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EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 55) to amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 55
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Emmett Till Antilynching Act''.
SEC. 2. LYNCHING; OTHER CONSPIRACIES.
Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(5) Lynching.--Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.
``(6) Other conspiracies.--Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, or if the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.''.
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the latest statement titled
``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
General Leave
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act is long-overdue legislation that would correct a historical injustice by finally specifying lynching as a crime under Federal law.
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.
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.
The term ``lynching'' generally refers to premeditated public acts of violence--often resulting in death--carried out by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor or to strike fear among a targeted group.
Throughout history, lynching has been employed as an extreme form of informal group social control and has often been conducted with the display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation.
This legislation is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American youth from Chicago, who was lynched in a particularly gruesome fashion while visiting an uncle in Mississippi in 1955. His murder and the antilynching movement that followed set the stage for the creation of the civil rights movement that we recognize today.
Though lynching touches all races and religions and occurs throughout the United States, it has been most common in the South and was targeted primarily at Blacks.
During the period between the Civil War and World War II, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States. These violent incidents profoundly impacted race relations and shaped the geographic, political, social, and economic conditions of African-American communities in ways that are still evident today.
The first Federal antilynching legislation was introduced in 1900, almost 120 years ago, by Congressman George Henry White, the only African-American Member of Congress at that time. Unfortunately, neither his bill nor any antilynching bills that were introduced in the decades that followed managed to pass Congress.
The Department of Justice has used other laws to prosecute some civil rights-era crimes and hate crimes that were described as lynching in public discourse, but there is no Federal law explicitly prohibiting lynching.
Today, we act to correct this historical injustice. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) for his leadership on this important issue and for his attention to history.
In memory of Emmett Till and in memory of all the victims of lynching throughout our history, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the bill before us today recalls a dark period in our Nation's history. Lynching is an especially horrible act of violence. It was and is as wrong as wrong can be.
Last century, lynchings were a common atrocity committed by the Ku Klux Klan against the Black community. From the 1880s to the 1960s, approximately 4,743 individuals were lynched in the United States, of whom 3,400 victims were African American.
The bill before us today will make lynching a hate crime under the Federal code. There should be no doubt that our Nation condemns lynching in the strongest possible terms, which is why I was surprised that the bill reported out of committee minimized the importance of the gravity of the crime of lynching. I am pleased, however, that the majority is bringing this version to the floor rather than the text reported out of committee.
The bill reported out of committee simply criminalized conspiracies to commit any type of hate crime no matter how insignificant the injury. The bill before us today criminalizes a conspiracy if death or serious bodily injury occurs.
Madam Speaker, I hope we can all stand with one voice and condemn the atrocity of lynching. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1615
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which amends title 18, section 249 of the United States Code to make lynching a hate crime under Federal law punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.
But before I go any further, let me acknowledge Congressman Bobby Rush who has been steadfast in the years that I have known him pushing day after day because Mamie Till and Emmett came from Chicago, from Illinois, going down to Mississippi, as Black children typically did, to see relatives in Mississippi, in Georgia, in Florida, in Texas, and in Alabama. He went down in 1955.
I thank Congressman Rush for his leadership and persistence. We tried to get this in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but I think we are where we want to be, a freestanding bill.
In 1989 a civil rights memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement, one of the efforts of Bryan Stevenson, to memorialize these individuals who were hanged. It honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were slain during the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till. We know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence during that era. As we were studying H.R. 40, the Reparations Commission, we determined 4,000--and most of those who were lynched were African Americans--the killers of 13 of the 40 martyrs whose names were inscribed on the memorial had not been prosecuted or convicted, and it is dedicated to those martyrs.
In 10 of the 40 deaths, defendants were either acquitted by all-White juries or served only token prison sentences. We also know there are many cases that still cry out for justice that involve hanging in particular of African Americans. These unsolved crimes represent a continuing stain on our Nation's honor and mock its commitment to equal justice under the law. The legislation before us is intended to help remove that stain once and for all.
The 40 victims selected for inclusion in the civil rights memorial fit at least one of three criteria: they were murdered because they were active in the civil rights movement; they were killed by organized hate crimes as acts of terror aimed at intimidating Black and civil rights activists; and their death, like the death of Emmett Till, helped to galvanize a movement by demonstrating the brutality faced by African Americans in the South.
That young boy aged 13 was hanged. These individuals were hanged. Several were White; 33 were Black. They were students, farmers, ministers, truck drivers, a homemaker, and a Nobel laureate. But, Madam Speaker, there are many, many other victims besides the 40 who were remembered in the memorial. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports through its research that approximately 75 other people died violently between 1952 and 1968 under circumstances suggesting that they were victims of racial violence. For most of them, the reason their names were not added to the memorial is because they were not enough; because the killings of African Americans were often covered up or not seriously investigated. There is little to doubt that many slayings were never recorded by authorities.
