Two years after Sen. Rand Paul blocked the Emmett Till Antilynching Act (H.R. 55), the U.S. House of Representatives has officially made lynching a federal hate crime with a 422-to-3 approval vote. In the past, anti-lynching bills have been rejected over 200 times.
Introduced by Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill), the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act was inspired by the 14-year-old Chicago Black boy that was accused of whistling at Carolyn Donham, a White woman, while visiting relatives in Mississippi and subsequently kidnapped from his home and murdered in 1955.
In an act of courage, Till’s mother allowed a photograph of her abused son to be released to the press, with Jet magazine leading the way. The two White men that murdered Till were acquitted of all charges, although the men later confessed to the crime. The anti-lynching bill would make lynching punishable by law with the offender being handed a possible 30 years in prison.
Three Republicans voted against the anti-lynching bill, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). Massie tweeted his reason for voting against the anti-lynching act twice, saying that “the Constitution specifies only a handful of federal crimes, and leaves the rest to individual states to prosecute.”
“The House took an important step to advance the cause of justice by finally designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Twitter. “In again passing Rep. Bobby Rush’s Emmett Till #AntilynchingAct, we are confronting the reality of racist violence & helping to build a safer future.”
Historically, there have been nearly 5,000 documented lynchings in the U.S. between 1882 and 1968. Lynching has been suspected even as progress is made for other civil rights.Within the last couple of years, Black people have been subjected to lynchings only to have investigations rule the deaths as suicides. Names such as Malcolm Harsch of Victorville, CA, and Otis Bird of Claiborne County, Mississippi, are among the people found deceased, hanging from trees in recent years.
Lynching has evolved into cases in which Black people are not necessarily being hung on trees, but are being brutalized and killed by civilians that take authority into their own hands, hence the demise of Ahmaud Arberry and George Floyd.
“Our nation endured a shameful period during which thousands of African Americans were lynched as a means of racial subordination and enforcing white supremacy,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). “These violent incidents were largely tolerated by state and federal officials, and they represent a stain on our nation’s legacy. Today, we acknowledge this disgraceful chapter in American history, and we send a clear message that such violent actions — motivated by hatred and bigotry — will not be tolerated in this country.”
