Congresswoman Beatty Votes for Historic Anti-Lynching Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday 410-4 to pass the landmark Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, H.R. 35. Cosponsored by U.S. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (OH-03), along with 147 Members of Congress, H.R. 35 would classify lynching as a federal hate crime.

"This vote helps right a wrong by recognizing the heartbreaking truth that racially-motivated acts of terror are a stain on American history," Beatty said. "After 120 years, and some 200 failed attempts, the House has passed legislation to outlaw the heinous act of lynching." Beatty continued, "I stand with the over 4,000 victims and their families throughout history, as well as the countless Americans who face hatred, racism, and violence still today, and call on the Senate to do the same by passing this measure so that we can finally right this injustice."

Since 1900, Congress repeatedly has tried and failed to pass legislation to outlaw lynching. In fact, the vote on H.R. 35 was roughly 12 decades after former Representative George Henry White (NC)—then the country's only Black congressional lawmaker—introduced his bill that would have prosecuted lynchings at the federal level.

H.R. 35 is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American child who was brutally and unjustly murdered by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam on August 28, 1955, outside Money, Mississippi. The next month, an all-white jury found Bryant and Milam not guilty. Till's murder and the subsequent acquittal of his murderers served as catalysts for the civil rights movement.

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is awaiting further consideration in the U.S. Senate.