Self-made civil rights activist to speak at College of Law Nov. 5

Friday, October 31, 2008, By News Staff

Jaclyn D. Grosso
(315) 443-9534

Civil rights activist Alvin Sykes Jr. will speak at the Syracuse University College of Law on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 100. Sykes was instrumental in getting the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Act passed by the U.S. Senate in September 2008. The event is sponsored by the Cold Case Justice Initiative at the College of Law.

The Emmett Till Bill provides $13.5 million each year over the next 10 years to fund special efforts by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to solve acts of racial violence that occurred prior to 1969.

The bill is named after a 14-year-old boy who was tortured and murdered in 1955 in Sumner, Miss. A white woman claimed that he whistled at her.

For more information about the Cold Case Justice Initiative go to http://coldcaselaw.syr.edu/.