The bill is named after a 14-year-old Black kid from Chicago who was brutally murdered in Mississippi by a group of White men in 1955 after being suspected of whistling at a White woman.
Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 persons were lynched, with 3,446 of them being Black, according to Tuskegee University.
At the signing ceremony, held in the Rose Garden of the White House, President Biden said:
The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act of 2022 was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, making lynching a federal hate crime. The bill is named after a 14-year-old Black kid from Chicago who was brutally murdered in Mississippi by a group of White men in 1955 after being suspected of whistling at a White woman. Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 persons were lynched, with 3,446 of them being Black, according to Tuskegee University.Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone … belongs in America, not everyone is created equal.
Terror, to systematically undermine hard-fought civil rights.
Terror, not just in the dark of the night but in broad daylight.
Innocent men, women and children hung by nooses in trees, bodies burned and drowned and castrated.
Their crimes?
Trying to vote. Trying to go to school.
Trying to own a business or preach the gospel.
False accusations of murder, arson and robbery.
Simply being Black.
Biden continued on the new law isn’t just about the past.
From the bullets in the back of Ahmaud Arbery to countless other acts of violence, countless victims known and unknown, the same racial hatred that drove the mob to hang a noose brought that mob carrying torches out of the fields of Charlottesville just a few years ago – racial hate isn’t an old problem.
It’s a persistent problem.
Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., said in a statement:
My cousin was a bright, promising 14-year-old from Chicago. My family was devastated that no one was held responsible for the abduction, torture and murder of Emmett.
But we are heartened by this new law, which shows that Emmett still speaks in powerful ways to make sure that no one can get away with a racist crime like this ever again.
Watch the news report below.
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