[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 29 (Thursday, February 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1345-S1347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF LYNCHING ACT OF 2019

  Ms. HARRIS. James Baldwin once said:

       Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing 
     can be changed until it is faced.

  That is why we are here again today, to face the history of lynching 
in this country. From 1882 to 1986, the U.S. Congress failed to pass 
anti-lynching legislation when it had the opportunity more than 200 
times.
  We have an opportunity, once again, to right this wrong and face the 
ugly history of lynching in America. Let's recall this stain on 
America's history. Lynching is an act of terror. It is murder.
  These were summary executions. Victims of lynching were dragged out 
of their homes. They had ropes wrapped around their necks. They were 
hanged on trees. In many cases, they were castrated and burned as 
crowds of people watched and applauded. The premise underlying all of 
these acts was that Black people were not full human beings.
  According to the Equal Justice Initiative, lynching was used as an 
instrument of terror and intimidation 4,084 times during the late 19th 
and 20th centuries.
  In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy, was lynched 
in

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Mississippi after being accused of offending a woman in her family's 
grocery store. When Emmett Till's mother held open her son's casket at 
his funeral, the image of his body became one of the starkest examples 
of racial violence in America.
  These lynchings, I think no one can deny, were acts of violence. They 
were needless, horrendous acts of violence, and they were motivated by 
racism. Lynchings were crimes that were committed against innocent 
Americans. These crimes, for the most part, did not go without 
consequence. They rarely were followed by an arrest or the charging of 
a crime or the prosecution of a crime or the punishment for the crime. 
Of course, the victims of these acts and their families never received 
justice in our courts of law or in their community.
  This is an uncomfortable history to think of, to talk about, and 
understandably makes many people uncomfortable because of the violence 
we are describing, because it is part of America's history, because it 
is something we have never truly acknowledged and recognized, in terms 
of the crime it was, the crime it is, and how we, through our laws, 
must recognize the seriousness of it.
  Today we have that opportunity, and we must recognize the context in 
which we discuss it today. Just in the last month, we have had 
difficult and high-profile conversations about slavery and blackface, 
issues that are claimed to be part of a bygone era. However, it is 
clear that in many ways our past is our present.
  Lynching is not a relic of the past. In 2011, three men in Brandon, 
MS, murdered an African-American man, James Craig Anderson. They robbed 
him, beat him, and ran him over with a truck. That is modern-day 
lynching.
  Let's be clear. No one should have to fear for their life because of 
their race, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation. We must 
confront hate directly.
  In December of 2018, our Senate colleagues, I am proud to say, voted 
unanimously, in a bipartisan way, to pass the Justice for Victims of 
Lynching Act, which I proudly introduced with Senators Booker and 
Scott. After 100 years and more than 200 failed attempts in the U.S. 
Congress, the U.S. Senate finally spoke the truth about lynching.
  Today I have reintroduced the bill and will ask the Senate to pass it 
again. The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act is a historic piece of 
legislation that would make lynching a Federal crime for the first time 
in American history. With this bill, we finally have a chance to speak 
the truth about our past and make clear that these hateful acts should 
never happen again and, God forbid, they do, we are making clear there 
will be swift, serious, and severe consequences.
  We can now finally offer some long overdue justice and recognition to 
the victims of lynching and their families. As Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., said: ``The time is always right to do what is right.''
  I now yield the floor to my friend and colleague, the great Senator 
from the great State of New Jersey, Cory Booker.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Thank you.
  Mr. President, I thank Senator Harris for her partnership and 
leadership on this bill. I also thank my colleague and my friend, Tim 
Scott from South Carolina, for his leadership and partnership on this 
legislation.
  As Senator Harris just said, this is not the first time we have come 
