After more than 122 years, the United States Congress has passed legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime. On Monday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the measure. This followed a 422-3 vote by the House of Representatives last week. The Act is named after Emmet Till, the 14-year-old black teen who was brutally murdered near the Mississippi delta town of Money for allegedly whistling at a white woman outside Bryant’s Grocery. His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, famously insisted on her son having an open casket despite his body being mangled, mutilated and virtually beyond recognition She is noted to have said in reference to the open casket, “Let the world see what I’ve seen.”
The horrors of the inhumane practice of lynching has been documented by many. Amongst these are: the Tuskegee Institute; Chicago publications Defender and Tribune; Ida B. Wells-Barnett in A Red Record (1895); numerous authors and social-scientists; and most recently the Equal Justice Initiative, who in their report Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (2015), estimate that nearly 4,000 lynchings occurred in the American South between the end of the Civil War and World War II. In fact; after further evaluation of lynching incidents that occurred during the Reconstruction Era, the EJI documented nearly 2,000 more lynchings than they had previously recorded. These findings are listed in their 2020 analysis, “Reconstruction in America: Racial Violence after the Civil War” (2020).
It is also worthy to mention that the first anti-lynching bill in U.S. history was introduced by George H.White (R-N.C.) on Jan. 20, 1900. The bill noted that of the 166 lynchings recorded in America between (1898-99), 156 of these were black in nature, and called for “the protection of all citizens” by granting the federal government the authority to investigate, try and convict all guilty parties of “mob violence” under the grounds of treason. Further, Congressman White, who served in the 55th and 56th U.S. Congresses (1897-1901), held the distinction of being the nation's sole black representative during this time, and the last from the South to serve in Congress until the early 1970's.
White had not been alone in denouncing the evils of lynching and mob violence. Rep. Samuel McElwee also decried the practice in a speech to the Tennessee legislature in 1887 when he exclaimed, “Great God, when will this nation treat the negro as an American citizen, whether he be in Maine, among her tall pines, or in the south, where the magnolia blossoms grow?” Other civil rights groups that were “committed and dedicated” to the permanent eradication of lynching include: the Niagara Movement, National Afro-American League (Council), National Association of Colored Women Clubs, Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.
Due to civil disturbances and mob violence that occurred in areas such as Memphis (1866), Wilmington, N.C. (1898), and Springfield, Il. (1908), a grand convening of a National Negro Convention was called which formed a “Committee” to address pressing societal issues on May 31, 1909 in New York. This broad, multi-ethnic, and diverse group established a platform deeply rooted in workers rights, voting rights, women's rights, civil rights, and universal human rights, and by Feb. 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was officially formed. One of the earliest initiatives of the organization was the great “Silent Protest March '' of 1917 that occurred in New York City, which was in part a response to the East Saint Louis riot.
The NAACP and it's field secretary James Weldon Johnson would embark upon a “Thirty-Year” campaign against lynching which involved the investigating, recording, and documenting of incidents of mob violence by individuals such as Walter F. White and Elisabeth Freeman; through the purchasing of newspaper advertisements that denounced the evils of lynching; advocating for federal interaction in the form of legislation; and by unfurling a giant banner outside it's New York headquarters which alerted the public each time a lynching or mob violence related incident occurred. Johnson would cite cases such as the Jim McIlherron incident (1918) in Estill Springs, Tn. as a reason that federal intervention to ban lynching was needed.
Numerous attempts aimed at achieving this objective would stall. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (Dyer Bill) proposed an anti-lynching bill in 1918, which was passed by the House of Representatives but met a filibuster in the Senate. By 1935, a new anti-lynching bill would be debated in Congress, in part as a response to occurrences like the Claude Neal incident (1937). The Costigan-Wagner Bill (1935-37) was again met by intense Southern opposition, despite the House twice (1937, 1940) passing measures introduced by Joseph A. Gavagan (D-N.Y.). In 2005, the U.S. Senate expressed its "deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets" for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation.
It is important to note that women, children and whole towns were not exempt from racial terror incidents. In 1886 in Jackson, Tn., Eliza Wood would be brutally murdered for supposedly poisoning her employer despite her pleas of innocence. The dead woman's husband later confessed to the killing. The 1918 lynching of Mary Turner and her unborn baby in Lowndes County, Ga. is particularly harrowing and grotesque. In 1946, two black couples, George Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcolm, and Dorothy Malcolm, were assaulted at Moore’s Ford, Ga. Whole towns were also decimated by racial terror incidents and have not recovered as of this date as well, whether it was in Elaine, Ar. during the Red Summer of 1919, where hundred are to believed to have perished, or Black Wallstreet in Tulsa, Ok. in 1921, where many of the homes were firebombed and the mass graves where victims are buried are just now being identified.
The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act of 2022 is important because it affirms that the humanity and civil rights of all people have worth and value. And as we come to terms with this, communities all over the country have been attempting to move forward from these past atrocities through truth telling, racial healing and reconciliation. The creation of monuments and the placement of markers has led to public acknowledgement, discussion, and community building. The State of Tennessee has a worthwhile opportunity to continue this momentum with Senate Joint Resolution 113. It is a resolution, “ relative to memorials for victims of lynching in Tennessee.” It's passage will be an important step towards building bridges for tomorrow, and provide some measure of atonement to the more than 230 lynching victims that have been documented in the State.
In response to Rep. McElwee, Monday was a day that affirmed that all citizens should be treated the same in terms of basic fundamental constitutional rights. First, we must have truth telling, and remember that a sin can not be forgiven until there is a semblance of repentance. If we can learn from our past, it can become an abundant recompense. In that, we pray for peace unto the fallen martyrs and their loved ones; hope we can wade over the troubled waters of today; and cling towards light and love as we look towards a more benevolent future. Ultimately, we are far better off together than we are divided or put asunder.
Eric Atkins