[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 36 (Monday, February 28, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H1166-H1169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 55) to amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to
specify lynching as a hate crime act, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 55
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 ``Emmett Till Antilynching
Act''.
SEC. 2. LYNCHING; OTHER CONSPIRACIES.
Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended
by adding at the end the following:
``(5) Lynching.--Whoever conspires to commit any offense
under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious
bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title)
results from the offense, be imprisoned for not more than 30
years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.
``(6) Other conspiracies.--Whoever conspires to commit any
offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or
serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this
title) results from the offense, or if the offense includes
kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse
or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an
attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years,
fined in accordance with this title, or both.''.
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall
be determined by reference to the latest statement titled
``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act,
submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the
Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that such
statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Nadler) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
General Leave
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act is long-overdue
legislation that would correct a historical injustice by finally
specifying lynching as a crime under Federal law.
Our Nation endured a shameful period during which thousands of
African Americans were lynched as a means of racial subordination and
enforcing white supremacy. These violent incidents were largely
tolerated by State and Federal officials, and they represent a stain on
our Nation's legacy.
Today, we acknowledge this disgraceful chapter in American history,
and we send a clear message that such violent actions motivated by
hatred and bigotry will not be tolerated in this country.
The term ``lynching'' generally refers to premeditated public acts of
violence--often resulting in death--carried out by a mob in order to
punish an alleged transgressor or to strike fear among a targeted
group.
Throughout history, lynching has been employed as an extreme form of
informal group social control and has often been conducted with the
display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation.
This legislation is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old
African-American youth from Chicago, who was lynched in a particularly
gruesome fashion while visiting an uncle in Mississippi in 1955. His
murder and the antilynching movement that followed set the stage for
the creation of the civil rights movement that we recognize today.
Though lynching touches all races and religions and occurs throughout
the United States, it has been most common in the South and was
targeted primarily at Blacks.
During the period between the Civil War and World War II, thousands
of African Americans were lynched in the United States. These violent
incidents profoundly impacted race relations and shaped the geographic,
political, social, and economic conditions of African-American
communities in ways that are still evident today.
The first Federal antilynching legislation was introduced in 1900,
almost 120 years ago, by Congressman George Henry White, the only
African-American Member of Congress at that time. Unfortunately,
neither his bill nor any antilynching bills that were introduced in the
decades that followed managed to pass Congress.
The Department of Justice has used other laws to prosecute some civil
rights-era crimes and hate crimes that were described as lynching in
public
[[Page H1167]]
discourse, but there is no Federal law explicitly prohibiting lynching.
Today, we act to correct this historical injustice. Madam Speaker, I
thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) for his leadership on this
important issue and for his attention to history.
In memory of Emmett Till and in memory of all the victims of lynching
throughout our history, I urge my colleagues to support this important
legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the bill before us today recalls a dark period in our
Nation's history. Lynching is an especially horrible act of violence.
It was and is as wrong as wrong can be.
Last century, lynchings were a common atrocity committed by the Ku
Klux Klan against the Black community. From the 1880s to the 1960s,
approximately 4,743 individuals were lynched in the United States, of
whom 3,400 victims were African American.
The bill before us today will make lynching a hate crime under the
Federal code. There should be no doubt that our Nation condemns
lynching in the strongest possible terms, which is why I was surprised
that the bill reported out of committee minimized the importance of the
gravity of the crime of lynching. I am pleased, however, that the
majority is bringing this version to the floor rather than the text
reported out of committee.
The bill reported out of committee simply criminalized conspiracies
to commit any type of hate crime no matter how insignificant the
injury. The bill before us today criminalizes a conspiracy if death or
serious bodily injury occurs.
Madam Speaker, I hope we can all stand with one voice and condemn the
atrocity of lynching. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this legislation, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1615
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 55, the Emmett Till
Antilynching Act, which amends title 18, section 249 of the United
States Code to make lynching a hate crime under Federal law punishable
by up to 30 years imprisonment.
