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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E239-E240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EMMETT TILL ANTILYNCHING ACT
______
speech of
HON. HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, one hundred years ago,
Missouri Republican Congressman Leonidas Deyer introduced an anti-
lynching bill in the 65th Congress. The legislation eventually died in
the Senate in 1918. In the one hundred years since that failure, there
have been over two hundred unsuccessful attempts to prohibit lynching
in the
[[Page E240]]
United States through legislative redress. Those one hundred years saw
the advent of the civil rights movement and Jim Crow, but it also was
marred by undercurrents of racism and random acts of violence.
As the Representative of the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia
and a senior member of the House Judiciary, this legislation, which
would finally make the act of lynching a hate crime, has particular
significance to me and my constituents. Our district is home to Stone
Mountain which is commonly known as the symbolic birthplace of the
modem Klu Klux Klan. Since 1915, the Klu Klux Klan has met at Stone
Mountain and as recently as 2018, white supremacist organizations
sought to rally atop the mountain with Confederate flags. Over the
years, many civil rights battles have been won in our district, but our
fight for equality is not over.
Lynching is a vestige of slavery and America's views on race and
racism in this country. It has long been a practice used to keep
enslaved Africans, and later, free Black men, women, and children
living in terror. The practice has irrevocably damaged the American
psyche. It is time to formally distance our country from these heinous
acts and raise the crime to the consideration of a hate crime. In doing
so, we declare to ourselves and the rest of the world that we will not
tolerate bigotry in the United States and that those who would harm
others because of the color of their skin will be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law.
Rep. Bobby Rush's Emmett Till Antilynching Act will finally be
considered by the Full House. This bill honors Emmett Till, a 14-year-
old African American boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955. As we progress
towards a more perfect union by recognizing lynching for what it is--a
hate crime, we reflect on how this heinous practice has been wielded to
oppress minorities throughout American history.
My good friend Rep. Rush brings this legislation to the House floor
citing the riots that took place in Charlottesville in 2017 and during
the deadly El Paso shooting in 2019. The lynching of black and brown
people in our country is truly, as he says, prevalent in American
society today. Its face may have evolved, but the crime of hate that it
represents is indisputable.
The Senate passed a resolution in 2005 that apologized to victims of
lynching crimes; however, lynching still is not classified as a federal
hate crime. We honor, today, the herculean efforts from American heroes
like my fellow Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who worked to mobilize
our country against these violent acts.
We have waited too long to raise this crime to the level of a federal
hate crime, and we cannot delay any longer. Only when we reckon with
our troubled history and the epidemic of hate crimes against black and
brown people in the United States can we begin to construct a more
perfect union.
I'm proud to lend my support and my vote to this important
legislation.
____________________