The crux of the matter is that lynching, even up to today, 2022, was not a Federal crime, and the heinous and evil act of lynching another human being was not a Federal crime that could be prosecuted. These are the ways that we can address this question by a Federal antilynching bill once and for all, making it a crime to lynch anyone in the United States.
So let me thank Mamie Till for being a courageous and wonderful civil rights activist driven by the heinous and horrible killing and hanging of a 13-year-old boy.
This is both mother and son in a much nicer time, and this is a mother who is expressing pain at the funeral of her child. And this, of course, is a photograph of what a 13-year-old, handsome, little boy looked like after he was beaten, lynched, dragged, and thrown in the water. This has to stop.
Now with this legislation we will finally have an antilynching legislation that makes illegal the idea of lynching.
Let me say that this idea of lynching is not an old act. 1981 was one of the most recent acts of lynching a fellow human being. So it is extremely important that we have this law that once and forever says that if it is not in the Constitution in terms of the exact language, it is tied to the Constitution, the 13th Amendment, which is the prohibition of slavery, the 14th Amendment which is due process. And I can assure our colleagues that we have not completed the thoughts of both of those amendments without having H.R. 55 which helps to ensure that justice is rendered and that lynching forever is stopped and that we realize that it is both a devastating and deadly act. But it is the ultimate indignity of taking another human being and hanging them like a piece of whatever one would like to imagine, like meat in a meat locker.
Let us stop that now. Let America stand as a place of human rights and a place of dignity.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 55.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding time to me. I am grateful that we are going to be voting today on this version of this bill. I think it is a much-improved version as opposed to the one that came out of committee. I am grateful to all those who worked hard on this to try to make this a better bill, and I am grateful for that.
I think when we reflect upon this bill and the history of our Nation--this Nation we all love and cherish--we recognize that we have to cure and acknowledge some issues and problems that we have had. And this is not the least of those for sure, but it is an important thing to recognize.
I appreciated the chairman of the Judiciary Committee mentioning George Henry White who was the first person to introduce an antilynching piece of legislation. George Henry White was from North Carolina. He was a Republican Representative. He was the only African American who was a Member of Congress at the time. After he left Congress in the early part of the last century, 1901, it would be 28 years before another African American came into these important Halls of law and legislation.
One thing that Congressman White was very bold about was to fight and stand against disenfranchisement, to fight disenfranchisement and also to fight mob violence which took an incredible amount of courage and discipline, and I appreciate that and his history.
I am hopeful that we will make this a unanimous vote. I hope that we will record that vote for our posterity and for all Americans to know and recognize that the United States House of Representatives could come together as yet we may disagree on so many things, but on this issue that we can come together unitedly.
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this, and I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).
Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Sadly, more than 6,500 Black Americans were lynched between 1865 and 1950. My home State of Texas sadly--
sadly--has the third highest number of lynchings in history. There were 468 documented deaths by lynching in Texas between 1885 and 1942. However, many historians believe that closer to 5,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans died by lynching around this time.
Few actions are crueler, more heinous, and more inhumane than someone being lynched. Yet to this day--and shamefully so--lynching does not have a Federal hate crime legislation. Since 1900 there have been more than 200 attempts to codify lynching as a Federal crime, but each attempt was unsuccessful.
Today we can correct this historical injustice. By passing this bill, we can begin the closing of this terrible and shameful chapter in America's history.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to cosponsor this bill, and I urge all my colleagues to support it here today. I am pleased to hear the other side of the aisle talk about a unanimous vote. What we need is a unanimous vote to support this bill. It is time. It is time.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter).
Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, this bill would, incredibly and tragically, for the first time make lynching a Federal hate crime in America.
Despite more than 200 attempts to pass antilynching legislation through Congress over the past 120 years, lynching has never been designated as a Federal crime.
And this isn't just a horror of the past. Unfortunately, we still see these horrible instances. This is reality still today because murders are prosecuted at the local level, this historical injustice meant that 99 percent of lynching perpetrators escaped punishment.
This bill is long overdue. Today I will be voting for Representative
Bobby Rush's antilynching bill to finally close this dark chapter of our history. We cannot bring back Emmett Till or the thousands of others whose precious lives were lost in the horrible acts of racial terror, but passing this antilynching act is a historic step forward justice and a signal that our Nation will finally reckon with this dark chapter of our history.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time, and I am prepared to close.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I would just say that I hope we do have a unanimous vote and support this good piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, with this legislation, we can right a great historical wrong by finally specifying lynching as a crime under Federal law, more than 120 years after the first antilynching bill was introduced in Congress. Although this proposal should have been law a long time ago, it is never too late to do the right thing.
