He said: “The lynching was a pure terror to impose the lie that not everyone belongs to America, not everyone is equal. Terror, to systematically undermine harsh political rights. Terror, not only in the darkness of night, but in the light of day. “Innocent men, women and children hung from nooses in the trees, their bodies burned, drowned and castrated.” “Their crimes? They are trying to vote. They are trying to go to school. They are trying to run a business or preach the gospel. False accusations of murder, arson and robbery. He is just black,” he continued. Biden’s bill, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022, is named after a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered by a group of whites in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman in 1955. His murder national rage and was a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement. Lynching was a terrorist tactic used against Black Americans, especially in the racially divided South. According to Tuskegee University, which collects records of lynchings, 4,743 people were lynched between 1882 and 1968, and 3,446 of them were black. Reflecting on the “unwritten rules” of behavior that Till’s mother passed on to her son, the President said: “This same admonition – too many black parents still have to use it. They need to tell their children that when it comes to law enforcement meetings. ” Biden said the new law “is not just about the past”, pointing to the murder of a 25-year-old black man who jogged and to a gathering of white supremacists and white nationalists in Virginia in 2017, where one protester was killed and dozens injured. “From the bullets in Ahmaud Arbery’s back to countless other acts of violence, countless victims known and unknown, the same racial hatred that drove the mob to hang a noose brought this mob carrying torches out of the Charlottesville fields just a few years ago. Racial hatred is not an old problem. “It’s a persistent problem,” he said. Advocates have been pushing for federal anti-lynching laws for more than a century. Illinois MP Bobby Rush, who introduced the bill into law Tuesday, also introduced a similar version of his current bill in 2019. The following year, the House passed the bill, but Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, kept it due to concerns that it was too wide. Paul announced his support for the latest version of the bill earlier this month. And when Vice President Kamala Harris was a senator, she and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott introduced a bill that would make lynching a homophobia. The Senate approved the Law on Justice for Victims of Lynching at the end of 2018, but the legislation did not pass the House of Representatives. During the signing ceremony, Harris noted that since anti-lynching laws were first introduced in Congress in 1900, “anti-lynching laws have been introduced more than 200 times in the United States Congress.” “Lynching is not a thing of the past. Racist terrorist acts continue to happen in our nation. And when they do, we must all have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators accountable,” he said. The ceremony was attended by a wide range of my supporters, administration officials and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, Biden thanked those interested “who never gave up.” Standing by Michelle Duster, the great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the President noted that Wells-Barnett came to the White House in 1898 “to support the anti-lynching law.” Only three House Republicans – Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massey of Kentucky and Chip Roy of Texas – voted against the bill. The law was then passed by the Senate with unanimous consent. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Sumer said at the time that Congress had tried and failed more than 200 times to outlaw lynching and that the new legislation was “too late.” Russ, who attended the White House ceremony, said in a statement that he was “excited” to see the bill signed into law, adding: “I am so proud that we have come together – in a bipartisan manner – to establish a a law that will ensure that lynchings are always punished as the barbaric crimes they are “. Till’s cousin, the venerable Wheeler Parker Jr., said in a statement: “My cousin was an intelligent, promising 14-year-old from Chicago. My family was devastated that no one was held responsible for the abduction, torture or “But we are encouraged by this new law, which shows that Emmett is still talking in strong ways to make sure that no one can ever escape a racist crime like this again.” The NAACP Legal Education and Training Fund and the National Urban League also praised the signing of the law. The fund’s chairman, Janai S. Nelson, said the agency commended “Congress and President Biden for passing this long-term bill and signing it into law and for sending a clear message that the US government is committed to prevent this destructive form of targeted violence. “ This story has been updated with additional developments on Tuesday. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated where Emmett Till came from. He was from Chicago. CNN’s Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.
