With the 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s lynching just a week away, more than 6,500 pages of federal records have been released to the public.

The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board released the records on Till’s Aug. 28, 1955, killing, many of them never seen before.

“The release of these records is nothing short of historic,” said board co-chair Margaret Burnham. “The brutal killing of Emmett Till helped galvanize the civil rights movement, and generations of Emmett’s family members, as well as historians and the public at large, have deserved a complete picture of the federal government’s response. The story of Emmett Till and the injustices done to him is still being written, but these documents offer up some long-overdue clarity.”

Davis Houck, the founder of the Emmett T

See Full Page