Congress has given final approval to legislation that for the first time would make lynching a federal hate crime in the U.S. The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law
FILE - Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., speaks during a news conference about the"Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act" on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 26, 2020. Emmett Till, pictured at right, was a 14-year-old African-American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. Congress has given final approval to legislation that for the first time would make lynching a federal hate crime in the U.S.
“After more than 200 failed attempts to outlaw lynching, Congress is finally succeeding in taking a long overdue action by passing the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "Lynching is a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,” said Rush.