The House will vote on HR 35, anti-lynching legislation introduced by Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, called the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Fourteen-year-old Till was brutally murdered in a racist attack in Mississippi in 1955, an event that drew national attention to the atrocities and violence that African Americans have faced in the United States and became a civil rights rallying cry.
The measure that the House will take up on Wednesday, however, will be amended prior to a vote on final passage to sync up with anti-lynching legislation that has already passed the Senate.
The Senate bill, called the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, makes lynching a federal crime by establishing it as a new criminal civil rights violation. The legislation would amend federal civil rights law to explicitly include provisions on lynching.
It passed the Senate last year by a unanimous vote and was sponsored by the Senate's three black members: Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
A senior Democratic aide told CNN on Monday that the House bill would be amended to carry the language of the Senate bill, but would keep the House's title in honor of Till.
The House vote is expected to pave the way for the anti-lynching legislation to ultimately go to President Donald Trump for his signature, although the exact process for reconciling the two bills so that a final version can be sent to the White House is not yet clear.
The bills will still have different titles and numbers, meaning that additional action will be necessary in one of the two chambers before the legislation can go to the President's desk. The Senate, for example, may next need to take up the House-passed legislation and approve it before it goes to the White House.
The aide said that discussions are ongoing about how the legislation will be sent to the President after the House vote.
It is expected to pass the House with at least a two-thirds majority since it is being considered under a process used in the lower chamber for legislation with broad, bipartisan support.
The text of the legislation outlines the violent and racist legacy of lynching in the United States and the many earlier, and unsuccessful, attempts to enact federal anti-lynching legislation into law.
"The crime of lynching succeeded slavery as the ultimate expression of racism in the United States following Reconstruction," the bill states, adding that "at least 4,742 people, predominantly African Americans, were reported lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968."
The bill notes that "nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress during the first half of the 20th century," and "between 1890 and 1952, 7 presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching."
The legislation states, "Only by coming to terms with history can the United States effectively champion human rights abroad."
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February 26, 2020 at 06:01PM
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House to take historic vote to make lynching a federal crime - CNN
"House" - Google News
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