Civil rights activist Alvin Sykes Jr. will speak at the Syracuse University College of
Law on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 100. Sykes was instrumental in
getting the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Act passed by the U.S. Senate in
September 2008. The event is sponsored by the Cold Case Justice Initiative at the
College of Law.
The Emmett Till Bill provides $13.5 million each year over the next 10 years to fund
special efforts by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to solve acts of racial
violence that occurred prior to 1969.
The bill is named after a 14-year-old boy who was tortured and murdered in 1955 in
Sumner, Miss. A white woman claimed that he whistled at her.
For more information about the Cold Case Justice Initiative go to
http://coldcaselaw.syr.edu/.
