[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.

                          ____________________