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“EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1197-H1203 on Feb. 26, 2020.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
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EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 35) 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. 35
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. 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.''.
SEC. 4. 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 Georgia (Mr. Collins) 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 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, H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act is long overdue legislation that would criminalize lynching for the first time under Federal law.
The term ``lynching'' generally refers to premeditated 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.
H.R. 35 is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American youth from Chicago, who was lynched in 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.
Generally, they could not rely on law enforcement to protect them, because they understood that the lynchings occurring throughout the South were a very deliberate campaign to subjugate our Black population. And this very deliberate campaign was started in the 1870s by the Ku Klux Klan and carried on right up to the present day through terrorism and forced Jim Crow.
Because they realized this, African Americans mobilized their own efforts to combat the terror of lynching and the threat of racial violence through grassroots activism and the founding of integrated social justice organizations.
During the period between the Civil War and World War II, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States, mostly in the South, but not entirely, as a means of racial subordination and enforcing white supremacy. These violent incidents were largely tolerated by State and Federal officials, in fact, often promoted by State and Federal officials. They profoundly impacted race relations and shaped the geographic, political, social, and economic conditions of African American communities in ways that are still evident today.
Although the civil rights conspiracy statute does not specify the offense of lynching as a Federal crime, this section has been used by the Department of Justice to prosecute civil rights-era crimes and hate crimes that were described as lynching in public discourse.
It remains important, however, to enact Federal antilynching legislation to acknowledge this shameful chapter in American history and to send a clear message that such violations, such violent actions motivated by hatred and bigotry will never again be tolerated in this country.
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 other antilynching bills managed to pass the Congress. Antilynching bills were routinely defeated on this floor.
Today, we act to correct this historical injustice that should rest heavily on the conscience of Members of Congress. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) for his leadership on this important issue and for his attention to history. I also thank the gentleman from Nebraska
(Mr. Bacon) for his support of this legislation and the many cosponsors of this bill who helped pave the way for its passage today.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. This act recalls a horrible period in our Nation's history. In fact, many can claim this bill is a century too late. After all, the first antilynching bill was introduced, as was just said by the chairman, over 100 years ago, but it never became law.
Back then, lynchings were a popular atrocity committed by the Ku Klux Klan against the Black community, Catholics, and Jews, among others. Lynching, which is used to intimidate a certain populous, is the practice of murder by a group of people by extrajudicial action.
Today, while not eliminated, and we are all striving for that, groups on all sides need to understand that this kind of intimidation of groups is not tolerated. That is why today these influences have been diminished but they are not resolved, and we want to continue to fight against this. This is why I support H.R. 35.
There is one thing I would like to make a little clearer and probably more to the point, and that is that I believe H.R. 35, this measure, will ensure that those who engage in mob violence that results in death are dealt with appropriately in the Federal system. I think it would have been more appropriate to actually place a certain penalty in this bill as well, such as a defined number of years for committing this offense since the justice for such a heinous act should be swift and certain. They should know what they are getting.
I agree we can move forward with this, but I will disagree with my Democratic colleagues that we chose not to put that in this bill. I think that is something we can look forward to in the future. But this is a good bill. It needs to move forward.
I am proud to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 35.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush), the sponsor of this bill.
Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to say to the chairman, I am just so delighted and thankful and grateful for all of his work on behalf of this bill.
Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
Lynching, Madam Speaker, plain and simple, is an American evil. This atrocity is comparable to the French use of the guillotine, the Roman Empire's use of crucifixion, and the British use of drawing and quartering as a tool of terrorism. And for too long, Madam Speaker, Federal law against lynching has remained conspicuously silent.
In 1918, 102 years ago, a Congressman from Missouri, Leonidas C. Dyer, introduced the first antilynching legislation to actually pass the House, a bill that would subsequently die in the Senate.
Therefore, I am pleased that the language that we are voting on today has already been approved by the Senate, and I am exceptionally hopeful that it will face no further obstacles on its path to the President's desk.
