2 Jefferson County Agencies Receive Cold Case Homicide Grant

JEFFERSON COUNTY, AL — Two Jefferson County agencies recently received grants to further help investigate and solve homicide cold cases involving civil rights violations.

Through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations and Training and Technical Assistance Program, the District Attorney’s Office of Jefferson County (Birmingham Division) and the Jefferson County Memorial Project have been awarded $498,933.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations Program was launched in 2020 to provide support to law enforcement and prosecutors in their investigations and prosecutions of cold case murders associated with civil rights violations occurring as far back as Dec. 31, 1979.

“The people and communities of Jefferson County are forever shaped by the crime and terror that occurred here to prevent the full equality of all people before the law. The legacy of that era, including possible unresolved crimes, deserve the full sunlight of day and a comprehensive review”, said District Attorney Danny Carr. “I’m grateful for the resources that can assist my office’s efforts to bring healing and justice in our time to the families of victims and our community that were forever harmed by the hate, terror, and violence that once lived among and around us.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Emmett Till Cold Case program complements the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Acts, which have led to the closing of 118 homicide investigations by federal and local law enforcement and prosecutor agencies across the country.

Ten of the civil rights era homicides closed through the earlier acts are from Alabama and can be found at Civil Rights Division Emmett Till Act (Cold Case Closing Memoranda).

“For most of Jefferson County’s existence, racial terror and violence pervaded our community. Lynchings, bombings, violence, and terror were the means that criminals brazenly wielded with impunity”, said Joi Brown, Executive Director of the Jefferson County Memorial Project.

“The telling of this history of violence and harm will and should make us uncomfortable. It was reprehensible and an abomination to every value that our society says it holds dear”, added Brown. “However, we still have in our community the decedents and surviving family members of victims of this violence. JCMP will care for the victims of violence, their families, and our community by ensuring that their story is told, so that our community will never forget and will never go back to being the place of hate, violence, and terror that it once was.”

The Jefferson County Memorial Project will partner with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) to provide technical and training assistance to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, as well as community-oriented truth and reconciliation conversations related to the Emmett Till Project.