On Monday, the House passed legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime, according to The Hill. Now, it must be approved by the Senate.
Named after Emmett Till, 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago who was lynched in 1955 while visiting MS., the Bill received a 422-3 vote. Introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, the hate crime would be punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
“I was eight years old when my mother put the photograph of Emmett Till’s brutalized body that ran in Jet magazine on our living room coffee table, pointed to it, and said, ‘this is why I brought my boys out of Albany, Georgia,’” Rush said. “That photograph shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation,” according to Washington Post.
He also stated, “But modern-day lynchings like the murder of Ahmaud Arbery make abundantly clear that the racist hatred and terror that fueled the lynching of Emmett Till lynching are far too prevalent in America to this day.”
Though the bill received an almost unanimous decision, “three Republicans Reps. Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Chip Roy (Texas)” voted against it.
“Our nation endured a shameful period during which thousands of African Americans were lynched as a means of racial subordination and enforcing white supremacy. These violent incidents were largely tolerated by state and federal officials, and they represent a stain on our nation’s legacy,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the Senate to “take immediate action and send this bill to the President’s desk.”
This comes after the House previously passed the bill in 2020, but it was objected by Sen. Rand Paul,Washington Post reports.
According to The Hill, 120 years ago, then-Rep. George Henry White, the only Black man of Congress at the time, attempted to pass a similar Bill.
Over 4,700 people were lynched in the US between between1882 to1968 with Black people making up the majority. As history has taught us, lynching was used as a method to terrorize Black people. MS had the greatest number of lynchings.
Roomies, what do you think of this.