Madam Speaker, many may consider lynching to be a relic of the past, but as we all know, unfortunately, recent events have shown us that this is not the case. Instead, we have seen a rise in race-based violence that has culminated in events like the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, or the racially motivated mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
That is why, Madam Speaker, it is so important that we stand united today as a body and as a Congress to pass this bill. In passing this bill today, we send a resoundingly strong message about what we are as a Nation, our country's values and, more importantly, what we as Americans stand for and what we will tolerate and what we will not tolerate.
Today, Madam Speaker, we send a strong message that violence and race-based violence, in particular, has no place in American society. That is why I am so proud to have introduced this bill, and I am even prouder that we are considering it on the floor today.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) and his passion there with that speech.
It is my privilege now to introduce someone who has a similar passion and also has worked on this bill and done a great deal for it.
Madam Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bacon).
Mr. BACON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank Chairman Rush for his leadership, his heart for this bill, and I thank the chairman and the ranking member for giving me a chance to speak and for their comments.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. I am pleased to see the House take steps in finally addressing this issue. Like many, despite our Nation's ugly history of lynchings, I was shocked to learn that there was no law making lynching a Federal crime.
My hometown area of Omaha is not unlike many other towns across the country with a gruesome past of lynching. George Smith was murdered in October 1891, and this past fall marked the 100th anniversary of the murder of Will Brown on the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse during the Red Summer. The hands of lawless and angry mobs in Omaha beat and lynched these men in what only can be characterized as racial terrorism.
We cannot simply wash away the past, but in order for our Nation to heal from past racial injustice, Congress must specify criminal penalties for the crime of lynching or any attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching.
With at least 5,000 lynchings in our Nation's history, this bill is important to the acknowledgment that evil did occur, that millions felt fear in their houses, their homes, and their communities, that many feared for the lives of their dads, their husbands, and sons, and that this formal acknowledgment will help facilitate reconciliation.
Last year, I was approached by local African American community leaders from Omaha to look into the antilynching legislation, and I felt that the language from Senator Harris' bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate was the right way to proceed. It is because of these reasons I was honored to introduce the Senate-passed language in the House 8 months ago.
The bill we are voting on today contains the language of my bill that I introduced 8 months ago verbatim, but I do not complain because in the end I want results. We want results. We are closer than we have ever been to making lynching a Federal crime. This is an historical event.
This action is long overdue, going back 200 attempts since 1918, and today we are going to get it done. We are going to make history.
It has been my privilege to be an advocate on this issue. I applaud Senator Harris and Congressman Bobby Rush, who have been championing this for years. We will finally get this to the President's desk to be signed into law in order to close one of the ugliest chapters in our history once and for all.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 35.
Today, the House will pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act and designate lynching as a hate crime under Federal law. But we must admit, it is a travesty that it has taken 120 years for the U.S. Government to address this crime. In fact, the first bill to outlaw lynching was introduced in 1900.
Make no mistake, lynching is terrorism. It is terrorism directed at African Americans. Lynching was commonly used for 256 years during the period of enslavement and for almost 100 years after slavery, well into the 1950s.
And, frankly, even today, periodically you will hear news stories of nooses being left on college campuses, in work locker rooms to threaten and terrorize African Americans, a vicious reminder that the past is never that far away. In fact, the last known victim of lynching was just 25 years ago, and for the first time in history, the perpetrator was actually convicted and executed.
We often like to only talk about the glorious parts of our history, and it is difficult for us to hear some of the ugly parts, but it is important that we do hear and understand our history in full. This form of terrorism was used to kill Black people and terrorize and terrify those who were not murdered into understanding they were not considered as humans.
Today, in Montgomery, Alabama, there is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and I hope that everyone has an opportunity to see that because it is the only place in our country that actually documents in every State where known lynchings were taken place and in every county.
Lynchings were advertised in newspapers as recreational events that families would attend. They would have picnics while they watched brutal murders take place.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
{time} 1230
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, I want to leave with a 1930 editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer that noted the elation of the audience witnessing a lynching as follows: ``Men joked loudly at the sight of the bleeding body. . . . Girls giggled as the flies fed on the blood that dripped from the Negro's nose.''
Lynchings were brutal, violent, and savage public spectacles. As I said, they were advertised in newspapers, and postcards were sold. Souvenirs were made from victims' remains.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I would inquire of the gentlewoman, Ms. Bass, if she needs some more time.
