[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 41 (Monday, March 2, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E239-E240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                  HON. HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 26, 2020

  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, one hundred years ago, 
Missouri Republican Congressman Leonidas Deyer introduced an anti-
lynching bill in the 65th Congress. The legislation eventually died in 
the Senate in 1918. In the one hundred years since that failure, there 
have been over two hundred unsuccessful attempts to prohibit lynching 
in the

[[Page E240]]

United States through legislative redress. Those one hundred years saw 
the advent of the civil rights movement and Jim Crow, but it also was 
marred by undercurrents of racism and random acts of violence.
  As the Representative of the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia 
and a senior member of the House Judiciary, this legislation, which 
would finally make the act of lynching a hate crime, has particular 
significance to me and my constituents. Our district is home to Stone 
Mountain which is commonly known as the symbolic birthplace of the 
modem Klu Klux Klan. Since 1915, the Klu Klux Klan has met at Stone 
Mountain and as recently as 2018, white supremacist organizations 
sought to rally atop the mountain with Confederate flags. Over the 
years, many civil rights battles have been won in our district, but our 
fight for equality is not over.
  Lynching is a vestige of slavery and America's views on race and 
racism in this country. It has long been a practice used to keep 
enslaved Africans, and later, free Black men, women, and children 
living in terror. The practice has irrevocably damaged the American 
psyche. It is time to formally distance our country from these heinous 
acts and raise the crime to the consideration of a hate crime. In doing 
so, we declare to ourselves and the rest of the world that we will not 
tolerate bigotry in the United States and that those who would harm 
others because of the color of their skin will be prosecuted to the 
fullest extent of the law.
  Rep. Bobby Rush's Emmett Till Antilynching Act will finally be 
considered by the Full House. This bill honors Emmett Till, a 14-year-
old African American boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955. As we progress 
towards a more perfect union by recognizing lynching for what it is--a 
hate crime, we reflect on how this heinous practice has been wielded to 
oppress minorities throughout American history.
  My good friend Rep. Rush brings this legislation to the House floor 
citing the riots that took place in Charlottesville in 2017 and during 
the deadly El Paso shooting in 2019. The lynching of black and brown 
people in our country is truly, as he says, prevalent in American 
society today. Its face may have evolved, but the crime of hate that it 
represents is indisputable.
  The Senate passed a resolution in 2005 that apologized to victims of 
lynching crimes; however, lynching still is not classified as a federal 
hate crime. We honor, today, the herculean efforts from American heroes 
like my fellow Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who worked to mobilize 
our country against these violent acts.
  We have waited too long to raise this crime to the level of a federal 
hate crime, and we cannot delay any longer. Only when we reckon with 
our troubled history and the epidemic of hate crimes against black and 
brown people in the United States can we begin to construct a more 
perfect union.
  I'm proud to lend my support and my vote to this important 
legislation.

                          ____________________