Thousands of Americans — one study puts the figure over 4,000 — were lynched between the 1880s and 1960s.
About three-fourths of them were black. Lynchings were widely used to enforce white supremacy, especially in (but not confined to) the South, and often were carried out with extreme cruelty. (See Wikipedia article here.)
Efforts to outlaw the practice began no later than 1916, when the newly-established (in 1909) NAACP “formed a special committee … to push for anti-lynching legislation.” CNN says (here) there were “more than 200 failed attempts to outlaw lynching,” many of them blocked by Southern senators filibustering them (see Wikipedia history here).
One of the best-known lynchings was that of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 by two white men who were acquitted by a jury (see Wikipedia article here). Till’s murder, and the lack of justice for his killers, helped galvanize the 1960s civil rights movement.
On Monday, February 28, 2022, the House passed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, the first-ever federal legislation making lynching a federal crime. The vote was 422-3; those voting against it were Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Chip Roy (R-TX). (See story here.) All three also voted against a federal holiday marking the emancipation of slaves.
On Monday, March 7, 2022, the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent (see story here), and it now goes to President Biden for signing.
Why is a federal anti-lynching law important? Because, by making lynching a federal crime, it allows federal authorities to intervene, investigate, and prosecute when local authorities fail to act; and by adding a federal sentence to any state sentence handed down, it’s also a way to keep lynchers in prison after their state sentences expire.
Update: President Biden signed the bill on March 29, 2022 (see story here).
Photos: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Birmingham, Alabama, has “805 hanging steel rectangles representing each of the U.S. counties where a documented lynching took place,” each inscribed with victims’ names, and “also includes several sculptures depicting themes related to racial violence” (Wikipedia, here).
