On the recordFebruary 28, 2022
I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which amends title 18, section 249 of the United States Code to make lynching a hate crime under Federal law punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment. But before I go any further, let me acknowledge Congressman Bobby Rush who has been steadfast in the years that I have known him pushing day after day because Mamie Till and Emmett came from Chicago, from Illinois, going down to Mississippi, as Black children typically did, to see relatives in Mississippi, in Georgia, in Florida, in Texas, and in Alabama. He went down in 1955. I thank Congressman Rush for his leadership and persistence. We tried to get this in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but I think we are where we want to be, a freestanding bill. In 1989 a civil rights memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement, one of the efforts of Bryan Stevenson, to memorialize these individuals who were hanged. It honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were slain during the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till. We know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence during that era. As we were studying H.R.…
