President Biden will sign the Emmett Till AntiLynching Act (H.R.55) into law this afternoon. For the first time in history, the Antilynching Act will make lynching a federal hate crime. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act passed the House of Representatives on February 28 by a vote of 422-3 and passed the Senate unanimously on March 7. Rep. Bobby Rush negotiated and sponsored the bill. Rush will be in attendance at the White House signing ceremony today.
According to a recent report from the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 6500 Americans were lynched between 1865 and 1950. There have been over 200 attempts to initiate federal antilynching legislation. Under the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, any conspiracy to commit a hate crime that results in death or serious bodily injury is defined as lynching.
While the members of the Senate passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act unanimously, three Republicans, U.S. Representatives Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) voted against the bill.
“Lynching has been a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror…. today, we correct this historic and abhorrent injustice”-Rep. Bobby Rush
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act first passed the House of Representatives for the first time during the 116th Congress — in February 2020 — with overwhelming bipartisan support but was blocked in the Senate. Rep. Rush reintroduced the Emmett Till Antilynching Act on the first day of the 117th Congress and has worked closely with the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate throughout the past year to reach an agreement on the text of the legislation.
The legislation differs from the antilynching legislation passed during the 116th Congress in two primary ways:
- The maximum sentence for a perpetrator convicted under the Antilynching Act is 30 years; the previous version of the legislation set the maximum sentence at 10 years. These charges would be in addition to any other federal criminal charges the perpetrators may face.
- The legislation applies to a broader range of circumstances. Under the legislation passed last Congress, a crime could only be prosecuted as a lynching under very specific circumstances, such as if it took place while the victim was engaging in a federally protected activity.
Rush is also the lead sponsor of bipartisan legislation that would award a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley (H.R. 2252) and legislation that would direct the Postmaster General to issue a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Mamie Till-Mobley (H.R. 4581).
The event can be live-streamed here.
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