The first attempt at anti-lynching legislation occurred in 1900 when Rep George White (R-NC) — the only black member of Congress at the time — introduced legislation that would have prosected lynchings at the federal level. Since that time, anti-lynching bills were introduced and failed nearly 200 times! Between 1882 and 1968 more than 4000 people, mostly African Americans, were reported lynched in the US. One of those lynched was 14-year old Emmett Till who was brutally tortured and killed in Mississippi in 1955.
This week, 122 years after the first attempt at antilynching legislation, President Biden has signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act designating lynching a federal hate crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It’s about time!! — Washington Post