There are nearly 100 stale cases that will immediately benefit from the bill’s provisions and hundreds more that could potentially be brought back to life. Rita Schwerner Bender, whose husband Michael was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan for registering black voters in Mississippi, points out that there have been 518 unsolved lynchings in Mississippi since 1955. As evidence has withered and witnesses have all but disappeared, many of those cases desperately require the sort of help that the so-called “Till Bill” will offer once signed into law.

The hearings this week weren’t without moments of politicking. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) asked one witness whether the bill would help solve cases of black on white violence. The answer is that it will in theory, but that in spirit—and likely in practice—it will not. That low moment was redeemed by Pence himself when, moments later, he recounted the story of his own awakening to the viciousness of that era—of attending a church in the South built by a community of devoutly religious people who had somehow justified to themselves the idea that the same church should be segregated. As he told it, he held back tears.

The bill, first conceived by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), didn’t go anywhere in the 109th Congress. But everybody—congressmen, senators, aides and observers—seems confident that this time around it will sail through.

“This bill upholds the integrity of the judicial system and ensures that those guilty of civil rights crimes will finally be held accountable,” says Caroline Frederickson, ACLU’s Washington director. “We are encouraged that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees voted in favor of the bill, and we strongly urge their colleagues to do the same when it comes to the floor.”

If they do follow suit, then stories like this one might not be so unusual in the months to come.

The hearings this week weren’t without moments of politicking. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) asked one witness whether the bill would help solve cases of black on white violence. The answer is that it will in theory, but that in spirit—and likely in practice—it will not. That low moment was redeemed by Pence himself when, moments later, he recounted the story of his own awakening to the viciousness of that era—of attending a church in the South built by a community of devoutly religious people who had somehow justified to themselves the idea that the same church should be segregated. As he told it, he held back tears.

The bill, first conceived by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), didn’t go anywhere in the 109th Congress. But everybody—congressmen, senators, aides and observers—seems confident that this time around it will sail through.

“This bill upholds the integrity of the judicial system and ensures that those guilty of civil rights crimes will finally be held accountable,” says Caroline Frederickson, ACLU’s Washington director. “We are encouraged that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees voted in favor of the bill, and we strongly urge their colleagues to do the same when it comes to the floor.”

If they do follow suit, then stories like this one might not be so unusual in the months to come.