Explainer: What’s Behind the Federal Anti-Lynching Legislation?
President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law the first bill that specifies lynching as a federal hate crime.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law the first bill that specifies lynching as a federal hate crime.
“Once you get a felony conviction, your life is practically ruined based off of the current laws on the books in many states,” said nationally-recognized civil rights attorney Benjamin L. Crump. “It is as if you are walking dead, but they just haven’t given you the death certificate.”
Last week, December 19, 2018, U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) took to the Senate floor on to ask for unanimous consent to pass the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018, historic legislation that would criminalize lynching, attempts to lynch, and conspiracy to lynch for the first time in American history.
Hundreds gathered this month at Culpeper Baptist Church for a time of respectful reflection in remembrance of the lynching 100 years ago of Charles “Allie” Thompson.
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to advance the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018, historic legislation that would criminalize lynching, attempts to lynch, and conspiracy to lynch for the first time in American history.
U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC), the only African American members of the United States Senate, have introduced legislation to make lynching a federal crime.
The reckoning that began with the Civil Rights Movement has continued; the memorial is a testament to that. People of good will want the healing to continue. The vibrancy and prosperity of the New South requires that the healing continue. But to heal wounds, you have to take the shrapnel out first. To move to reconciliation, you must start with the truth.
Over the course of two days, thousands of supporters participated in the grand opening ceremony of the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) unveiling of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, AL.
The summit, museum and memorial are projects of the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based legal advocacy group founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson won a MacArthur “genius” award for his human rights work.