The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board was established in accordance with the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018, which won bipartisan support in Congress. The Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 8, 2019, and the Review Board's members were nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2022. The Review Board's charge is to expedite the review and release of government-held records related to civil rights cold cases of incidents occurring between 1940 and 1979. The law establishes new standards for the public disclosure of these records. The Review Board and its staff will work closely with federal agencies to accelerate the release of documents to make them more readily available to families of victims of civil rights crimes, legal organizations, journalists, scholars, and students who examine American history.