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, I do not need additional time.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I was going to give the gentlewoman some of my time, but she is done. I just wanted to make sure.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairperson, and the ranking member as well, for bringing this legislation to the floor today. I also thank the majority leader, who happens to be in the room.
Madam Speaker, this piece of legislation is more than 100 years in the making, and it does deal with lynching, but truth be told, more than a lynching took place.
Emmett Till's body was mutilated. He was shot in the head, and he was thrown in the Tallahatchie River. His mother insisted on an open casket. This was the thing that sent shock waves across this country, causing people to rethink what was happening in the South.
Yes, he was lynched. Yes, this is the unfinished business of this House. And we have much more unfinished business.
Madam Speaker, I do want to commend Congressman Bobby Rush for the outstanding job that he has done, as well as his cosponsors, in bringing this legislation to the floor. It is time. In fact, it is past time. And I am grateful that this House is taking up this legislation.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the House.
Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
The previous speaker, Mr. Green from Texas, said that it is time, that it is past time. But it is never too late to do the right thing.
I am pleased that this will be a bipartisan vote.
This is about Emmett Till. It is about lynching. It is about violence. It is about hate. But in a larger sense, this is about who we are as a country, who we are as a country that said: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.''
Surely, our Founders today would have said all men and women are created equal.
But in the eyes of two murderers, Emmett Till was neither equal nor a fellow human being, but a dehumanized being, undeserving of protection or of decency.
To the surprise, I think, of probably many Americans, Madam Speaker, lynching has not been described as a hate crime. We will do that today.
Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Collins and Chairman Nadler for bringing this bill to the floor. The House will make that determination today. I am proud to bring this legislation to the floor as majority leader.
A broadcaster in our area, Joe Madison, came up to me some year and a half ago and said: Why can't you pass lynching legislation?
I had no answer, so I went to the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who spoke just earlier, Karen Bass, the former speaker of the California Assembly, one of the leaders in this House. I said to her:
``Karen, I want to make sure that we get lynching legislation on the floor.''
I talked to my friend, Bobby Rush, who I have been a close friend of for more than two decades, a leader in this House, a leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee and in this House. I talked to him about it. I talked to him about his legislation.
Two Senators also had legislation. I am glad that they were able to come together and that we have this legislation before us.
Bobby Rush represents the district in which Emmett Till lived.
Emmett Till took a summer vacation to Mississippi. It was his last vacation. He came to be, and continues to this day to be, a symbol of the terror and hate and atrocities and prejudice directed against American citizens whose color of skin was different than some others. This should be a lesson to us all.
Then you see movies like ``Hidden Figures,'' the heroine of which just died a few days ago at the age of 101, or ``The Help,'' or
``Harriet,'' Harriet Tubman from my State, to see the violence that was visited on our fellow human beings because of the color of their skin.
If Elijah Cummings, my colleague, were alive today, he would say:
``We are better than this.''
That is what this legislation is saying: We are better than this.
Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Rush, Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Collins, the Congressional Black Caucus, Chairwoman Karen Bass, and the CBC itself for their work on this bill.
The Senate passed a similar bill last year, and, Madam Speaker, I thank Senators Booker and Harris for their work.
I hope we can get this to the President's desk and signed quickly.
It is very fitting that this legislation will be named in memory of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose brutal lynching in 1955 marked a turning point in America's history.
Many Americans might associate the term ``lynching'' with hanging, but if you go to the dictionary, it has a broader definition: the premeditated, extrajudicial killing by a mob or group of people in order to instill fear, to intimidate, to subjugate populations and individuals, and to enforce a social order on people, contrary to the concepts out of which America was born.
According to the Tuskegee Institute, by the time of Emmett Till's murder, it had recorded more than 4,700 victims of lynching in America since the 1880s.
We had a Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and still, from 1870 to the 1960s, there were people who thought, with impunity, they could take the lives or brutalize others--with impunity.
Even today, we continue to see the memory of lynchings used to instill fear and threaten minority populations, from nooses being displayed as hate speech to threats of political violence using imagery of lynching. We still live with its dark legacy.
