I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 35 

To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching 

as a hate crime act. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2019 

Mr. RUSH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to 

specify lynching as a hate crime act. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Emmett Till 

5 Antilynching Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) In the 20th century lynching occurred most9 ly in southern States by White southerners against 

10 Black southerners. 


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1 (2) In 1892, the Tuskegee Institute began to 

2 record statistics of lynchings and reported that 

3 4,742 reported lynchings had taken place by 1968, 

4 of which 3,445 of the victims were Black. 

5 (3) Most of the lynchings that occurred in the 

6 South were mass moblike lynchings. 

7 (4) Mass moblike lynchings were barbaric by 

8 nature characterized by members of the mob, mostly 

9 White southerners, shooting, burning, and muti10 lating the victim’s body, alive. 

11 (5) In ‘‘Anatomy of a Lynching: The Killing of 

12 Claude Neal’’, community papers readily advertised 

13 mob lynchings, as evidenced by a Florida local paper 

14 headline: ‘‘Florida to Burn Negro at Stake: Sex 

15 Criminal Seized from Brewton Jail, Will be Muti16 lated, Set Afire in Extra-Legal Vengeance for 

17 Deed.’’ 

18 (6) Civil rights groups documented and pre19 sented Congress evidence of vigilante moblike 

20 lynchings. 

21 (7) Evidence by NAACP investigator Howard 

22 Kester documented the extreme brutality of these 

23 lynchings. An excerpt from ‘‘Anatomy of a Lynch24 ing’’ further illustrates this point: ‘‘After taking the 

25 nigger to the woods about four miles from GreenVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:52 Jan 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.IH H35

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1 wood, they cut off his penis. He was made to eat it. 

2 Then they cut off his testicles and made him eat 

3 them and say he liked it.’’ 

4 (8) Many civil rights groups, notably the Anti5 Lynching Crusaders, also known as the ALC, oper6 ating under the umbrella of the NAACP, made nu7 merous requests to Congress to make lynching a 

8 Federal crime. 

9 (9) Congressman George Henry White, an Afri10 can American, introduced the first Federal anti11 lynching bill and subsequently nearly 200 antilynch12 ing bills were introduced in the Congress during the 

13 first half of the 20th century. 

14 (10) Between 1890 and 1952, seven Presidents 

15 petitioned Congress to end lynching. 

16 (11) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of 

17 Representatives passed three strong antilynching 

18 measures, of which Congress came closest to enact19 ing antilynching legislation sponsored by Congress20 man Leonidas C. Dyer in 1922. 

21 (12) On all three occasions, opponents of 

22 antilynching legislation, argued States’ rights and 

23 used the filibuster, or the threat of it, to block the 

24 Senate from voting on the measures. 


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1 (13) The enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 

2 1968 was the closest Congress ever came in the 

3 post-Reconstruction era to enacting antilynching leg4 islation. 

5 (14) In 2005, the Senate passed a resolution, 

6 sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu and George 

7 Allen, apologizing for the Senate’s failure to enact 

8 antilynching legislation as a Federal crime, with 

9 Senator Landrieu saying, ‘‘There may be no other 

10 injustice in American history for which the Senate 

11 so uniquely bears responsibility.’’ 

12 (15) To heal past and present racial injustice, 

13 Congress must make lynching a Federal crime so 

14 our Nation can begin reconciliation. 

15 SEC. 3. SPECIFYING LYNCHING AS A HATE CRIME ACT. 

16 Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is 

17 amended— 

18 (1) by redesignating paragraph (4) as para19 graph (5); and 

20 (2) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol21 lowing: 

22 ‘‘(4) OFFENSES INVOLVING LYNCHING.—Who23 ever, whether or not acting under color of law, will24 fully, acting as part of any collection of people, as25 sembled for the purpose and with the intention of 


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1 committing an act of violence upon any person, 

2 causes death to any person, shall be imprisoned for 

3 any term of years or for life, fined under this title, 

4 or both.’’. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS