[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.
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