Thomas Moore, brother of Charles Moore, who was murdered in 1964. In June 2007, a federal jury convicted a reputed Klansman of kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the case.

Judy Richardson produces “Eyes on the Prize”

Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

PHOTOS: DON WEST

Summer 2007 | News Briefs

Past and Future: Lessons from the Civil Rights Era

Lynchings, beatings and cross burnings might seem the stuff of history, but the realities of hate crimes committed more than four decades ago are the focus of a new movement seeking to draw contemporary meaning out of a violent and hate-filled past.

In April, Professor Margaret Burnham joined with colleague Charles Ogletree Jr. of Harvard Law School’s Houston Institute for Race and Justice in organizing a national conference, “Crimes of the Civil Rights Era.” More than 100 academics, activists, prosecutors and family members of those harmed or slain during the civil rights era came together at Northeastern and Harvard to assess the current movement to revisit and rectify these past injustices and consider the relation between this era and the racial inequities that continue to fester in the US.

“Scholars don’t yet fully understand the extent, nature and political consequences of the anti-civil rights violence of the mid-20^th century,” said Burnham, who directs the university’s project on Civil Rights and Restorative Justice. “This conference demonstrated that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary for a meaningful account of the phenomenon, and it paved the way for further collaboration among the historians, prosecutors, activists and legal scholars in attendance.”

Conference panels and discussions included presentations by key players in the new movement to bring relief to victims and ensure accountability. Prosecutors and investigators, lawmakers and journalists, and those who experienced the horrors of violence and injustice, all joined together to both recount their experiences and find new ways to resolve civil rights crimes of the past and move forward.

The HEAT is On

Global warming isn’t just Al Gore’s concern. Jennifer Wolfson ’07 and Jennifer Rushlow ’07 helped lead a Northeastern campus-wide effort this year, founding the Husky Energy Action Team (HEAT) to work toward clean energy policies on campus. HEAT is part of a nation-wide coalition of more than 500 schools, called the Campus Climate Challenge, working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on high school and college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. The challenge urges a generation-wide movement to stop global warming by reducing pollution from our high schools and colleges down to zero and leading society to a clean energy future. HEAT calls on Northeastern to monitor its greenhouse gas emissions and set a timeline for achieving complete climate neutrality; ensure that all new university buildings and retrofits use state-of-the-art energy efficiency measures; and obtain at least 50 percent of the university’s electricity from renewable sources by 2012. HEAT landed a major victory this year when Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun, responding to more than 5,000 student signatures, became a charter signatory to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, thereby pledging Northeastern to complete climate neutrality and several interim greenhouse gas reduction steps. HEAT is also establishing an alumni/ae chapter, with information at www.heat.neu.edu.