[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 826 Engrossed in House (EH)]


                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                      December 5, 2007.
Whereas in the past two months, nooses have been found in a North Carolina high 
        school, a Home Depot in New Jersey, a Louisiana school playground, the 
        campus of the University of Maryland, a Columbia University professor's 
        office door and a factory in Houston, Texas;
Whereas the Southern Poverty Law Center has recorded between 40 and 50 suspected 
        hate crimes involving nooses since September;
Whereas since 2001, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed more 
        than 30 lawsuits that involve the displaying of nooses in places of 
        employment;
Whereas nooses are reviled by many Americans as racist symbols of lynchings that 
        were once all too common;
Whereas according to Tuskegee Institute, more than 4,700 people were lynched 
        between 1882 and 1959 in a campaign of terror led by the Ku Klux Klan;
Whereas the number of dead lynching victims in the United States exceeds the 
        amount of people killed in the horrible attack on Pearl Harbor (2,333 
        dead) and Hurricane Katrina (1,836 dead) combined; and
Whereas African-Americans, as well as Italians, Jews, and Mexicans, have 
        comprised the vast majority of lynching victims and only when we erase 
        the terrible symbols of the past can we finally begin to move forward: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
            (1) the hanging of nooses is a horrible act when used for the 
        purpose of intimidation and which under certain circumstances can be 
        criminal;
            (2) this conduct should be investigated thoroughly by Federal 
        authorities; and
            (3) any criminal violations should be vigorously prosecuted.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.