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Legislation Named After Slain Black Teenager Moving Through Congress

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Sixty-one years after the murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was killed in Mississippi, legislation named after Till is moving through Congress, according to The Clarion-Ledger, a newspaper based in Jackson.

CBN News Anchor/Reporter Efrem Graham interviewed Emmett Till's cousin, Simeon Wright, about forgiving racial injustice. Watch the powerful report above.

The 14-year-old was abducted and murdered Aug. 28, 1955 reportedly for whistling at a white woman in the segregated South. Those responsible were never convicted. 

Congress passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Crimes Act in 2008, which allows the FBI to look into cold cases involving murders from the Civil Rights era before 1970.

A new version of the bill has been reauthorized by the Senate. The release of more information on the killings is a part of the new broadened bill.

The House has not acted on the measure.

In a statement, the cousin of Emmett Till, Airickca Gordon-Taylor, said, "Mamie Till Mobley would be humbly proud that her son's memory is continued so honorably. My family shares a membership within a community that lives with memories that never turn cold and our legacies of pain have no sunset."

"That's why I am extremely pleased that two of the major provisions of the Till Bill 2 will eliminate the 10-year sunset provision for the existence of the original law and lift the 1969 time limit on cases under consideration and extend it indefinitely into the future," she continued.

Civil rights activist, Alvin Sykes, said the measure would help change "the poison coming out of Till's murder … into the medicine of justice for countless victims of racially motivated murders," according to The Clarion-Ledger

If the reauthorized bill becomes law, it requires a complete accounting of all victims and more information being released through the Freedom of Information Act, following the closing of cases. 

That would give family members and others the opportunity to look into the killings more closely, the newspaper reported.

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