Below are some of the fields, with examples, that you can search by in the search field.
- Date of incident (e.g., “October 5 1962”, “5 October,” “1962”)
- State (e.g., “AL,” “Alabama”)
- Location (e.g., “Jefferson County,” “Jefferson,” “Birmingham”)
- Type of violation (e.g., “Murder”)
- Victim Name (e.g. “Smith,” “John Smith,” “John Henry”)
- Incident identifier (e.g., “CRCCC-001”)
- FBI or DOJ case number (e.g., “123-45-678, ”123”)
- Race (e.g. “Black”, “White”)
You can input multiple fields at once such as name and date or country and case number (e.g., Henry 1962 or Jefferson 001).
- You can use the Filters in the Advanced Search to refine your search results.
- Use quotation marks (“ “) to return the exact information you are searching for.
- Note: Partial words will not return results (i.e., one would need to type in “Henry,” not “Hen”) to see relevant cases.
- Use the minus sign ( - ) to exclude undesired results. Note that you will need to have the minus sign appear outside of quotation marks
- Correct: -"CRCCC-001" or -CRCCC-001
- Incorrect: “-CRCCC-001”
You can use the filters Incident Date From and Incident Date To to provide all cases from a specific timeframe.
For further assistance, please email ColdCaseRecordsCollection@nara.gov
These records, all part of Record Group 612, are digitized copies of records that were identified as responsive to requests from the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act Review Board. These are digital copies of records from various agencies that were already in the custody of the National Archives and copies of records that are still in the custody of the originating agencies. Records creators include, but are not limited to, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Courts. Original records, when scheduled as permanent, will be transferred as part of the original records series.
It is important to note that the records that are included in the collection represent an important selection, but not all, case files related to crimes related to Civil Rights or to cold cases. If you do not see the information that you are looking for here, we encourage you to check the records of the originating agencies in the National Archives Catalog.
The Act covers events that occurred during the period beginning on January 1, 1940 and ending on December 31, 1979.
No. This site provides access to the records digitized and reviewed as prioritized by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act Board, with input from stakeholder agencies.
Some records may not have tags or detailed data such as age, gender, type of assault, race, etc., and will not show up in the search results if that filter is chosen. We recommend that if you are not seeing the expected search results, try removing filters and redoing the search.
The Act requires that records regularly be reviewed to determine whether the passage of time has rendered additional information releasable. All case files can be requested through the National Archives at ColdCaseRecordsCollection@nara.gov.
Additional Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation case files are available at the National Archives. The National Archives Catalog can be searched here. You can also ask your question on History Hub or contact the National Archives at inquire@nara.gov with your inquiry.