down to the floor of the U.S. Senate to implore this body to recognize 
lynching for what it is--bias-related terror. It is not the first time 
we have come down to this body to try to right the wrongs of history. 
After numerous attempts--dozens and dozens--during the height of 
lynchings in the United States, this body failed to act. This body did 
not stand up to protect American citizens and condemn the horrors of 
lynching.
  In December of last year, as Senator Harris and I were standing here, 
this body actually made a historic decision. It was a profound moment, 
an emotional moment. They made the decision to pass the Justice for 
Victims of Lynching Act by unanimous consent--no opposition.
  After a long, painful, and shameful history of this body, the U.S. 
Senate finally voted unanimously to make lynching a Federal crime. 
Unfortunately, the bill was not taken up in the House before the end of 
the last Congress. So we are here today with the hope and expectation 
that for the second time this body will make history by passing Federal 
anti-lynching legislation and that, for the first time in history, this 
bill will actually become the law of the land.
  Senator Harris referenced the Equal Justice Initiative, which 
documented over 4,000 cases of racially motivated lynchings between 
1877 and well into the 20th century. Lynchings were used to terrorize, 
marginalize, and oppress Black communities, to kill human beings in 
order to sow deeper fear, inequality, and injustice for generations.
  The use of lynching to inflict racial terror is ugly, disturbing. It 
is a tragic part of our history, but we know its legacy does not just 
live in our history books. Less than 2 weeks ago, an actor and activist 
was brutally attacked in Chicago by two men yelling racial and 
homophobic epithets.
  Lynching is not a relic of the past. We are seeing in the present 
pernicious evil, and we still have yet to confront this in this body. 
Bias-motivated acts of violence and intimidation in America are 
actually on the rise. Hate crimes are on the rise for the third year in 
a row. Hate crimes against Black Americans are on the rise. Hate crimes 
against Jewish Americans are on the rise. Hate crimes against LGBTQ 
Americans and Muslim Americans are on the rise. This is unacceptable. 
Justice for the victims of lynching has been too long denied, and as we 
look forward we must collectively in this body make a strong, 
unequivocal statement.
  The last time Senator Harris and I came to the floor with this 
request, I read from an excerpt of a speech given by Congressman George 
Henry White, the first Member of Congress to introduce an anti-lynching 
bill more than a century ago and the last Black Member of Congress to 
serve for decades following Reconstruction.
  In 1901, in the last speech he ever gave on the floor, the last 
speech of a Black Congressman for decades, he said about the terror of 
lynching: ``This evil peculiar to America, yes, to the United States, 
must be met somehow, some day.''
  For too long in this body, in the U.S. Congress, we have relied on 
the inevitability of ``some day'' when it comes to addressing this 
profound injustice. For too long we have failed--failed--to ensure 
justice for the victims of lynching, and failed to make clear that in 
the United States of America, in this great country, lynching is and 
always has been not just a Federal crime but a moral failure.
  We have the opportunity right now, again, to make history in this 
moment. We have the opportunity right now to recognize the wrongs of 
both our history and our recent past, to honor the memories of those so 
brutally murdered, and to leave a legacy that future generations can 
look back on. We will know, after some 200 attempts in this body in 
more than 100 years, that on this day, this moment in American 
history--notably Valentine's Day; as one leader once said, ``Never 
forget that justice is what love looks like in public''--that on this 
day, we can right this wrong.
  I would like to recognize the Senator from California.
  Ms. HARRIS. Thank you, Senator Booker. Happy Valentine's Day to you.
  Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 488, 
introduced earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 488) to amend title 18, United States Code, to 
     specify lynching as a deprivation of civil rights, and for 
     other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Ms. HARRIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
considered read a third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read 
the third time.
  Ms. HARRIS. I know of no further debate on the bill.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
  Hearing none, the bill having been read the third time, the question 
is, Shall the bill pass?
  The bill (S. 488) was passed as follows:

