Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the dean of this institution. Anyone who has had the privilege of working with John Conyers and John Lewis have…”

“I thank the dean of this institution. Anyone who has had the privilege of working with John Conyers and John Lewis have nothing but admiration and understanding through their teachings of the lives which they lived. This important legislation is a reflection of their commitment to these families and their personal knowledge of the pain that so many families still now experience through unsolved civil rights crimes. Emmett Till was one of the most noteworthy and violent, and many of us still are able to see in our vision the picture of the open casket, of brutalized and beaten young Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy, and what he had to suffer. His mother was willing to go through what might have been considered absolute humiliation in terms of seeing her son's body open to the world; but because it was such a heinous crime, she was willing for the world to see. This legislation is enormously important because it extends, until 2027, the authority of the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute unsolved criminal civil rights cases and expands, by a decade, the time period for which the Department can reopen cases to investigate. Under current law, the cutoff date was 1970. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 remains necessary legislation intended to complete some of the Nation's most important unfinished business.…”