Congress gave final authorization on Monday to legislation, for the first time, a bill has been passed that would make lynching a federal hate crime in the united state. the bill has been sent to President Biden to sign into law.
For many years in the making; the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is among some of the numerous bills that have been introduced over the past century; which has been focused on making the act illegal by placing a total ban on lynching in America.
The bill is named after the Black teenager, Emmet till, who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955; and his mother’s insistence on an open funeral casket to show the world the harm that had been done to her child; which became a monumental period in the fight for Civil Rights.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “After more than 200 failed attempts to outlaw lynching, Congress is finally succeeding in taking a long-overdue action bypassing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act,”
The bill would give the power to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime results in death or serious bodily injury.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bobby Rush, Doll started that, the highest sentence under the Anti-Lynching Act is 30 years.
The House approved a similar measure in 2020 with an absolute majority, but it was blocked in the Senate.
House overwhelmingly approves the Bill
The House overwhelmingly approved a proposed revised version last week, and the Senate passed the bill unanimously on Monday.
Rush said “Lynching is a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,”
He said passage of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act sends a clear and emphatic message; that the nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history; and that the full force of the United States federal government; will always be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.