[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 187 (Friday, December 7, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 396--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
HANGING OF NOOSES FOR THE PURPOSE OF INTIMIDATION SHOULD BE THOROUGHLY 
 INVESTIGATED BY FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES 
    AND THAT ANY CRIMINAL VIOLATIONS SHOULD BE VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTED

  Mr. CARDIN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 396

       Whereas, in the fall of 2007, nooses have been found 
     hanging in or near a high school in North Carolina, a Home 
     Depot store in New Jersey, a school playground in Louisiana, 
     the campus of the University of Maryland, a factory in 
     Houston, Texas, and on the door of a professor's office at 
     Columbia University;
       Whereas the Southern Poverty Law Center has recorded 
     between 40 and 50 suspected hate crimes involving nooses 
     since September 2007;
       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 symbols of 
     racism and 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 victims killed by lynching in the 
     history of the United States exceeds the number 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 Italian, Jewish, and 
     Mexican-Americans, 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 on issues of 
     race in the United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the hanging of nooses is a reprehensible act when used 
     for the purpose of intimidation and, under certain 
     circumstances, can be criminal;
       (2) the hanging of nooses for the purpose of intimidation 
     should be investigated thoroughly by Federal, State, and 
     local law enforcement; and
       (3) any criminal violations involving the hanging of nooses 
     should be vigorously prosecuted.

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