-Tamara’Shanay-
Cousins!
As of Monday afternoon the House has officially passed a long overdue bill into legislation, making the inhumane act of lynching a now federal hate crime!
According to The Hill, the bill has been named in honor of the late Emmett Till; a 14 year old child that was tragically lynched in 1955.
Sources confirm that the bill was secured unanimously following a ratio of 422-3 votes. Three Republicans – Reps. Andrew Clyde, Thomas Massie, and Chip Roy have been indemnified as voting against it.
The legislation of passage has been said to come over 100 years after the bill was first introduced by then the only Black member of Congress, Rep. Gregory Henry White.
An all-white jury found the two men not guilty of Till’s murder. But the men later admitted in a magazine interview a year later that they had in fact killed Till. ( via The Hill )
Sources confirm that through under the new Bill Lynching is now considered a federal hate crime and is punishable for up to 30 years in prison.
“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,” stated House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.).
“Today, we acknowledge this disgraceful chapter in American history, and we send a clear message that such violent actions – motivated by hatred and bigotry – will not be tolerated in this country,” Nadler said.
More than 4,700 lynchings occurred in the U.S. between 1882 to 1968, according to an estimate from the NAACP. Black people made up most of the victims of lynching, since typically white perpetrators would use the attacks to terrorize them.
The highest number of lynchings were in Mississippi, where Till was beaten and shot in the head by two white men for allegedly flirting with a white woman.