The shameful era when lynchings were commonplace in this country--
particularly in the South--is thankfully over, but we have seen disturbing echoes of this gruesome practice in recent years--most recently in the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery. This legislation sends a clear message that such violent actions motivated by hatred and bigotry will not be tolerated in this country.
The Nation is in the midst of a national conversation and a national awakening on issues of race and justice. As we reckon with our past and look to the future, it is important that we place lynching where it properly belongs--in criminal code alongside other hate crimes that have caused so much pain and suffering over the years.
I want to thank Congressman Bobby Rush for his tireless efforts in bringing this legislation forward and all the other Members whose efforts have paved the way for passage of this bill today.
Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 55, the ``Emmett Till Antilynching Act,'' which amends the Title 18, Section 249 of the United States Code to make lynching a hate crime under federal law punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.
Madam Speaker, in 1989, the Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
The Memorial honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were slain during the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till.
But we know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence during that era.
In fact, at the time the Memorial was dedicated, the killers of 13 of the 40 martyrs whose names are inscribed on the Memorial had not been prosecuted or convicted.
In 10 of the 40 deaths, defendants were either acquitted by allwhite juries or served only token prison sentences.
We also know there are many cases that still cry out for justice.
These unsolved crimes represent a continuing stain on our nation's honor and mock its commitment to equal justice under law.
The legislation before us is intended to help us remove that stain once and for all.
The 40 victims selected for inclusion in the Civil Rights Memorial fit at least one of three criteria: (1) they were murdered because they were active in the civil rights movement; (2) they were killed by organized hate groups as acts of terror aimed at intimidating blacks and civil rights activists; or, (3) their deaths, like the death of Emmett Till, helped to galvanize the movement by demonstrating the brutality faced by African Americans in the South.
The 40 persons who fit the selection criteria ranged in age from 11 to 66.
Seven were white, and 33 were black.
They were students, farmers, ministers, truck drivers, a homemaker and a Nobel laureate.
But Madam Speaker, there are many, many other victims besides the 40 who are remembered on the Memorial.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that its research uncovered approximately 75 other people who died violently between 1952 and 1968 under circumstances suggesting that they were victims of racial violence.
For most of them the reason their names were not added to the Memorial is because not enough was known about the details surrounding their deaths.
Sadly, the reason so little is known about these cases is because they were not fully investigated or, in some cases, law enforcement officials were involved in the killings or subsequent cover-ups.
And because the killings of African Americans were often covered up or not seriously investigated, there is little reason to doubt that many slayings were never even recorded by the authorities.
The reason justice had not been served was the callous indifference, and often the criminal collusion, of many white law enforcement officials in the segregated South.
There simply was no justice for African Americans during the civil rights era.
The whole criminal justice system--from the police to the prosecutors, to the juries, and to the judges--was perverted by racial bigotry.
African Americans were routinely beaten, bombed and shot with impunity.
Sometimes, the killers picked their victims on a whim.
Sometimes, they targeted them for their activism.
In other cases, prominent white citizens were involved, and no consequences flowed.
Herbert Lee of Liberty, Mississippi, for example, was shot in the head by a state legislator in broad daylight in 1961.
It is, of course, fitting and proper that this legislation bears the name of Emmett Till, whose slaying in 1955 and his mother's decision to have an open casket at his funeral stirred the nation's conscience and galvanized a generation of Americans to join the fight for equality.
Sadly, hundreds of them were killed in that struggle, and many of the killers, like those of Emmett himself, were never successfully prosecuted.
Madam Speaker, over the past half century, the United States has made tremendous progress in overcoming the badges and vestiges of slavery.
But this progress has been purchased at great cost.
Examples of unsolved cases include the 1968 ``Orangeburg Massacre'' at South Carolina State University where state police shot and killed three student protesters; the 1967 shooting death of Carrie Brumfield, whose body was found on a rural Louisiana road; the 1957 murder of Willie Joe Sanford, whose body was fished out of a creek in Hawkinsville, Georgia; the 1946 killing of a black couple, including a pregnant woman, who was pulled out of a car in Monroe, Georgia, and dragged down a wagon trail before being shot in front of 200 people.
Solving cases like these is part of the great unfinished work I of America.
Madam Speaker, 53 years ago, Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson, Mississippi; justice would not be done in his case for more than twenty years.
But that day was foretold because the evening before the death of Medgar Evers, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation from the Oval Office on the state of race relations and civil rights in America.
In his historic speech to the nation President Kennedy said:
``We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.
``One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.''
H.R. 55 will help ensure that justice is received by victims of lynching and in doing so, this legislation will help this Nation fulfill its hopes and justify its boast that in America all persons live in freedom.
Madam Speaker, I strongly support this legislation and urge all Members to join me in voting for its passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 55, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion are postponed.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 36
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