On June 13, 2026, the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, the Strickland family, and other community partners will gather to dedicate a historical marker honoring Denna and Estella Stricklan...

Newly released federal records shed light on Eleanor Rush's 1954 death in a North Carolina prison—and the uprising and reforms that followed.

Jesse Jackson will be remembered for empathy, friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr., and calling for social justice as a campus speaker.

ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke with Edward Smith, son of Tommy Lee Walker, about his father being declared innocent after 70 years and professor Margaret Burnham on what this means for justice.

The legendary DA ran a conviction machine that got results. In 1954, he persuaded a jury to send Tommy Lee Walker to the electric chair just three months after his arrest. But a new look at the case r...

Dallas County Commissioners Court posthumously proclaimed Mr. Walker’s innocence in the 1954 racially-fueled capital murder case.

Following the hourslong special session, the Dallas County Commissioners Court downtown passed a resolution that stated evidence showed “egregious violations”...

JUSTICE FOR RENEE NICOLE GOOD: A DEMAND FOR AN OFFICIAL INDEPENDENT STATE INVESTIGATION

Seven decades after a white officer killed a Black WWII veteran, Shelby County eyes an NAACP chapter.

From Lamar Smith in Mississippi to Harry and Harriette Moore in Florida, Black activists were murdered for voting rights. None saw justice.

In 1943, Black minister Edward Green was kidnapped, tortured and killed by white men in Alabama. No one was ever arrested.

How the 2017 Kimbrough scholarship program shaped one student's path to Northeastern University School of Law.

Civil Wrongs Season 6 now available, centers case of Phillip Hatley, killed in 1939.

In an effort to stop the implementation of Brown v. Board through terrorism, 16-yr-old John Earl Reese was killed in Mayflower, Texas.

Tayo Belle '10 reflects on her transformative experience as one of the first students to work with Professor Margaret Burnham, founder and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project ...

The Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project launched Version 2 of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. Here are six cases, now publicly available in the Archive, the first time that some of these ...

Raymond Wilkes first participated in the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Clinic at Southern University a decade ago. Now he’s back at Northeastern University as CRRJ’s Senior Staff Attorney.

Emmett Till was lynched on August 28, 1955. This year marks the 70th anniversary of his killing. Margaret Burnham serves on The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, responsible for their relea...

Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board released over 6,500 pages of federal records on Emmett Till’s Aug. 28, 1955, killing.

CRRJ joined a citywide memorial in Memphis honoring lives taken by the Memphis Police Department on June 21, 2025.

CRRJ hosted a first-of-its-kind, two-day conference, July 24-25, at Northeastern University's Snell Library, to unveil updates to the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, and discuss pathways to creating a...

Northeastern archivists plan to digitize several collections of Boston legend Elma Lewis’ work, chronicling Black art and joy.

As pressure mounts over the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files, Northeastern legal experts warn that victim safety is being politicized.

Seven decades after a white officer killed a Black WWII veteran, Shelby County eyes an NAACP chapter.

On April 29, 2025, Lydia Beal, CRRJ’s Research Associate, and Joy Zanghi, CRRJ’s Project Archivist, presented the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive (BNDA) at Digital Commonwealth’s 19th Annual Conference...

Alex Stein ’19, recently joined CRRJ as Staff Attorney and Program Director. Here he shares his journey with the project, researching cases of homicidal racial violence, and the legacy of police viole...

This workshop explores how to prepare students across disciplines to engage with organizational clients in ways that are culturally appropriate, trauma-informed, and grounded in community-defined need...

Margaret Burnham's book, By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners, honored at 4th annual Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Federal Reparations: Lynching and Racial Violence Project, unveiled by Civil Rights and Restorative Justice project team, at Black Reparations conference in Oakland, California.

The DOJ’s investigation found that “Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people.” But the history of racial discrimination and the use of excessive force by MPD can be traced fa...

Jordan Neely’s tragic death at the hands of a private citizen is a familiar story, one told many times in the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive in the cases of racially-motivated homicide on public conve...

A case recently released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) under the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, and initially investigated by CRRJ’s historian Dr. Jay Dris...

A case recently released by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) under the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, and initially investigated by CRRJ’s historian Dr. Jay Dris...

The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive fall 2024 cohort of undergraduate researchers showcased their semester-long investigations into historical, racially-motivated homicides, cases that are soon to be i...

About the Opportunity The Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), housed at the Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR), is the premier academic ...