Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Reauthorization Act

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 1510 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, in the summer of 1962, in Albany, GA, an effort was underway to desegregate the city, and a young woman named Marion King, participating in those efforts, carrying in her arms her 3-year-old daughter and 5 months pregnant at the time, was brutally beaten for demanding the desegregation of Albany, GA. That was July of 1962.

Just this week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced that the Cold Case Records Review Board, whose purpose is to investigate civil rights cold cases--the beatings, the killings and lynchings, the intimidation; cases that were never investigated and never solved, especially in the Deep South, especially in the State of Georgia during the civil rights movement--that review Board will soon release the full investigative files from the beating of Marion King in Albany, GA, in July of 1962.

There is no expiration date on justice. And Mrs. King--who was a Spelman College graduate, married to a prominent Albany civil rights organizer, Slater King--she still deserves justice, and the work of the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board is helping take a step toward justice in this case.

In 2022, Senator Cruz and I worked together to pass into law a bipartisan bill that extended the work of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, this vital work pursuing justice in cases that were swept under the rug, some of the most brutal crimes in our Nation's history targeting Black Americans in the American South in the Jim Crow era and during the civil rights movement. We passed that bill in 2022.

I am grateful for the unanimous, bipartisan support of the Senate tonight in passing the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Reauthorization Act. The Senate has just passed this bill, which Senator Cruz and I, again, have offered to continue this vital work pursuing justice in civil rights cold cases.

As divided and bitter and hateful as American politics is today, for the U.S. Senate--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--to stand together with one united voice demanding justice for the victims of these civil rights crimes is a much needed breath of fresh air.

We must continue working for justice for these victims, for these survivors, for these families--especially the families of those who were killed--and continue our work to safeguard civil and human rights in the United States.