Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill Hospital, Speaking during a press conference about the Emmett Anti-Lynching Act 2020. Till, pictured right, is a 14-year-old African-American who lived in Mississippi in 1955.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP file photo
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP file photo
Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill Hospital, Speaking during a press conference about the Emmett Anti-Lynching Act 2020. Till, pictured right, is a 14-year-old African-American who lived in Mississippi in 1955.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP file photo
WASHINGTON – Congress last passed on Monday to legislation regulating the handling of federal hate crimes in the United States for the first time, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
Years in the making, the Emmett Anti-Lynching Act is among 200 bills that have been enacted over the past century that have attempted to ban lynching in the US.
It’s named for the black teenager who brutally murdered Mississippi in 1955 – and his mother’s insistence that the funeral casket be open to show the world what was done to her child – has become a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights era.
“After more than 200 failed attempts to ban secession, Congress finally succeeded in taking a long overdue action by passing Emmett’s Anti-Lyinging Act,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y said.
The bill could authorize the prosecution of a crime as a crime when conspiring to commit a hate crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury, according to the bill’s lead, Representative Bobby Rush, D-Ill. The maximum sentence under the Anti-Lyinging Act is 30 years.
The House of Representatives passed a similar measure in 2020, but it was blocked in the Senate.
Last week, the House completely passed an amended version and the Senate unanimously passed the bill late Monday.
“Lynching is the oldest and only American weapon of racial terror that has been used for decades to perpetuate the white hierarchy,” Rush said.
The congressman said the passage of Emmett’s Anti-Lyinging Act “sends a clear and emphatic message that our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history and our own the federal government of the United States will always be used against those who perpetrated this heinous act.”
