Government Unseals Chilling Civil Rights Cold Case Secrets
Published Date: 5/27/2025
Notice
Summary
The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board reviewed 418 pages of records about three cold cases and decided which parts can be shared with the public. They approved some delays but will release hundreds of pages by May 2025, making important civil rights history more accessible. This update affects anyone interested in these cases and follows a law requiring quick public notice.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Hundreds of cold‑case pages released
The Review Board decided that 354 pages in full and 64 pages in part from a 418‑page records set will be publicly disclosed in the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection. Those determinations were made at meetings on May 9, 2025 and May 16, 2025.
Large number of postponements proposed
NARA, the Department of Justice, and the FBI proposed 559 postponements for records related to two of the incidents under review, which could limit public access to those records. The Review Board approved 161 postponements and portions of 33 additional postponements at its May 2025 meetings.
FBI withdrew 44 postponement proposals
The FBI withdrew 44 of the postponements it had originally proposed for the records. Those withdrawals reduce the number of withheld items and increase the amount of material potentially available to the public.
No postponements proposed for incident 2024-003-066
For incident identifier 2024-003-066, the agencies did not propose any postponements of disclosure, indicating those records were not recommended for withholding. This was noted in the Review Board's May 2025 meetings.
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