[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 91 (Friday, July 1, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7910-S7911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. TALENT (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Alexander, Mrs. 
        Clinton, Mr. Cochran, Ms. Collins, Mr. Coleman, Mrs. Dole, Mr. 
        DeWine, Mr. Graham, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Kyl, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. 
        Nelson of Florida, Mr. Lott, Mr. Santorum, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
        Martinez, Mr. Sununu, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Smith, and Mr. McConnell):
  S. 1369. A bill to establish an Unsolved Crimes Section in the Civil 
Rights Division of the Department of Justice; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I join the Senators from Missouri and 
Connecticut in introducing the Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. I do so 
because I believe that this legislation takes the right approach when 
dealing with the wrongs of our past. It takes action. It takes positive 
steps forward to correct injustices. It recommits us to one of our 
highest ideals as Americans--that justice will not be denied.
  Specifically, the bill creates a new office within the Department of 
Justice Civil Rights Division specifically tasked to investigate ``cold 
case'' murders from the civil rights era. It will commit the resources 
of the Department of Justice to work in conjunction with State and 
local law enforcement to aggressively prosecute criminals in those 
cases.
  The Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act might well be named in honor of 
James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman--the three civil 
rights workers who were shot to death by former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar 
Ray Killen. Forty-one years later, thanks to the efforts of the 
victims' families, Mississippi State officials, and many others who 
would not let this crime go unpunished, Killen sits in solitary 
confinement in a State prison outside Jackson, Mississippi, right where 
he belongs.
  Justice will not be denied. And the Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act 
will see to it that others like Edgar Ray Killen are punished for their 
crimes. It will pour new resources into the investigations of other 
unsolved cases--like that of 14-year old Emmett Till, who was kidnapped 
and murdered in 1955.
  Recently, the Senate apologized for the failure of earlier Senators 
to enact federal antilynching legislation in the 1930s and 1940s. In 
discussing that resolution, I reminded my colleagues of how often we as 
a Nation have failed to live up to our great ideals. But usually when 
we have failed, we have recognized that failure and recommitted 
ourselves to those ideals and reached for them again. We did not simply 
acknowledge our failure and give up--we took action to correct our 
shortcomings. We abolished slavery. We granted women the right to vote. 
We desegregated our schools. Here, with this bill, we take action once 
more.
  Actions speak louder than words. If the Edgar Ray Killen conviction 
is any indication, then the action we would take by passing this bill 
would speak very loudly indeed. When Killen was convicted, the 
Nashville City Paper ran an editorial, which I will include in full 
following my remarks, that summed up just why taking action is so 
important. The editorial concluded, ``As long as Civil Rights era 
killers are still alive and free, justice has not yet been fully 
served. Hunting them down and bringing them to account for their 
actions is far and away the best apology any of us can make for their 
crimes.''
  Today, we do not merely rest on words of apology--we take action. 
When it comes to questions of civil rights that has always been what I 
have tried to do. In 1962 when I was the student newspaper editor, 
Vanderbilt University's undergraduate school was segregated. I could 
have apologized for the actions of the board of trust; instead, I 
helped integrate the school. As Governor and President of the 
University of Tennessee, instead of apologizing for my predecessors, I 
appointed the first African American Supreme Court Justice and 
university vice-presidents. Instead of apologizing for Tennessee 
legislatures that had refused to enact the Martin Luther King Holiday, 
I helped make it law. I did not think it was effective merely to 
apologize for what others had failed to do. America is a work in 
progress. If we were to apologize for every failure to reach our lofty 
goals, there would be no end to it.

[[Page S7911]]

  I believe it is better to look forward and take action rather than 
look backward and apologize for others. I believe this bill does just 
that. Passing this bill today hopefully means that tomorrow one more 
unsolved case is opened; one more criminal is brought to justice; one 
more family can find peace.
  Justice delayed is justice denied. This bill will help make sure that 
justice will be delayed no longer. And it is for that reason that I am 
proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring the Unsolved Civil Rights 
Crime Act.
  I ask unanimous consent that the article I referenced earlier be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

            [From the (Nashville) City Paper, Jun. 28, 2005]

            Punishing Men Like Killen Best Possible Apology

       For most of early June, a heated debate raged in this 
     country over whether the U.S. Senate acted properly in 
     apologizing for failing to pass a federal anti-lynching law. 
     Much of the criticism was directed at Sen. Lamar Alexander, 
     who declined to co-sponsor the resolution.
       It is hard to dispute that the federal government should 
     have acted sooner to protect the rights of all Americans 
     during the Civil Rights struggle. There was certainly no harm 
     in the Senate acknowledging its predecessors' institutional 
     failure in this matter. As Alexander and others pointed out, 
     however, an apology on behalf of long-dead third parties, 
     whatever their failures, is ultimately a gesture. This is not 
     the case with the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen in 
     Philadelphia, Miss.
       Almost 41 years to the day after three Civil Rights workers 
     were set up by law enforcement officers and brutally murdered 
     by Klansmen, a Mississippi jury convicted Killen, one of the 
     crime's organizers, of three counts of manslaughter. In doing 
     so, the state of Mississippi did what it should have done 
     long ago: It fixed personal responsibility for this hideous 
     act on one of the perpetrators, as it took responsibility for 
     seeing justice done.
       As author Robert Heinlein once observed, ``It is impossible 
     to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame . . . as blame, 
     guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human 
     beings singly and nowhere else.'' By prosecuting and 
     convicting Edgar Ray Killen, the state of Mississippi did 
     more than simply make a gesture shifting the responsibility 
     to past state leaders. As certainly as the verdict put some 
     of the responsibility for the murders on Killen, it also 
     demonstrated the acceptance by individual Mississippians of 
     the guilt and blame, not for the murders, but for the 41-year 
     wait for justice.
       The task is not yet finished. As long as Civil Rights era 
     killers are still alive and free, justice has not yet been 
     fully served. Hunting them down and bringing them to account 
     for their actions is far and away the best possible apology 
     any of us can make for their crimes.
                                 ______