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Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Lynching Be a Federal Crime? (H.R. 55)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 55?

(Updated March 19, 2022)

This bill — the Emmett Till Antilynching Act — would amend the U.S. Code to specify that lynching is a heinous crime that warrants an enhanced sentence under hate crimes statutes.

Argument in favor

Lynching is a horrific crime that historically has both hate- and race-based elements. Making it a crime at the federal level and adding a hate crime enhancement would right the historic wrong of lynching and ensure it would be harshly punished in the future.

Argument opposed

It has been decades since the last lynching occurred in the U.S., and the Civil Rights Act has long-since negated the need for a federal anti-lynching law. Lynching would be punishable under other criminal laws, like murder or assault, so this bill would add a redundant crime to the criminal code.

Impact

Federal hate crime laws; people who commit lynching; and victims of lynching.

Cost of H.R. 55

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) reintroduced this bill to make lynching a federal hate crime and explained:

“The Emmett Till Antilynching Act would ensure that the full force of the United States federal government is always brought to prosecute those who commit the monstrous act of lynching. Modern-day lynchings like the murder of Ahmaud Arbery make abundantly clear that the racist hatred and terror that fueled Emmett Till’s lynching are still alive and well in America to this day. It is time for this bill to be voted on in the House. It is time for this bill to be voted on in the Senate. It is time for this bill to be signed into law by President Biden and for our nation to send a resounding message that the act of lynching is immoral and illegal; that we will finally reckon with one of the darkest chapters in our history, and that we are morally and legally committed to changing course.”
This bill has the support of 182 cosponsors, including 180 Democrats and two Republicans. In the last Congress, this bill passed the House on a 410-4 vote. The Senate also passed a version of the bill, but lawmakers failed to reach a compromise on a version that passed both chambers before the end of the 116th Congress.

Of Note: This bill is named for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old murdered by lynching in Mississippi in 1955. Lynching is the willful act of murder by a collection of people assembled with the intention of committing an act of violence upon any person. Historically, it’s been associated with racially-motivated crimes, especially in the South. From 1882 to 1968, nearly 5,000 people, over 70% of whom were African-American, were victims of lynching in the U.S. Despite the number of crimes, 99% of those responsible for lynchings escaped prosecution or punishment by state or local officials. According to a film produced by Ted Koppel, the last documented lynching in the U.S. was of Michael Donald in Mobile, AL in 1981 by two members of the KKK.
In 1918, Rep. Leonidas C. Dyer (R-MO) was the first to introduce an anti-lynching bill. His bill, intended to punish authorities that failed to prevent lynching, was designed to act as a deterrent that’d end the practice. Dyer’s bill ultimately died in the Senate after facing stiff opposition.

Media:

Summary by Eric Revell & Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / madsci)