                                 S. 488

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Justice for Victims of 
     Lynching Act of 2019''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:
       (1) The crime of lynching succeeded slavery as the ultimate 
     expression of racism in the United States following 
     Reconstruction.
       (2) Lynching was a widely acknowledged practice in the 
     United States until the middle of the 20th century.
       (3) Lynching was a crime that occurred throughout the 
     United States, with documented incidents in all but 4 States.
       (4) At least 4,742 people, predominantly African Americans, 
     were reported lynched in the United States between 1882 and 
     1968.
       (5) Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators of lynching 
     escaped from punishment by State or local officials.
       (6) Lynching prompted African Americans to form the 
     National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 
     (referred to in this section as the ``NAACP'') and prompted 
     members of B'nai B'rith to found the Anti-Defamation League.
       (7) Mr. Walter White, as a member of the NAACP and later as 
     the executive secretary of the NAACP from 1931 to 1955, 
     meticulously investigated lynchings in the United States and 
     worked tirelessly to end segregation and racialized terror.
       (8) Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in 
     Congress during the first half of the 20th century.
       (9) Between 1890 and 1952, 7 Presidents petitioned Congress 
     to end lynching.
       (10) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of Representatives 
     passed 3 strong anti-lynching measures.
       (11) Protection against lynching was the minimum and most 
     basic of Federal responsibilities, and the Senate considered 
     but failed to enact anti-lynching legislation despite 
     repeated requests by civil rights groups, Presidents, and the 
     House of Representatives to do so.
       (12) The publication of ``Without Sanctuary: Lynching 
     Photography in America'' helped bring greater awareness and 
     proper recognition of the victims of lynching.
       (13) Only by coming to terms with history can the United 
     States effectively champion human rights abroad.
       (14) An apology offered in the spirit of true repentance 
     moves the United States toward reconciliation and may become 
     central to a new understanding, on which improved racial 
     relations can be forged.
       (15) Having concluded that a reckoning with our own history 
     is the only way the country can effectively champion human 
     rights abroad, 90 Members of the United States Senate agreed 
     to Senate Resolution 39, 109th Congress, on June 13, 2005, to 
     apologize to the victims of lynching and the descendants of 
     those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-
     lynching legislation.
       (16) The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which 
     opened to the public in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 26, 
     2018, is the Nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy 
     of enslaved Black people, people terrorized by lynching, 
     African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim 
     Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary 
     presumptions of guilt and police violence.
       (17) Notwithstanding the Senate's apology and the 
     heightened awareness and education about the Nation's legacy 
     with lynching, it is wholly necessary and appropriate for the 
     Congress to enact legislation, after 100 years of 
     unsuccessful legislative efforts, finally to make lynching a 
     Federal crime.
       (18) Further, it is the sense of Congress that criminal 
     action by a group increases the likelihood that the criminal 
     object of that group will be successfully attained and 
     decreases the probability that the individuals involved will 
     depart from their path of criminality. Therefore, it is 
     appropriate to specify criminal penalties for the crime of 
     lynching, or any attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching.
       (19) The United States Senate agreed to unanimously Senate 
     Resolution 118, 115th Congress, on April 5, 2017, 
     ``[c]ondemning hate crime and any other form of racism, 
     religious or ethnic bias, discrimination, incitement to 
     violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United 
     States'' and taking notice specifically of Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation statistics demonstrating that ``among single-
     bias hate crime incidents in the United States, 59.2 percent 
     of victims were targeted due to racial, ethnic, or ancestral 
     bias, and among those victims, 52.2 percent were victims of 
     crimes motivated by the offenders' anti-Black or anti-African 
     American bias''.
       (20) On September 14, 2017, President Donald J. Trump 
     signed into law Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 115-
     58; 131 Stat. 1149), wherein Congress ``condemn[ed] the 
     racist violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place 
     between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, 
     Virginia'' and ``urg[ed] the President and his administration 
     to speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, 
     extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy; 
     and use all resources available to the President and the 
     President's Cabinet to address the growing prevalence of 
     those hate groups in the United States''.
       (21) Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 115-58; 131 
     Stat. 1149) specifically took notice of ``hundreds of torch-
     bearing White nationalists, White supremacists, Klansmen, and 
     neo-Nazis [who] chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-
     immigrant slogans and violently engaged with counter-
     demonstrators on and around the grounds of the University of 
     Virginia in Charlottesville'' and that these groups 
     ``reportedly are organizing similar events in other cities in 
     the United States and communities everywhere are concerned 
     about the growing and open display of hate and violence being 
     perpetrated by those groups''.
       (22) Lynching was a pernicious and pervasive tool that was 
     used to interfere with multiple aspects of life--including 
     the exercise of Federally protected rights, as enumerated in 
     section 245 of title 18, United States Code, housing rights, 
     as enumerated in section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 
     (42 U.S.C. 3631), and the free exercise of religion, as 
     enumerated in section 247 of title 18, United States Code. 
     Interference with these rights was often effectuated by 
     multiple offenders and groups, rather than isolated 
     individuals. Therefore, prohibiting conspiracies to violate 
     each of these rights recognizes the history of lynching in 
     the United States and serves to prohibit its use in the 
     future.

     SEC. 3. LYNCHING.

       (a) Offense.--Chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, 
     is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``Sec. 250. Lynching

       ``Whoever conspires with another person to violate section 
     245, 247, or 249 of this title or section 901 of the Civil 
     Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3631) shall be punished in the 
     same manner as a completed violation of such section, except 
     that if the maximum term of imprisonment for such completed 
     violation is less than 10 years, the person may be imprisoned 
     for not more than 10 years.''.
       (b) Table of Sections Amendment.--The table of sections for 
     chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by 
     inserting after the item relating to section 249 the 
     following:

``250. Lynching.''.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Congratulations.
  Ms. HARRIS. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to all of our 
colleagues.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider 
be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action 
or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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