IB Union Calendar No. 212 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 35 [Report No. 116–267] To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS Mr. RUSH JANUARY 3, 2019 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary OCTOBER 31, 2019 Additional sponsors: Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. NORTON, Mr. VELA, Mr. COHEN, Mr. EVANS, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. BASS, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. SOTO, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Ms. VELÁZQUEZ, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. CICILLINE, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. MOULTON, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. CLAY, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. DEUTCH, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. SIRES, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. LEWIS, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. COOPER, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. PAYNE, Mrs. MURPHY of Florida, Mrs. DEMINGS, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. RYAN, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. NEAL, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. WELCH, Mr. YARMUTH, Miss RICE of New York, Mrs. LURIA, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. PETERS, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Ms. MENG, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. RICHMOND, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. STANTON, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 2 Mr. MCNERNEY, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. SHALALA, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. ROUDA, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. SEWELL of Alabama, Ms. MUCARSEL-POWELL, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mrs. DAVIS of California, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. VEASEY, Mr. TURNER, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. DEAN, Mr. ROSE of New York, Ms. WATERS, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. VISCLOSKY, Ms. WEXTON, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. PANETTA, Ms. SPANBERGER, Mr. GARAMENDI, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. GARCÍA of Illinois, Ms. WILD, Mr. MALINOWSKI, Ms. MOORE, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Ms. OMAR, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. HARDER of California, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. PHILLIPS, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. LUJÁN, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. SLOTKIN, Mr. CLEAVER, Mrs. MCBATH, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. MORELLE, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. JEFFRIES, Ms. UNDERWOOD, Mr. MCEACHIN, and Mr. NEGUSE OCTOBER 31, 2019 Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed A BILL kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act. •HR 35 RH VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 3 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 2 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 most- 9 ly in southern States by White southerners against 10 Black southerners. 11 (2) In 1892, the Tuskegee Institute began to 12 record statistics of lynchings and reported that 13 4,742 reported lynchings had taken place by 1968, 14 of which 3,445 of the victims were Black. 15 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 16 (3) Most of the lynchings that occurred in the South were mass moblike lynchings. 17 (4) Mass moblike lynchings were barbaric by 18 nature characterized by members of the mob, mostly 19 White southerners, shooting, burning, and muti- 20 lating the victim’s body, alive. 21 (5) In ‘‘Anatomy of a Lynching: The Killing of 22 Claude Neal’’, community papers readily advertised 23 mob lynchings, as evidenced by a Florida local paper 24 headline: ‘‘Florida to Burn Negro at Stake: Sex 25 Criminal Seized from Brewton Jail, Will be Muti- •HR 35 RH VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 4 1 lated, Set Afire in Extra-Legal Vengeance for 2 Deed.’’ 3 (6) Civil rights groups documented and pre- 4 sented Congress evidence of vigilante moblike 5 lynchings. 6 (7) Evidence by NAACP investigator Howard 7 Kester documented the extreme brutality of these 8 lynchings. An excerpt from ‘‘Anatomy of a Lynch- 9 ing’’ further illustrates this point: ‘‘After taking the 10 nigger to the woods about four miles from Green- 11 wood, they cut off his penis. He was made to eat it. 12 Then they cut off his testicles and made him eat 13 them and say he liked it.’’ 14 (8) Many civil rights groups, notably the Anti- 15 Lynching Crusaders, also known as the ALC, oper- 16 ating under the umbrella of the NAACP, made nu- 17 merous requests to Congress to make lynching a 18 Federal crime. 19 (9) Congressman George Henry White, an Afri- 20 can American, introduced the first Federal anti- 21 lynching bill and subsequently nearly 200 antilynch- 22 ing bills were introduced in the Congress during the 23 first half of the 20th century. kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 24 25 (10) Between 1890 and 1952, seven Presidents petitioned Congress to end lynching. •HR 35 RH VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 1 (11) Between 1920 and 1940, the House of 2 Representatives passed three strong antilynching 3 measures, of which Congress came closest to enact- 4 ing antilynching legislation sponsored by Congress- 5 man Leonidas C. Dyer in 1922. 6 (12) On all three occasions, opponents of 7 antilynching legislation, argued States’ rights and 8 used the filibuster, or the threat of it, to block the 9 Senate from voting on the measures. 10 (13) The enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 11 1968 was the closest Congress ever came in the 12 post-Reconstruction era to enacting antilynching leg- 13 islation. 14 (14) In 2005, the Senate passed a resolution, 15 sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu and George 16 Allen, apologizing for the Senate’s failure to enact 17 antilynching legislation as a Federal crime, with 18 Senator Landrieu saying, ‘‘There may be no other 19 injustice in American history for which the Senate 20 so uniquely bears responsibility.’’ 21 (15) To heal past and present racial injustice, 22 Congress must make lynching a Federal crime so 23 our Nation can begin reconciliation. •HR 35 RH VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 6 1 SEC. 3. SPECIFYING LYNCHING AS A HATE CRIME ACT. 2 Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is 3 amended— 4 5 (1) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and 6 7 (2) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following: kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 ‘‘(4) OFFENSES INVOLVING LYNCHING.—Who- 9 ever, whether or not acting under color of law, will- 10 fully, acting as part of any collection of people, as- 11 sembled for the purpose and with the intention of 12 committing an act of violence upon any person, 13 causes death to any person, shall be imprisoned for 14 any term of years or for life, fined under this title, 15 or both.’’. •HR 35 RH VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H35.RH H35 Union Calendar No. 212 H. R. 35 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION [Report No. 116–267] A BILL To amend section 249 of title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a hate crime act. OCTOBER 31, 2019 Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed H35 E:\BILLS\H35.RH Sfmt 6651 Fmt 6651 Frm 00008 PO 00000 Jkt 099200 22:32 Oct 31, 2019 VerDate Sep 11 2014