PHOTO | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

From 1936-38, the NAACP hung a banner outside its New York office to raise awareness of the extrajudicial killing of Black Americans. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which awaits President Joe Biden's signature, would make lynching a federal crime.

Lynching is on the verge of becoming a federal hate crime.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act awaits President Joe Biden’s signature after passing both chambers of Congress last month. The bill, named in honor of the Black boy who was murdered by white men in Mississippi in 1955, passed the Senate on March 8 and the House last month.

According to the legislation’s text, “Whoever conspires to commit any offense … shall (A) if death results from the offense, be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”
“(B) In any other case, be subjected to the same penalties as the penalties prescribed for the offense of the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.”
Specifically, the legislation makes lynching a federal hate crime, punishable by up to life in prison.

Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was visiting with relatives, was kidnapped and tortured for allegedly whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Bryant’s husband Roy and brother-in-law J.W. Milam were acquitted of murder but later admitted in a 1956 Look magazine article they killed Till. Because of constitutional protections against double jeopardy, Roy Bryant and Milam couldn’t be retried.

“By recognizing lynching as a federal hate crime, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act brings the full force of the law to bear in vindicating the rights of victims and survivors who endure the most violent form of racism,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Just as importantly, the bill recognizes our country’s history of violence against Black bodies. According to FBI data, Black people continue to be the most common victims of hate crimes.  This important legislation sends a message that those who engage in racist violence will be held accountable. That message is especially important given the continuing white supremacist violence endemic to our nation.”

Efforts to pass anti-lynching bills were defeated for more than 100 years since the first draft was sponsored in 1901 by Rep. George Henry White, a Black lawmaker from North Carolina. The House passed the Emmett Till Act on a 422-3 vote, with three lawmakers – Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) in opposition. The Senate vote passed with unanimous consent.

The Equal Justice Initiative has documented 4,084 lynchings attributed to racial terror in 12 Southern states between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950, with 1880-1940 the peak years.

“The House has sent a resounding message that our nation is finally reckoning with one of the darkest and most horrific periods of our history, and that we are morally and legally committed to changing course,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.).

Rush recalled that he was 8 years old when he saw photos of Till’s brutalized corpse in Jet magazine.

“That shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation,” Rush said.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) noted that between 1936 and 1938, a flag posted outside of the national headquarters of the NAACP read, “A man was lynched yesterday.”

“That was a solemn reminder of the reality Black Americans experienced daily during some of the darkest chapters of America’s history,” said Booker, a bill co-sponsor along with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), who opposed a similar measure in 2020. “Used by white supremacists to oppress and subjugate Black communities, lynching is a form of racialized violence that has permeated much of our nation’s past and must now be reckoned with.

“Although this bill will not undo the terror and fear of the past, it’s a necessary step that our nation must take to move forward.”

Stacy M. Brown of the National Newspaper Publishers Association contributed to this article.

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