Not every victory is a big one, but Black Lives Matter advocates are celebrating the recent expansion of the Emmett Till Act, a law that gives federal officials the ability to re-investigate closed civil rights cases that resulted in death.

This week, President Barack Obama signed the Emmett Till Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016, which expands on a 2007 law allowing the Department of Justice and FBI the right to re-open and re-investigate civil right violations that resulted in death.

Specifically, the bill allows the DOJ and FBI to reinvestigate cases up to Dec 31, 1979. They must also report back to Congress annually, stating how many cases were referred and how many of these resulted in federal charges. From there, they must also state whether the DOJ declined to prosecute or participate in an investigation and, finally, any overall activity on any reopened civil rights violation case that resulted in death.

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The bill is named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched for allegedly flirting with a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi. Days after the incident, he was beaten, mutilated, shot and tossed into the nearby river. His murderers were acquitted in 1995, despite admitting in an interview years later they’d murdered him.

48.3 percent of hate crimes committed in 2014 were because of the offenders’ bias against race. -FBI, 2014

Historically, the deaths of black Americans have been unfairly swept under a rug or even celebrated. As a result, very rarely did victims receive justice. Murderers were often acquitted or served nominal sentences. However, after the trial of Till’s murderers there was a resurgence in righting past wrongs and this bill enforced at the federal level the power for officials to step in and analyze state cases and prosecutions to ensure this time they’re fair.

“I remember when Till’s murders were acquitted,” said Gary Melnose, a local activist who worked in Mississippi during the trial. “There was this sense, deep inside that maybe things could get better.. And then of course they were acquitted. But that was also 20 years ago. This law could make a difference, especially now that it goes up to 1980. We made a lot of mistakes in the past. Ideally, we can make up for them and then never repeat them.”

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