After more than 120 years and nearly 200 failed attempts, US makes lynching a hate crime

Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law to make lynching a federal hate crime in the US, more than 100 years after such legislation was first proposed.

Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law which makes lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history (File photo: Reuters)

New Delhi: President Joe Biden on Wednesday (March 30, 2022) signed a bill into law to make lynching a federal hate crime in the US, more than 100 years after such legislation was first proposed.

"I just signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history," Biden tweeted.

I just signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history. — President Biden (@POTUS) March 29, 2022

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is named after the Black teenager whose killing in Mississippi in 1955 had become a galvanising moment in the civil rights era.

"Over the years, several federal hate crime laws were enacted, including one I signed last year to combat COVID-19 hate crimes. But no federal law — no federal law expressly prohibited lynching. None. Until today," Biden said.

"Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone — not everyone belongs in America and not everyone is created equal; terror to systematically undermine hard — hard-fought civil rights; terror not just in the dark of the night but in broad daylight," he stated.

This afternoon, I’m signing the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. https://t.co/JonhvqASWk — President Biden (@POTUS) March 29, 2022

The new law makes it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime leads to death or serious bodily injury. The law lays out a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and fines.

Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago and had failed to pass such legislation nearly 200 times, beginning with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep George Henry White, the only Black member of Congress at the time.

(With agency inputs)