,” he said. “Normally, I would love to think that the families of the victims can get answers about what happened to their loved ones, that the whole country will examine why the police did not solve these cases in the first place.”
“But,” he added, “when someone says to me, ‘We are investigating the nominees,’ I am very concerned that a bill designed to be nonpartisan, which was introduced in both houses by Democrats but was originally defended and for The subsequent appropriation of the key Republicans, which was approved with the support of 99 percent of lawmakers in both branches, will be politicized. “
Candidates presented for the board last year include recommended individuals. by the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists and the American Bar Association, as described in the legislation.
“The American Bar Association believes in achieving justice,” said group president Judy Perry Martinez. “The ABA is proud to participate in the Cold Civil Rights Review Board, which can provide a mechanism to bring justice and truth to people who have been delaying justice and truth too long.”
According to a list shared with POLITICO by an independent investigator, the candidates sent to the White House include a mix of historians, archivists, librarians, former prosecutors, and professors and deans of law schools.
Trump does not have to take the groups’ recommendations, but under the law he is supposed to consider their advice.
“I hope that the commission [Trump] designates those who have some experience with these issues, “said Deitle, the former FBI agent.
But time is also running out. “The clock is ticking,” he said. “Witnesses are dying. Family members are dying. The spouses of the deceased are dying. They will never be given the opportunity to know the truth because we wait too long.”
Most cases “will never be tried in court,” Jones added. “But there is an element of reconciliation that goes only with knowing the facts. And that is important not only for the victims and the communities and the family, but even for those family members whose grandparents or someone was involved in the incident by the mistake side of the story. “
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
