Three Republicans in the U.S. House were the only votes against a bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, named after a 14-year-old Black boy beaten and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, passed the House with an overwhelming vote of support, 422-3, on Monday. The bill would make lynching a federal hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
The only three representatives to vote against the bill were Republicans Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Chip Roy (Texas). In a series of tweets, Massie explained he voted against the bill in part because “passing this legislation falsely implies that lynching someone does not already constitute criminal activity.”
The bill doesn’t imply that. Instead, it gives federal authorities the power to prosecute lynchings as hate crimes.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who authored the bill, said he was 8 years old when he saw a photograph of a dead and brutalized Till. The experience “shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation,” Rush said in a statement.
Rush cited the 2020 killing of Black man Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia as an example of a modern-day lynching. Arbery was 25 years old when he went for a jog and was chased and shot to death. Three white men were convicted of federal hate crime charges last month in his killing.
“The House today has sent a resounding message that our nation is finally reckoning with one of the darkest and most horrific periods of our history, and that we are morally and legally committed to changing course,” Rush said.
The bill will now go to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
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