Madam Speaker, I say to my colleagues, as we continue to observe Black History Month throughout February, let us resolve to commemorate that history by doing our part to correct its injustices.
I paraphrase Martin Luther King when he said: Do not worry so much about the voices of your opponents as you worry about the silence of your friends.
Madam Speaker, this day, the House of Representatives shall not be silent. Vote ``yes.''
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson).
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, today, I rise in support of H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, a bill that will specify lynching as a hate crime.
This bill corrects a longstanding omission from Federal civil rights law. Historically, nearly 200 antilynching bills were filibustered out of existence or just plain ignored.
Lynchings were violent and public acts of torture used for nearly a century to enforce racial segregation.
This legislation is long overdue. Lynchings were wrong, immoral, and inhumane.
This bill is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American youth from Chicago who was lynched in my district in 1955 while visiting an uncle in Mississippi.
There is a memorial dedicated to Mr. Till in my district. Unfortunately, it is the only memorial in America that has to be bulletproof.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding an additional minute.
In years past, the signs have been stolen, thrown in the river, replaced; shot, replaced again; shot again; defaced with acid; and had
``KKK'' spray-painted on them.
The signs were placed near the spot where Mr. Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955.
The 14-year-old was tortured and killed by two White men after false accusations that he flirted with a White woman.
His death became an important catalyst in the civil rights movement.
With the passage of this bill, we hope to heal the past and present racial injustice. Our country is in need of reconciliation.
Lynching claimed the lives of an immeasurable number of African Americans, yet the perpetrators were never held accountable. Conversely, official inaction has left lasting scars on our communities.
Today, I represent Mississippi's Second Congressional District, which includes the area where Emmett Till was lynched. His murderers were never held accountable for what they did.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson).
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Collins very much for yielding.
This is kind of emotional for me, because I knew this young man's mother before she died, a very wonderful lady who suffered an unfortunate tragedy at the hands of some dastardly individuals.
But more importantly, we are a better country than what that deed dictates.
I support Congressman Rush's bill. It is a bill that is long overdue. But just as important, we have to commit ourselves to making this country a better country.
In the little town of Glendora, where the fan that was attached to young Emmett's body that sank in the Tallahatchie River was found, there is a little museum dedicated not only to Mr. Till, but to the atrocities that have occurred in my district over time.
Madam Speaker, I compliment those individuals for putting the museum together and also for dedicating themselves to letting the world know what happened, but also recommitting ourselves to try not to let it happen again.
So we must pass this legislation, Madam Speaker. We must pass it to correct the inactions of those before us. The inaction of others does not relieve one of the obligation to do what is right.
{time} 1245
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis).
Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, let me thank the gentleman for yielding, and, of course, I come to join with all of those who have extolled the virtues of this bill and urge its passage. I also reflect on the fact that I grew up in the State of Arkansas.
My father, who was a tremendous historian, would often point to places and show us sites in trees where lynchings were supposed to have taken place. The fact that we are now saying that any lynching activity should be a Federal crime is one that I concur with.
I want to thank the Reverend Jesse Jackson because that is really who called me one day and said: You know, we need to do something about this.
So I was pleased to interact with Congressman Rush and say: Let's do something about this.
I want to thank Congressman Rush for taking the leadership on this bill. I want to thank the Judiciary Committee for passing it.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, this is a bill that is long past due. It should have been done many years ago, and it was not. It is now time to get this done.
As was said by the majority leader and others, this was a heinous act done by a mob for one purpose besides the killing: It is also to intimidate and to put fear into others.
In my State of Georgia, it not only happened because of the color of someone's skin, but by the creed of Catholic and Jews it had taken place as well.
This should never happen again. This is a good step forward. I think it is something that is long overdue. I urge all my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In his farewell address to Congress, Representative George Henry White lamented the failure of his antilynching bill of 1900 to pass by observing that: ``During the last session of this Congress, I took occasion to address myself in detail to this particular measure, But with all of my efforts, the bill still sweetly sleeps in the room of the committee to which it was referred. The necessity of legislation along this line is daily being demonstrated. The arena of the lyncher no longer is confined to Southern climes, but is stretching its hydra head over all parts of the Union.''
