Lynching Now A Federal Hate Crime: House Passes Historic Bill, Trump Expected To Sign Into Law

The House of Representatives passed historic legislation Wednesday that would make lynching a federal hate crime.

Justin Amash, I-Mich., along with Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ted Yoho of Florida were the only lawmakers to vote against the bill.

The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was already passed by the Senate last year, with President Trump now expected to sign the bill into law. The bill was named after the 14-year-old African-American from Mississippi, who was lynched in 1955 after being accused of making physical and verbal advances towards a white woman.

House Majority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has defined lynching as "the premeditated, extrajudicial killing by a mob or group of people to instill fear."

"Today, we send a strong message that violence -- and race-based violence, in particular -- has no place in America," Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said. Rush had originally introduced the bill in January 2019.

It’s taken more than 120 years to pass a bill in the House to criminalize lynchings. According to the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), thousands of African-Americans have been lynched between 1877 and 1950.

"The lynching of African Americans was terrorism, a widely supported campaign to enforce racial subordination and segregation," it reads on EJI's website.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, documents lynchings towards the African-American community throughout history and is intended to commemorate the victims of the act.