A 'critical step toward justice': Senate passes the Emmett Till Antilynching Act

WASHINGTON — After 122 years of effort, a bill making lynching a federal hate crime is ready to be signed into law.

The Senate on Monday unanimously passed the bipartisan Emmett Till Antilynching Act to allow crimes to be prosecuted as a lynching if a victim is killed or injured as a result of a hate crime. The measure, named after the teenager whose 1955 murder helped launch the civil rights movement, will be sent to President Joe Biden.

Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J. and Tim Scott, R-S.C., introduced companion legislation in February to the bill approved by a 422-3 vote in the House on March 1.

Three Republicans, Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Chip Roy of Texas, voted against that anti-lynching bill.

Anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress as early as 1900. Before Monday, the House failed over 200 times to criminalize lynching on the federal level.

An earlier version of the bill passed in the House in 2020 but died in the Senate.

From 1877 to 1950, about 4,400 Black people were lynched in the U.S., according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that offers legal services to those who are wrongly convicted of crimes, among others. The NAACP counted about 4,700 lynchings from 1882 to 1968, and more than 70% of those killed were Black.

Both organizations noted that the numbers probably were underreported.

Booker said in a statement that he was proud to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get the historic legislation through Congress and to the president's desk.

"Although no legislation will reverse the pain and fear felt by those victims, their loved ones, and Black communities, this legislation is a necessary step America must take to heal from the racialized violence that has permeated its history," Booker said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., tweeted Tuesday that the U.S. has taken a "critical step toward justice."

"I look forward to @POTUS (Biden) signing this into law," Hoyer wrote.

Till, a 14-year-old Black teen from Chicago, was visiting family in Mississippi when he was abducted by two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. Till's badly beaten body was later found in the Tallahatchie River. Authorities found he had been shot in the head.

Reach out to Chelsey Cox on Twitter at @therealco.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Emmett Till Antilynching Act unanimously passes in the Senate