But before I go any further, let me acknowledge Congressman Bobby
Rush who has been steadfast in the years that I have known him pushing
day after day because Mamie Till and Emmett came from Chicago, from
Illinois, going down to Mississippi, as Black children typically did,
to see relatives in Mississippi, in Georgia, in Florida, in Texas, and
in Alabama. He went down in 1955.
I thank Congressman Rush for his leadership and persistence. We tried
to get this in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but I think we
are where we want to be, a freestanding bill.
In 1989 a civil rights memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama,
the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement, one of the efforts
of Bryan Stevenson, to memorialize these individuals who were hanged.
It honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were slain during
the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till. We know that
many more people lost their lives to racial violence during that era.
As we were studying H.R. 40, the Reparations Commission, we determined
4,000--and most of those who were lynched were African Americans--the
killers of 13 of the 40 martyrs whose names were inscribed on the
memorial had not been prosecuted or convicted, and it is dedicated to
those martyrs.
In 10 of the 40 deaths, defendants were either acquitted by all-White
juries or served only token prison sentences. We also know there are
many cases that still cry out for justice that involve hanging in
particular of African Americans. These unsolved crimes represent a
continuing stain on our Nation's honor and mock its commitment to equal
justice under the law. The legislation before us is intended to help
remove that stain once and for all.
The 40 victims selected for inclusion in the civil rights memorial
fit at least one of three criteria: they were murdered because they
were active in the civil rights movement; they were killed by organized
hate crimes as acts of terror aimed at intimidating Black and civil
rights activists; and their death, like the death of Emmett Till,
helped to galvanize a movement by demonstrating the brutality faced by
African Americans in the South.
That young boy aged 13 was hanged. These individuals were hanged.
Several were White; 33 were Black. They were students, farmers,
ministers, truck drivers, a homemaker, and a Nobel laureate. But, Madam
Speaker, there are many, many other victims besides the 40 who were
remembered in the memorial. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports
through its research that approximately 75 other people died violently
between 1952 and 1968 under circumstances suggesting that they were
victims of racial violence. For most of them, the reason their names
were not added to the memorial is because they were not enough; because
the killings of African Americans were often covered up or not
seriously investigated. There is little to doubt that many slayings
were never recorded by authorities.
The crux of the matter is that lynching, even up to today, 2022, was
not a Federal crime, and the heinous and evil act of lynching another
human being was not a Federal crime that could be prosecuted. These are
the ways that we can address this question by a Federal antilynching
bill once and for all, making it a crime to lynch anyone in the United
States.
So let me thank Mamie Till for being a courageous and wonderful civil
rights activist driven by the heinous and horrible killing and hanging
of a 13-year-old boy.
This is both mother and son in a much nicer time, and this is a
mother who is expressing pain at the funeral of her child. And this, of
course, is a photograph of what a 13-year-old, handsome, little boy
looked like after he was beaten, lynched, dragged, and thrown in the
water. This has to stop.
Now with this legislation we will finally have an antilynching
legislation that makes illegal the idea of lynching.
Let me say that this idea of lynching is not an old act. 1981 was one
of the most recent acts of lynching a fellow human being. So it is
extremely important that we have this law that once and forever says
that if it is not in the Constitution in terms of the exact language,
it is tied to the Constitution, the 13th Amendment, which is the
prohibition of slavery, the 14th Amendment which is due process. And I
can assure our colleagues that we have not completed the thoughts of
both of those amendments without having H.R. 55 which helps to ensure
that justice is rendered and that lynching forever is stopped and that
we realize that it is both a devastating and deadly act. But it is the
ultimate indignity of taking another human being and hanging them like
a piece of whatever one would like to imagine, like meat in a meat
locker.
Let us stop that now. Let America stand as a place of human rights
and a place of dignity.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 55.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for
yielding time to me. I am grateful that we are going to be voting today
on this version of this bill. I think it is a much-improved version as
opposed to the one that came out of committee. I am grateful to all
those who worked hard on this to try to make this a better bill, and I
am grateful for that.
I think when we reflect upon this bill and the history of our
Nation--this Nation we all love and cherish--we recognize that we have
to cure and acknowledge some issues and problems that we have had. And
this is not the least of those for sure, but it is an important thing
to recognize.