Lynching no longer terrorizes African American communities as it once did, but we owe it to the memory of its thousands of victims to outlaw this racist and gruesome practice once and for all.
Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I want to just commend the chairman for a moment on bringing this bill up. I think there have been a lot of things that we have disagreed on and there have been many places where we have seen that--we probably will do it again this afternoon--but just to have this time, I think, to reflect and, I think, from my State of Georgia and from New York and all over.
The gentleman made a statement, and I wanted to commend the gentleman for that, that this was happening all over.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, the gentleman is talking too fast. I can't understand him.
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, the gentleman has been saying that for a year, so I will go slow.
I thank the gentleman for bringing this forward and thank him for being a part, and also the discussion among many of the Members here.
This is a discussion not limited to one area. It was highlighted by the Emmett Till death, but it was also something that America needed to deal with. By bringing this forward today, I think that is a testament to both of our committees being able to work together and both of us being able to bring something together that Americans can understand.
Lynching was far beyond a murder. It was also an intimidation method that we saw used in many States in many areas. So I just want to commend Madam Speaker for that, and also commend the chairman.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman very much. I certainly agree with the distinguished ranking member, and I appreciate his support for this bill.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him and the ranking member for bringing this legislation to the floor. It is so appropriate that it is bipartisan because it is about American values. I rise to join you in passing H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which finally explicitly designates lynching as a Federal hate crime.
More than a century ago, the first antilynching legislation was introduced and later passed by this House ``to assure to persons within the jurisdiction of every State the equal protection of the laws and to punish the crime of lynching.'' But over 100 years and 200 attempts later at passage, it is still not law.
I salute Congressman Bobby Scott--excuse me, Bobby Rush. I know Bobby Scott had something to do with this as well, but, in this case, the leadership of Bobby Rush--a lifelong civil rights champion in the Congress and in our country, for his leadership on H.R. 35, which will right this historic wrong.
I thank Chairwoman Karen Bass of the Congressional Black Caucus for her commitment and that of the entire Congressional Black Caucus for bringing this legislation to the floor.
I thank Chairman Nadler and Ranking Member Collins for their leadership as well, and Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris for leading this legislation in the Senate.
Today, Congress has an opportunity to acknowledge its responsibility for its historic failure to confront and end the horror of lynching in America. We must begin by acknowledging the heartbreaking truth that racially motivated acts of terror have long been a part of American history and that they remain a stain on our Nation's soul today.
We must never forget:
The massacre in Wilmington, North Carolina, 122 years ago in which 60 Black Americans were brutally murdered;
The race massacre in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, 100 years ago next year, called the single worst incident of racial violence in American history;
The mutilation and murder of Emmett Till--for whom this legislation is named, a 14-year-old boy--65 years ago, one of the most appalling acts of racial violence in our history, forever seared in our collective memory;
And we must remember the victims of more than 4,000 other lynchings and countless other acts of racial terror perpetrated throughout our Nation's history.
As recent events remind us, racially motivated violence and other forms of violence and hate targeting vulnerable communities are not a relic of the past.
When a white supremacist guns down nine parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, at Mother Emanuel, one of America's oldest African American congregations; when neo-Nazis and white nationalist mobs carrying tiki torches march through Charlottesville in broad daylight, taking an innocent life; when a domestic terrorist murders 22 innocent souls in El Paso after penning a racist, anti-Latino screed on the internet; and when an anti-Semitic murderer kills 11 innocent men and women engaged in peaceful prayer at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh we cannot deny that racism, bigotry, and hate still exist in America.
As Members of Congress and as Americans, we have a responsibility to acknowledge the horrors of the past so that we can never have them occur again.
As Ida B. Wells, the crusading journalist, antilynching advocate, and founding member of the NAACP said: ``The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.''
This legislation will not erase the stain of lynching and racist violence, but it will help shine the light of truth on the injustices of the past so that we can heal our Nation and build a better, safer future for all of our children.
In just over a week, many Members will travel to Selma, Alabama, to observe 55 years since the march for freedom. With the passage of this bill, we can make that pilgrimage--praying at the Brown Chapel AME Church and marching over the Edmund Pettus Bridge--with dignity, respect, and honor.
Madam Speaker, I urge a unanimous vote for H.R. 35.
