President Joe Biden has approved legislation making lynching a federal hate crime. After more than a century and 200 failed attempts by US lawmakers to pass anti-lynching legislation, the anti-lynching bill was finally passed.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is the name of the law. It goes after a black teenager. His lynching in Mississippi in 1955 sparked the civil rights movement.
Lynching perpetrators face up to 30 years in prison if they kill or injure someone due to a hate crime.
Mr. Biden said: “Thank you for never giving up, never ever giving up.
“Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone, not everyone, belongs in America, not everyone is created equal.”
He added: “Racial hate isn’t an old problem – it’s a persistent problem. Hate never goes away. It only hides.”
The bill was passed by the Senate unanimously earlier this month. Last month, the House overwhelmingly approved the bill. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Chip Roy of Texas, and Andrew Clyde of Georgia were the three Republicans who voted no. They said that lynching people was already a hate crime in the United States.
Lynching is the act of a mob killing, someone, without due process or the rule of law. Thousands of people, mostly African Americans, were lynched by white mobs across the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was frequently by hanging or also by torture.
According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 4,400 African Americans were lynched between 1877 and 1950. Those who took part in lynchings were also frequently praised and acted without consequence.
