Axios - National Archives digitize cold cases of Black American murders

[Dennis Donovan]

Axios - National Archives digitize cold cases of Black American murders

Russell Contreras
34 mins ago



An Axios review of a new National Archives portal found just digitized unsolved cases of lynchings, racial violence and murders of Black Americans, spawning several decades.

The big picture: The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection portal is the federal agency's latest attempt to index civil rights violations and provide a subject guide, part of an aim spelled out by law to bring justice to the victims in those cases.

Why it matters: After Reconstruction, the federal government — and many states — rarely prosecuted allegations of civil rights violations and racial violence until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

-The lack of action built decades of distrust, and families seldom saw justice for victims.

-The new portal starts with victims in three cases.

They include:

-Hattie Debardelaben, a 46-year-old farmer, who was killed in 1945 by Deputy Clyde White and federal officers in Alabama during a warrantless search of her home for illegal whiskey;

-Leroy Bradwell, a 26-year-old WWII veteran who went missing in Florida in 1946 after being falsely accused of writing an obscene letter to a white woman; and

-Rev. Samuel Earl Sawyer, Sr., a 39-year-old father of five who was killed by a Georgia state trooper in 1948.

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Civil Rights Cold Case Records Portal

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R