William H. Frist: “in 45 minutes or so, we will be turning to an important issue which people have spoken to over the course of the day, an…”

“in 45 minutes or so, we will be turning to an important issue which people have spoken to over the course of the day, an issue we will be spending the evening on. It is an issue that is one of the worst failings of this institution in our history, a failing surrounding a refusal to act on our part against lynching, against vigilantism, against mob murder. It has been a shame in many ways. We have to be careful when we use that word, but when we look at the reality of missed opportunities to act, we can, with justification, use the word ``shame'' on the institution and a shame on Senators who didn't just fail to act but deliberately kept the Senate and the whole of the Federal Government from acting and from acting proactively. Although deep scars will always remain, I am hopeful we will begin to heal and help close the wounds caused by lynching. Four out of five lynch mob victims were African American. The practice followed slavery as an ugly expression of racism and prejudice. In the history of lynching, mobs murdered more than 4,700 people. Nearly 250 of those victims were from my State of Tennessee. Very few had committed any sort of crime whatsoever. Lynching was a way to humiliate, to repress, to dehumanize. The Senate disgracefully bears some of the responsibility. Between 1890 and 1952, seven Presidents petitioned Congress to ban lynching. In those same 62 years, the House of Representatives passed three antilynching bills.…”