I appreciated the chairman of the Judiciary Committee mentioning
George Henry White who was the first person to introduce an
antilynching piece of legislation. George Henry White was from North
Carolina. He was a Republican Representative. He was the only African
American who was a Member of Congress at the time. After he left
Congress in the early part of the last century, 1901, it would be 28
years before another African American came
[[Page H1168]]
into these important Halls of law and legislation.
One thing that Congressman White was very bold about was to fight and
stand against disenfranchisement, to fight disenfranchisement and also
to fight mob violence which took an incredible amount of courage and
discipline, and I appreciate that and his history.
I am hopeful that we will make this a unanimous vote. I hope that we
will record that vote for our posterity and for all Americans to know
and recognize that the United States House of Representatives could
come together as yet we may disagree on so many things, but on this
issue that we can come together unitedly.
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this, and I
thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).
Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the
Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Sadly, more than 6,500 Black Americans
were lynched between 1865 and 1950. My home State of Texas sadly--
sadly--has the third highest number of lynchings in history. There were
468 documented deaths by lynching in Texas between 1885 and 1942.
However, many historians believe that closer to 5,000 Mexicans and
Mexican Americans died by lynching around this time.
Few actions are crueler, more heinous, and more inhumane than someone
being lynched. Yet to this day--and shamefully so--lynching does not
have a Federal hate crime legislation. Since 1900 there have been more
than 200 attempts to codify lynching as a Federal crime, but each
attempt was unsuccessful.
Today we can correct this historical injustice. By passing this bill,
we can begin the closing of this terrible and shameful chapter in
America's history.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to cosponsor this bill, and I urge all my
colleagues to support it here today. I am pleased to hear the other
side of the aisle talk about a unanimous vote. What we need is a
unanimous vote to support this bill. It is time. It is time.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter).
Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, this bill would, incredibly
and tragically, for the first time make lynching a Federal hate crime
in America.
Despite more than 200 attempts to pass antilynching legislation
through Congress over the past 120 years, lynching has never been
designated as a Federal crime.
And this isn't just a horror of the past. Unfortunately, we still see
these horrible instances. This is reality still today because murders
are prosecuted at the local level, this historical injustice meant that
99 percent of lynching perpetrators escaped punishment.
This bill is long overdue. Today I will be voting for Representative
Bobby Rush's antilynching bill to finally close this dark chapter of
our history. We cannot bring back Emmett Till or the thousands of
others whose precious lives were lost in the horrible acts of racial
terror, but passing this antilynching act is a historic step forward
justice and a signal that our Nation will finally reckon with this dark
chapter of our history.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time, and I am
prepared to close.
Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I would just say that I hope we do have a
unanimous vote and support this good piece of legislation, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, with this legislation, we can right a great historical
wrong by finally specifying lynching as a crime under Federal law, more
than 120 years after the first antilynching bill was introduced in
Congress. Although this proposal should have been law a long time ago,
it is never too late to do the right thing.
The shameful era when lynchings were commonplace in this country--
particularly in the South--is thankfully over, but we have seen
disturbing echoes of this gruesome practice in recent years--most
recently in the brutal murder of Ahmaud Arbery. This legislation sends
a clear message that such violent actions motivated by hatred and
bigotry will not be tolerated in this country.
The Nation is in the midst of a national conversation and a national
awakening on issues of race and justice. As we reckon with our past and
look to the future, it is important that we place lynching where it
properly belongs--in criminal code alongside other hate crimes that
have caused so much pain and suffering over the years.
I want to thank Congressman Bobby Rush for his tireless efforts in
bringing this legislation forward and all the other Members whose
efforts have paved the way for passage of this bill today.
Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation,
and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 55,
the ``Emmett Till Antilynching Act,'' which amends the Title 18,
Section 249 of the United States Code to make lynching a hate crime
under federal law punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.
Madam Speaker, in 1989, the Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in
Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights
Movement.
The Memorial honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were
slain during the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till.
But we know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence
during that era.
