(a) On May 15, 2018, there is created the “Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center” within the office of minority affairs created by Senate Joint Resolution No. 61 of the Public Acts of 1981.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 3-5-101

  • Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) The Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center shall serve as a civil rights crimes remembrance and reconciliation repository, function as an informational clearinghouse on unsolved civil rights crimes and cold cases in this state, and coordinate volunteer activities throughout the state pertinent to the mission and duties of the center.
(c) The staff of the office of minority affairs shall also serve as staff for the Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center. The duties of the center shall include:

(1)

(A) Conducting a statewide survey of civil rights crimes in Tennessee, both solved and unsolved, by utilizing available volunteer resources. In designating volunteers and volunteer coordinators to conduct the survey, the director shall utilize the services of public and private sector institutions, including, but not limited to, the various Tennessee schools of law, universities and colleges, including the historically black universities and colleges such as Lemoyne-Owen, Lane, Fisk, Meharry, and Tennessee State, as well as private sector groups such as Tennesseans for Historical Justice;
(B) The director shall have the authority to design and distribute the survey to the volunteer coordinators to ensure to the extent possible that the results will be uniform from county to county, designate volunteers and volunteer coordinators in participating geographic areas, act as a central coordinator to prevent duplicative and inconsistent results, catalogue and compile the results of the survey, and transmit the results of the survey in the report required by subdivision (c)(9);
(2) Determining if any information submitted in the survey described in subdivision (c)(1), or by any other method the director acquires information, may still be subject to possible criminal prosecution and transferring any such information to the appropriate state and local law enforcement agencies, district attorneys general, and federal United States attorneys general with jurisdiction for the locations involved;
(3) Communicating, discussing, and meeting with the department of justice as suggested by Congress in the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 to coordinate activities surrounding unsolved civil rights crimes and cold cases believed to have occurred in this state;
(4) Collecting and maintaining, within the center, pertinent information on pending conferences, workshops, public hearings, remembrance and reconciliation events, information on the ten (10) Tennessee stops on the new Civil Rights Trail, information on the activities surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King assassination, and other meetings concerning unsolved civil rights crimes and cold cases occurring in this state;
(5) Coordinating with the state archivist to determine if any material, information, report, or other document received by the Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center is of historical significance and possesses the indicia of authenticity necessary to consider its transfer to the state library and archives for permanent display and storage;
(6) Assisting the public and federal, state, and local government entities with inquiries regarding information on unsolved civil rights crimes and cold cases in this state;
(7) Initiating and participating in any reconciliation actions, meetings, ceremonies, services, and other similar activities on behalf of the state of Tennessee;
(8) Researching, seeking, and applying for any available funding or grants from the federal government or the private sector awarded for any of the purposes of the Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center; and
(9) Submitting a report by January 30, 2019, and each January 30th thereafter, to the speaker of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives, the senate judiciary committee, and the criminal justice committee of the house of representatives of the general assembly detailing the activities of the Tennessee civil rights crimes information, reconciliation, and research center since May 15, 2018.
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