I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3536 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a deprivation 

of civil rights, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 27, 2019 

Mr. BACON (for himself, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. CISNEROS, and Mr. TAYLOR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching 

as a deprivation of civil rights, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Justice for Victims 

5 of Lynching Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The crime of lynching succeeded slavery as 

9 the ultimate expression of racism in the United 

10 States following Reconstruction. 


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1 (2) Lynching was a widely acknowledged prac2 tice in the United States until the middle of the 

3 20th century. 

4 (3) Lynching was a crime that occurred 

5 throughout the United States, with documented inci6 dents in all but 4 States. 

7 (4) At least 4,742 people, predominantly Afri8 can Americans, were reported lynched in the United 

9 States between 1882 and 1968. 

10 (5) Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators of 

11 lynching escaped from punishment by State or local 

12 officials. 

13 (6) Lynching prompted African Americans to 

14 form the National Association for the Advancement 

15 of Colored People (referred to in this section as the 

16 ‘‘NAACP’’) and prompted members of B’nai B’rith 

17 to found the Anti-Defamation League. 

18 (7) Mr. Walter White, as a member of the 

19 NAACP and later as the executive secretary of the 

20 NAACP from 1931 to 1955, meticulously inves21 tigated lynchings in the United States and worked 

22 tirelessly to end segregation and racialized terror. 

23 (8) Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were intro24 duced in Congress during the first half of the 20th 

25 century. 


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1 (9) Between 1890 and 1952, 7 Presidents peti2 tioned Congress to end lynching. 

3 (10) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of 

4 Representatives passed 3 strong anti-lynching meas5 ures. 

6 (11) Protection against lynching was the min7 imum and most basic of Federal responsibilities, and 

8 the Senate considered but failed to enact anti-lynch9 ing legislation despite repeated requests by civil 

10 rights groups, Presidents, and the House of Rep11 resentatives to do so. 

12 (12) The publication of ‘‘Without Sanctuary: 

13 Lynching Photography in America’’ helped bring 

14 greater awareness and proper recognition of the vic15 tims of lynching. 

16 (13) Only by coming to terms with history can 

17 the United States effectively champion human rights 

18 abroad. 

19 (14) An apology offered in the spirit of true re20 pentance moves the United States toward reconcili21 ation and may become central to a new under22 standing, on which improved racial relations can be 

23 forged. 

24 (15) Having concluded that a reckoning with 

25 our own history is the only way the country can efVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:17 Jul 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3536.IH H3536

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1 fectively champion human rights abroad, 90 Mem2 bers of the United States Senate agreed to Senate 

3 Resolution 39, 109th Congress, on June 13, 2005, 

4 to apologize to the victims of lynching and the de5 scendants of those victims for the failure of the Sen6 ate to enact anti-lynching legislation. 

7 (16) The National Memorial for Peace and Jus8 tice, which opened to the public in Montgomery, Ala9 bama, on April 26, 2018, is the Nation’s first memo10 rial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, 

11 people terrorized by lynching, African Americans hu12 miliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and 

13 people of color burdened with contemporary pre14 sumptions of guilt and police violence. 

15 (17) Notwithstanding the Senate’s apology and 

16 the heightened awareness and education about the 

17 Nation’s legacy with lynching, it is wholly necessary 

18 and appropriate for the Congress to enact legisla19 tion, after 100 years of unsuccessful legislative ef20 forts, finally to make lynching a Federal crime. 

21 (18) Further, it is the sense of Congress that 

22 criminal action by a group increases the likelihood 

23 that the criminal object of that group will be suc24 cessfully attained and decreases the probability that 

25 the individuals involved will depart from their path 


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1 of criminality. Therefore, it is appropriate to specify 

2 criminal penalties for the crime of lynching, or any 

3 attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching. 

4 (19) The United States Senate agreed to unani5 mously Senate Resolution 118, 115th Congress, on 

6 April 5, 2017, ‘‘[c]ondemning hate crime and any 

7 other form of racism, religious or ethnic bias, dis8 crimination, incitement to violence, or animus tar9 geting a minority in the United States’’ and taking 

10 notice specifically of Federal Bureau of Investigation 

11 statistics demonstrating that ‘‘among single-bias 

12 hate crime incidents in the United States, 59.2 per13 cent of victims were targeted due to racial, ethnic, 

14 or ancestral bias, and among those victims, 52.2 

15 percent were victims of crimes motivated by the of16 fenders’ anti-Black or anti-African American bias’’. 

17 (20) On September 14, 2017, President Donald 

18 J. Trump signed into law Senate Joint Resolution 

19 49 (Public Law 115–58; 131 Stat. 1149), wherein 

20 Congress ‘‘condemn[ed] the racist violence and do21 mestic terrorist attack that took place between Au22 gust 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, 

23 Virginia’’ and ‘‘urg[ed] the President and his admin24 istration to speak out against hate groups that 

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1 tism, and White supremacy; and use all resources 

2 available to the President and the President’s Cabi3 net to address the growing prevalence of those hate 

4 groups in the United States’’. 

5 (21) Senate Joint Resolution 49 (Public Law 

6 115–58; 131 Stat. 1149) specifically took notice of 

7 ‘‘hundreds of torch-bearing White nationalists, 

8 White supremacists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis [who] 

9 chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant slo10 gans and violently engaged with counter-demonstra11 tors on and around the grounds of the University of 

12 Virginia in Charlottesville’’ and that these groups 

13 ‘‘reportedly are organizing similar events in other 

14 cities in the United States and communities every15 where are concerned about the growing and open 

16 display of hate and violence being perpetrated by 

17 those groups’’. 

18 (22) Lynching was a pernicious and pervasive 

19 tool that was used to interfere with multiple aspects 

20 of life—including the exercise of federally protected 

21 rights, as enumerated in section 245 of title 18, 

22 United States Code, housing rights, as enumerated 

23 in section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 

24 U.S.C. 3631), and the free exercise of religion, as 

25 enumerated in section 247 of title 18, United States 


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1 Code. Interference with these rights was often effec2 tuated by multiple offenders and groups, rather than 

3 isolated individuals. Therefore, prohibiting conspir4 acies to violate each of these rights recognizes the 

5 history of lynching in the United States and serves 

6 to prohibit its use in the future. 

7 SEC. 3. LYNCHING. 

8 (a) OFFENSE.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United States 

9 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘§ 250. Lynching 

11 ‘‘Whoever conspires with another person to violate 

12 section 245, 247, or 249 of this title or section 901 of 

13 the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3631) shall be 

14 punished in the same manner as a completed violation of 

15 such section, except that if the maximum term of impris16 onment for such completed violation is less than 10 years, 

17 the person may be imprisoned for not more than 10 

18 years.’’. 

19 (b) TABLE OF SECTIONS AMENDMENT.—The table of 

20 sections for chapter 13 of title 18, United States Code, 

21 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 

22 249 the following: 

‘‘250. Lynching.’’. 

Æ 


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