Again, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership.
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise in enthusiastic support of H.R. 35--the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. This bill amends section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime under federal law. It corrects a longstanding omission from Federal civil rights law. It is without question that this legislation is long overdue and needed even today.
The legacy of lynching is a stain on our nation's history, and the racism that motivated lynchings continues to fuel acts of hate today. This legislation should pass with strong and eager bipartisan support.
This bill is named after Emmett Till who was only 14 years old when he was lynched in 1955 in Mississippi. A lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a mob, and is not limited to deaths by hanging. He was so badly tortured that he was left unrecognizable. This was done here in America by Americans during a Jim Crow era in a segregated fragmented society. Now in 2020, this hateful legacy is unfortunately raising its head again forcing us to defend our basic values. While we celebrate our freedom here in the United States and abroad, we must continue to be diligent in remembering our true history.
The legacy of lynching in Texas can never be erased. The families and communities of victims are still impacted today. Even in my hometown of Waco, Texas, Jesse Washington, a seventeen-year-old farmhand was mutilated and burned to death, on May 15, 1916, in what became one of the most well known documented cases of lynching. Sadly, in Texas, there are hundreds of others.
The designation under federal law is important and most relevant because state law did not protect the rights of the victims of lynchings. Horribly true, many of the lynchings were carried out either by officers and representatives of the law or with the blessings of local law enforcement. African Americans and other people of color did not receive the same protections under the law that every American should have received. That is why this designation of lynching as a hate crime under federal law is critical even today.
I ask my colleagues to support this bill, improve federal law and protect the rights of every person in the United States.
Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I strongly support the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. I will be proud to vote in favor of it on the House floor today. I have continuously fought against racial violence and racial discrimination, and this legislation is an important step forward.
This bill recognizes the federal role in directly confronting this type of racial violence. In his case, Emmett Till, an innocent African American boy, lost his life. His death came to symbolize the continual threat of violence that hung over the African American community and helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. But this bill, named for Till, goes beyond his circumstances. It also provides some modicum of justice for the victims of the People's Grocery Lynching in Memphis. Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart were falsely accused and killed in Memphis on March 9, 1892. These three men were killed because they
``were becoming economic competitors to whites.'' For my district and the country, this vote is recognizing all the men and women who were lynched and never received any justice.
In passing this bill, the House of Representatives will clearly say these types of actions--this type of hate--have no place in our country.
Unfortunately, this isn't a historic phenomenon. Now, in the year 2020, we still struggle with bias motivated crimes, racial violence, and vigilantism. We see the continuation of racial violence directed at African Americans and other minorities today.
I will continue to fight for equality and racial justice. I am proud to support this legislation and thank Rep. Bobby Rush, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, and Chairman Nadler for their leadership.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which amends 18 U.S. Code 249, to establish the act of lynching as a federal hate crime.
I thank our colleague, Congressman Bobby Rush of Illinois, for his work in shepherding this legislation and acknowledging the unfathomable, barbaric history of lynching.
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is the closest our country has ever come to adopting antilynching legislation.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is necessary legislation, intended to bring justice to victims of lynching, to heal past and present racial injustice and prevent these wretched, gruesome acts from continuing to occur.
Ida B. Wells, the renowned educator, investigative journalist, and Civil Rights activist advocated tirelessly from 1886 to 1931 for the passage of antilynching legislation and collected data to show the vast scope of racial tensions and hate crimes.
In October 1892, Ms. Wells published research on lynching in a pamphlet entitled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases and continued to write, speak and organize for the recognition of lynching as a crime and for civil rights until her death in 1931.
She traveled internationally, teaching foreign audiences about the intensity and severity of American racial tensions.
Ms. Wells' contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and American political discourse are still immensely influential and we look to her as a leader and role model to this day.
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.
The all-white, all-male jury acquitted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till, with the two men posing for photographs and lighting cigars after the verdict was announced.
There simply was no justice for African Americans during the civil rights era.
The entire 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.
Many times, 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, E.H. Hurst, 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 brave 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.
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 unfinished work 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. 35 will help ensure that justice is received by those for whom justice has been delayed.
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. 35, 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. NADLER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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