[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 35 Received in Senate (RDS)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 35
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 27, 2020
Received
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To amend title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a
deprivation of civil rights, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Emmett Till Antilynching Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The crime of lynching succeeded slavery as the ultimate
expression of racism in the United States following
Reconstruction.
(2) Lynching was a widely acknowledged practice in the
United States until the middle of the 20th century.
(3) Lynching was a crime that occurred throughout the
United States, with documented incidents in all but four
States.
(4) At least 4,742 people, predominantly African Americans,
were reported lynched in the United States between 1882 and
1968.
(5) Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators of lynching
escaped from punishment by State or local officials.
(6) Lynching prompted African Americans to form the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(referred to in this section as the ``NAACP'') and prompted
members of B'nai B'rith to found the Anti-Defamation League.
(7) Mr. Walter White, as a member of the NAACP and later as
the executive secretary of the NAACP from 1931 to 1955,
meticulously investigated lynchings in the United States and
worked tirelessly to end segregation and racialized terror.
(8) Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in
Congress during the first half of the 20th century.
(9) Between 1890 and 1952, seven Presidents petitioned
Congress to end lynching.
(10) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of Representatives
passed three strong anti-lynching measures.
(11) Protection against lynching was the minimum and most
basic of Federal responsibilities, and the Senate considered
but failed to enact anti-lynching legislation despite repeated
requests by civil rights groups, Presidents, and the House of
Representatives to do so.
(12) The publication of ``Without Sanctuary: Lynching
Photography in America'' helped bring greater awareness and
proper recognition of the victims of lynching.
(13) Only by coming to terms with history can the United
States effectively champion human rights abroad.
(14) An apology offered in the spirit of true repentance
moves the United States toward reconciliation and may become
central to a new understanding, on which improved racial
relations can be forged.
(15) Having concluded that a reckoning with our own history
is the only way the country can effectively champion human
rights abroad, 90 Members of the United States Senate agreed to
Senate Resolution 39, 109th Congress, on June 13, 2005, to
apologize to the victims of lynching and the descendants of
those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-
lynching legislation.
(16) The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which
opened to the public in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 26, 2018,
is the Nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy of
enslaved Black people, people terrorized by lynching, African
Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and
people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of
guilt and police violence.
(17) Notwithstanding the Senate's apology and the
heightened awareness and education about the Nation's legacy
with lynching, it is wholly necessary and appropriate for the
Congress to enact legislation, after 100 years of unsuccessful
legislative efforts, finally to make lynching a Federal crime.
(18) Further, it is the sense of Congress that criminal
action by a group increases the likelihood that the criminal
object of that group will be successfully attained and
decreases the probability that the individuals involved will
depart from their path of criminality. Therefore, it is
appropriate to specify criminal penalties for the crime of
lynching, or any attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching.
(19) The United States Senate agreed to unanimously Senate
Resolution 118, 115th Congress, on April 5, 2017,
``[c]ondemning hate crime and any other form of racism,
religious or ethnic bias, discrimination, incitement to
violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United States''
and taking notice specifically of Federal Bureau of
Investigation statistics demonstrating that ``among single-bias
hate crime incidents in the United States, 59.2 percent of
victims were targeted due to racial, ethnic, or ancestral bias,
and among those victims, 52.2 percent were victims of crimes
motivated by the offenders' anti-Black or anti-African American
bias''.
(20) On September 14, 2017, President Donald J. Trump
signed into law Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 115-58;
131 Stat. 1149), wherein Congress ``condemn[ed] the racist
violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place between
August 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia''
and ``urg[ed] the President and his administration to speak out
against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism, and White supremacy; and use all resources
available to the President and the President's Cabinet to
address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the
United States''.
(21) Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 115-58; 131
Stat. 1149) specifically took notice of ``hundreds of torch-
bearing White nationalists, White supremacists, Klansmen, and
neo-Nazis [who] chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-
immigrant slogans and violently engaged with counter-
demonstrators on and around the grounds of the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville'' and that these groups
``reportedly are organizing similar events in other cities in
the United States and communities everywhere are concerned
about the growing and open display of hate and violence being
perpetrated by those groups''.
(22) Lynching was a pernicious and pervasive tool that was
used to interfere with multiple aspects of life--including the
exercise of Federally protected rights, as enumerated in
section 245 of title 18, United States Code, housing rights, as
enumerated in section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42
U.S.C. 3631), and the free exercise of religion, as enumerated
in section 247 of title 18, United States Code. Interference
with these rights was often effectuated by multiple offenders
and groups, rather than isolated individuals. Therefore,
prohibiting conspiracies to violate each of these rights
recognizes the history of lynching in the United States and
serves to prohibit its use in the future.
SEC. 3. LYNCHING.
(a) Offense.--Chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 250. Lynching
``Whoever conspires with another person to violate section 245,
247, or 249 of this title or section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of
1968 (42 U.S.C. 3631) shall be punished in the same manner as a
completed violation of such section, except that if the maximum term of
imprisonment for such completed violation is less than 10 years, the
person may be imprisoned for not more than 10 years.''.
(b) Table of Sections Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter
13 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the
item relating to section 249 the following:
``250. Lynching.''.
SEC. 4. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by
reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional
Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
Passed the House of Representatives February 26, 2020.
Attest:
CHERYL L. JOHNSON,
Clerk.