President Biden signs anti-lynching legislation named after Emmett Till
CHICAGO (CBS) -- President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed legislation making lynching a federal hate crime.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is named after the Chicago teen whose lynching in Money, Mississippi in 1955 helped spark the Civil Rights movement.
For the first time, lynching will be designated as a federal hate crime under the legislation named after Till.
After signing the legislation at the White House, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, who co-sponsored similar legislation when she was a U.S. Senator, Biden said research has shown, between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,400 Black people were murdered by lynching in the U.S.
"That's a lot of folks, man, and a lot of silence for a long time. Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone belongs in America, not everyone is created equal. Terror to systematically undermine hard-fought civil rights. Terror, not just in the middle of the night, but in broad daylight," Biden said.
Under the bill, a crime could be prosecuted as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime results in death of serious bodily injury, according to U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush's office. The maximum sentence for someone convicted under the Antilynching Act would be 30 years in prison.
"This is a historic day and a day of enormous consequence for our nation. After more than 100 years and 200 attempts, lynching is finally a federal crime in America. When I think of what this means - that we can finally provide justice for the victims of this heinous act; that we will be able to reckon with our nation's legacy of lynching; and that we will, once and for all, send a strong message that we will not stand for these abhorrent crimes - I am elated," said Rush, who sponsored the legislation Biden signed on Tuesday.
"The enactment of my bill means that the full weight and power of the United States government can be brought to bear against those who commit this vicious crime. We will no longer face the question of if a perpetrator of lynching will be brought to justice - with the President's signature today, we have eliminated that possibility moving forward."
The House passed the legislation by a vote of 422-3 on Feb. 28, and the Senate passed the bill unanimously on March 7.
The bill also passed the U.S. House during the 116th Congress in February 2020, but was blocked in the Senate.
