President Biden signed a law making lynching a federal hate crime on Tuesday after Congress failed to enact anti-lynching legislation more than 200 times. Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both spoke at the signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
I just signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 29, 2022
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old who was beaten and died in Mississippi in 1955, is commemorated by the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. The law was unanimously passed by the Senate on March 7, one month after it was enacted by the House.
It was a North Carolina representative named George Henry White, the son of a slave and the only black politician in Congress at the time, who first presented legislation to make lynching a criminal more than a century ago, in 1900, Biden explained. “Hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass in the past. Several federal hate crime statutes have been established over the years, including one I signed last year to prevent COVID-19 hate crimes. However, no federal law — no federal statute — expressly forbade lynching. Until now, that is.”
Between 1882 and 1968, according to Tuskegee University, more than 4,700 persons were lynched, the bulk of whom were Black Americans. Lynchings were especially widespread in racially divided areas of the South.
Mr. Biden, who opened his presidential campaign by discussing the fatal 2017 white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, said that making lynching a federal crime isn’t simply about America’s history.
- Misleading Video Alters Prime Minister Shehbaz’s Speech Targeting Political Rival, Not His Party - 21/04/2024
- ATC Grants Three-Day Remand for Suspects in Ichhra Bazaar Harassment Case - 19/03/2024
- Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh Lead World in Severe Smog Crisis, Exceeding WHO Guidelines - 19/03/2024
