US lawmakers pass Emmett Till bill making lynching a federal hate crime
The act is named for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was kidnapped, beaten and lynched in Mississippi in 1955
The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act, which would declare lynching a federal hate crime, is heading to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Congress has failed to pass anti-lynching legislation over 200 times, but the bill was unanimously passed by the Senate on Monday. It’s the first legislation of its kind in over 100 years that has a chance at being signed into law.
The act is named for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was kidnapped, beaten and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.
An all white jury acquitted the two men who later confessed to killing the teenager in a magazine interview. The men beat and mutilated Till before shooting him in the head and leaving his body in the Tallahatchie River.
The young boy’s mother insistence on showing the world what had done to her child by holding an open casket funeral ended up becoming a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights era.
The bill will make it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime results in death or serious bodily injury, according to the bill.
‘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, a Democrat from New York.
The House had approved a similar measure in 2020, but it was blocked by the Senate. Last week, the House approved the revised version with an overwhelming 422 ‘yes’ votes.
‘If Emmett Till was still with us, his family might call him granddad,’ Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a tweet.
‘Tonight, after decades of delay, Congress passed the bill named for him. When President Biden signs it, lynching will become a federal hate crime. I’m thinking of our ancestors and our babies tonight.’
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