Mary Sanchez: Before the BLM movement there was Emmett Till and the man who tried to bring him justice
More than 40 years before Black Lives Matter emerged as a movement, Alvin Sykes was doggedly questioning police brutality in cases famous, and not. Sykes convinced the federal government to reopen unsolved 50- year-old civil rights era murders, scores of cases in Mississippi and other southern states, solving some and providing long awaited attention for the...
by Mary Sanchez, Tribune Content Agency
Mar 26, 2021
4 minutes
More than 40 years before Black Lives Matter emerged as a movement, Alvin Sykes was doggedly questioning police brutality in cases famous, and not.
Sykes convinced the federal government to reopen unsolved 50-year-old civil rights era murders, scores of cases in Mississippi and other southern states, solving some and providing long awaited attention for the victim’s families.
He helped establish case law and a unit within the Department of Justice so that newer cases of today and crimes yet to be committed, might also be reopened in time.
That’s impact.
In many ways, the national consciousness around race and criminal justice in America is just beginning to align with where the late
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