Senate Passes Anti-Lynching Bill After Nearly 200 Failed Attempts

What's the story?

• The Senate debated and then unanimously passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act of 2018.

What would the bill do?

If the House passes the bill, it would:

• Make lynching a federal crime automatically warranting an enhanced sentence under existing federal hate crime statutes.
• Make lynching punishable by a sentence of up to life in prison.
• The bill wouldn’t preclude murder charges, which can already be brought under existing law.

What are both sides saying?

• YEAs argue lynching is a horrific crime that historically has both hate- and race-based elements. Making it illegal at the federal level, and adding a hate crime enhancement, rights the historic wrong of the crime itself being allowed to continue for over a century, as well as the nearly 4,000 crimes of this nature that went largely unpunished.
• NAYs say there hasn't been a documented lynching in the U.S. in nearly four decades, and the Civil Rights Act has long-since negated the need for a federal anti-lynching law. The Senate’s 2005 apology to lynching victims and their descendants suffices to right the wrong of the federal government failing to enact an anti-lynching law.

What do you think?

Should lynching be a federal hate crime? Take action above and tell your reps how to vote, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman and Lorelei Yang

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / Plez)