(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush is calling House passage of his bill to make lynching a federal hate crime an enormous step forward for our nation.
The 422-3 vote on Monday comes after Rush estimates there have been more than 200 attempts since 1900 to criminalize lynching at the federal level.
The successful House vote reinforces the idea that the U.S. is finally reckoning with one of its most horrific periods of history and is committed to changing course, Rush said.
He said the 2020 murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in coastal Georgia makes it clear the same racist hatred lingers today.
The legislation is named after 14-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered in 1955 Mississippi, purportedly for whistling at a white woman.
The measure moves to the senate, where it is expected to pass.
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