What is 'Emmett Till Antilynching Act', which makes lynching a hate crime in US?

A woman holds a placard bearing the likeness of a shooting target during a rally against the visit of the then US President Donald Trump after shooting in El Paso, Texas in 2019 (Photo: REUTERS)

New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday (March 30, 2022) signed into law to make lynching a hate crime in the country, after the Senate passed the bill earlier this month.

"Over the years, several federal hate crime laws were enacted, including one I signed last year to combat Covid-19 hate crimes. But no federal law — no federal law expressly prohibited lynching. None. Until today," Biden said.

I just signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — making lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history.

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 29, 2022

"Lynching was pure terror to enforce the lie that not everyone — not everyone belongs in America and not everyone is created equal; terror to systematically undermine hard — hard-fought civil rights; terror not just in the dark of the night but in broad daylight," he stated.

This afternoon, I’m signing the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. https://t.co/JonhvqASWk

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 29, 2022

What is Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which makes lynching a hate crime in US?

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is named after a 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally killed in Mississippi in 1955. The law makes it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime leads to death or serious bodily injury. It also lays out a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and fines.

The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent and the House of Representatives by a vote of 422-3.

Congress, notably, had first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago and had failed to pass such legislation nearly 200 times, beginning with a bill introduced in 1900 by North Carolina Rep George Henry White, the only Black member of Congress at the time.

However, the murder of Till and an all-white jury's dismissal of charges against two white men who later confessed to his killing drew national attention to the atrocities and violence that African Americans face in the United States and became a civil rights rallying cry.

(With agency inputs)