In fact, at the time the Memorial was dedicated, the killers of 13 of
the 40 martyrs whose names are inscribed on the Memorial had not been
prosecuted or convicted.
In 10 of the 40 deaths, defendants were either acquitted by allwhite
juries or served only token prison sentences.
We also know there are many cases that still cry out for justice.
These unsolved crimes represent a continuing stain on our nation's
honor and mock its commitment to equal justice under law.
The legislation before us is intended to help us remove that stain
once and for all.
The 40 victims selected for inclusion in the Civil Rights Memorial
fit at least one of three criteria: (1) they were murdered because they
were active in the civil rights movement; (2) they were killed by
organized hate groups as acts of terror aimed at intimidating blacks
and civil rights activists; or, (3) their deaths, like the death of
Emmett Till, helped to galvanize the movement by demonstrating the
brutality faced by African Americans in the South.
The 40 persons who fit the selection criteria ranged in age from 11
to 66.
Seven were white, and 33 were black.
They were students, farmers, ministers, truck drivers, a homemaker
and a Nobel laureate.
But Madam Speaker, there are many, many other victims besides the 40
who are remembered on the Memorial.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that its research uncovered
approximately 75 other people who died violently between 1952 and 1968
under circumstances suggesting that they were victims of racial
violence.
For most of them the reason their names were not added to the
Memorial is because not enough was known about the details surrounding
their deaths.
Sadly, the reason so little is known about these cases is because
they were not fully investigated or, in some cases, law enforcement
officials were involved in the killings or subsequent cover-ups.
And because the killings of African Americans were often covered up
or not seriously investigated, there is little reason to doubt that
many slayings were never even recorded by the authorities.
The reason justice had not been served was the callous indifference,
and often the criminal collusion, of many white law enforcement
officials in the segregated South.
There simply was no justice for African Americans during the civil
rights era.
The whole criminal justice system--from the police to the
prosecutors, to the juries, and to the judges--was perverted by racial
bigotry.
African Americans were routinely beaten, bombed and shot with
impunity.
Sometimes, the killers picked their victims on a whim.
Sometimes, they targeted them for their activism.
In other cases, prominent white citizens were involved, and no
consequences flowed.
Herbert Lee of Liberty, Mississippi, for example, was shot in the
head by a state legislator in broad daylight in 1961.
It is, of course, fitting and proper that this legislation bears the
name of Emmett Till, whose slaying in 1955 and his mother's decision to
have an open casket at his funeral stirred the nation's conscience and
galvanized a generation of Americans to join the fight for equality.
[[Page H1169]]
Sadly, hundreds of them were killed in that struggle, and many of the
killers, like those of Emmett himself, were never successfully
prosecuted.
Madam Speaker, over the past half century, the United States has made
tremendous progress in overcoming the badges and vestiges of slavery.
But this progress has been purchased at great cost.
Examples of unsolved cases include the 1968 ``Orangeburg Massacre''
at South Carolina State University where state police shot and killed
three student protesters; the 1967 shooting death of Carrie Brumfield,
whose body was found on a rural Louisiana road; the 1957 murder of
Willie Joe Sanford, whose body was fished out of a creek in
Hawkinsville, Georgia; the 1946 killing of a black couple, including a
pregnant woman, who was pulled out of a car in Monroe, Georgia, and
dragged down a wagon trail before being shot in front of 200 people.
Solving cases like these is part of the great unfinished work I of
America.
Madam Speaker, 53 years ago, Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson,
Mississippi; justice would not be done in his case for more than twenty
years.
But that day was foretold because the evening before the death of
Medgar Evers, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the
nation from the Oval Office on the state of race relations and civil
rights in America.
In his historic speech to the nation President Kennedy said:
``We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the
scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.
``One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln
freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free.
They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet
freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its
hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens
are free.''
H.R. 55 will help ensure that justice is received by victims of
lynching and in doing so, this legislation will help this Nation
fulfill its hopes and justify its boast that in America all persons
live in freedom.
Madam Speaker, I strongly support this legislation and urge all
Members to join me in voting for its passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 55, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion
are postponed.
____________________